Sebokolodi Stories: Snipers in Rhodesia
Eddy Norris
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Sebokolodi writes: No intention is made to offend the living or the dead. Some tales are true and others hearsay. The real intention is to jog ORAFs’ minds for factual comments on memories sad, happy or humorous. Snipers in Rhodesia I know I am blowing my cover here (not the sort of thing a sniper should do) and apologies to those who have been involved in this discussion on Facebook but, it would be interesting to have more input from ORAFs members. Vic MacKenzie started the debate having read Charles Henderson’s book “Marine Sniper – 93 confirmed kills”. Vic opened with: We had some great shooters in Rhodesia such as Wrex Tarr, Dave Toddun and the Rosenfels to name a few, but they were never used in the war as snipers. I responded with: As far as Gerry van Tonder (Intaf) and I have determined Clive Mason was the only recognised sniper in the Rhodesian forces. He had a training programme but, never passed any of his students because they were not as good as he was. The day he was killed he had already accounted for six. Interestingly, his favoured weapon was a standard Lee Enfield .303 but, more interesting is that he targeted medics and cooks in order to create as much mayhem as possible - take out the medics and cooks and the rest come to a standstill. I have not seen this information in print but, it was told to me by a SCR Selous Scout. I am of the opinion that there must have been other snipers, possibly in SWAT, because I had the privilege of firing a heavy barreled Ancshuntz (spelling) .762 at the School of Inf range in Gwelo. It seems very little is known about the Rhodesian snipers' story and it would be interesting to learn from somebody in the know. Skip Morley replied: I think this Clive Mason was a pom (British) who fought in Borneo with the Brits in the mid-60's, and then came out to Australia and did a tour in Vietnam with Aussie SAS, and then joined C Sqn SAS and was KIA with a GSW to the head in Mozambique in 76. To which I replied Skip Morely is correct with regard to his recollections of Clive Mason. To be more accurate Clive's weapon of choice was the Mk 1V SMLE .303 rifle. He was killed near Malvernia on 15th March 1977. Having killed six, the gooks identified his position and opened up. A fluke round struck Clive in the head and killed him. He was serving as a sergeant in the Selous Scouts at the time. Yesterday, I had lunch with Maj. Johnny Dawson who confirmed that the regimental wing of the School of Inf ran regular "sniper" courses under the tuition of Capt. "Plank" Cooper and WO Butch Pelzer. These courses, however, only lasted a week or so and, therefore, I question whether you can train a fully fledged sniper in such a short period. Would it not be better termed as a marksman's course? Butch was my coach on the SoI shooting team and it certainly took him more than a week (more like a year) to teach me how to shoot straight, let alone snipe! John Boulter chipped in with: 303 with the correct sights is very good to 1000 yds. The terrs in now South Yemen often sniped at us at that range. Hugh Bomford added: I tried to get on a snipers course from 4RR in around 1978 but didn’t get any further than asking my OC to put my name down for a course. The only other sniper anecdotes that I have ever heard was from John Coleman an ex Vietnam vet in 3 Cdo RLI who did some sniping stuff in Rhodesia but said he gave up on account of lack of equipment so he said. Dave Hughes added the following: I think the main reason for the lack of a true sniper program in the Rhodesian Army was sanctions. A true sniping rifle of that era along with a reliable supply of ammo and accoutrements would have been next to impossible to obtain. Due to acute manpower shortage at the time I think it would be difficult to argue the need to pull seasoned soldiers out of the field for a considerable length of time in order to train a group of snipers to an acceptable standard. Manpower was probably better spent keeping the Fire Force in operation in the bush, in my opinion. Interestingly, the same Selous Scout sent me this report just the other day – keep scrolling beyond the photo: New long distance kill shot record (8,120 Feet / 2,706.67 Yards/ 2,475 m) A British Army soldier by the name of Corporal of Horse (CoH) Craig Harrison, of the Household Cavalry, Blues and Royals set a new record for the longest shot in combat…twice! CoH Harrison fired two shots at Taliban machine gunners in Afghanistan. They were confirmed via GPS to be 8,120 feet from Cpl. Harrison's position; that is 1.54 miles. To make it even more astounding, the range was almost 3,000 feet beyond what is considered the effective range of the weapon. At that range the bullet takes around 3 seconds to reach the target. The previous record was set in 2002 for a sniper kill at 7,972ft. That shot was made by Canadian Corporal, Rob Furlong, of Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, who was using a .50BMG McMillan TAC-50 rifle.
Harrison accomplished this feat with the above pictured weapon, a L115A3 rifle. The weapon is manufactured by Accuracy International in Britain and is chambered for the .338 Lapua Magnum round. This is significant because the previous two shots that held the world record were with weapons chambered for the .50BMG. The .338 is a cartridge designed for accuracy and power beyond the range of the older 7.62mm rifles. It has a much flatter trajectory, which makes the complex trigonometry problem of finding the right arc to lob the bullet onto the target much easier. It is one of several other "lighter" rifle rounds like the .300 Win Mag., .416 Barrett, and .408 CheyTac that have been designed with extreme long range shooting in mind. Of especial importance is the velocity past 1000 metres, the shape of its trajectory and how long the bullets stay supersonic. The Accuracy International Arctic Warfare .338 is a bolt action, detachable magazine-fed, precision rifle. The rifle is about 15 pounds, unloaded and without optics. It can mount a variety of telescopic sights, laser designators, and night vision or thermal sights. In British service, it usually mounts a S&B 5-25x56mm day scope. The extra-large objective lens size of 56mm gathers a lot of light, making shots possible in the dawn, dusk, or into the shadows. The L115A3 can also mount a suppressor, helping to reduce the report flash and dust from the powerful rifle. The barrel is free floated for increased accuracy and is fluted for strength and cooling without excessive weight. You don't get all that performance cheap though. News reports put the rifle at around $25,000. But if you put it in the right hands and it can hit a sized target from 4500 feet. More importantly, even at extreme range, the bullet retains its power, hitting with more force than a .44 Magnum at 25 feet. “It was just unlucky for the Taliban that conditions were so good and we could see them so clearly. We saw two insurgents running through its courtyard, one in a black dishdasha, and one in green. They came forward carrying a PKM machine gun, set it up and opened fire on the commander’s wagon. The first round hit a machine gunner in the stomach and killed him outright. He went straight down and didn’t move. The second insurgent grabbed the weapon and turned as my second shot hit him in the side. He went down, too. They were both dead." CoH Harrison had a memorable tour of duty, making the two impossible shots, having a bullet deflect off his helmet, and surviving an IED blast which broke both of his arms. He is reportedly healing well, and has returned to duty. If any of the ORAFs members can contribute to the Rhodesian Snipers’ story please send responses to Eddy Norris at ora...@gmail.com End To view this article on line please click on any of the images or on the link below. Kind Regards |
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