Here’s the story of Rhodesia, a land both fair and great. On the 11th of November an independent state, We will stand tall in the sunshine with the truth upon our side, and if we have to go alone, we’ll go alone with pride!
No way that I wouldn’t make one these right? This was in fact my second Alouette III skin, but for ‘reasons’ I waited with uploading to coincide with someone else’s project. However, I can no longer wait. so here it is, my 4K DDS Rhodesia skin for the premium IAR 316B. Now you can blow everything in the wooded hills below to smithereens.
If you want this skin for the regular tree Alouette III/sa316b, you can download the additional blk files via the button above to adjust the skin.
The aircraft
The Rhodesian Air Force Alouette III can argueable be considered to be the most famous of all military Alouettes. At first the Rhodesian Alouette saw relatively easygoing service, provided services for the British South Africa Police and paramilitary and aerial reconnaissance operations. However, as tensions quickly rose throughout the 60’s and 70’s, its operational duties soon broadened to aerial supply, casualty evacuation, communications relays, and troop-transports at high altitudes in the hot Southern African climate.
At the height of the Rhodesian Bush War, N°7 Squadron had no less than 34 Alouette III in service, which were received through various unofficial ways due to the embargo placed onto the UDI government. Acting as quick-reaction Fireforce battalions, the aircraft were typically based at Centenary and Mount Darwin. The doctrine based around the Alouette III meant to rapidly land and deploy ground troops, then take off again to continue functioning as an aerial observation and command post while providing fire support as an armed gunship.
While the aircraft proved very successful for these ops thanks to its design and ability to take and withstand damage, many modifications were made to the aircraft. The most famous being the installation of the MG 151/20 20mm cannon operated by a doorgunner (some had four Browning .303 instead). During fireforce operations these helicopters were called the ‘K-Car’, with K denoting Kill or Command. Normally this aircraft would be accompanied by three ‘G-Cars’ (G denoting Gunship) which were also armed with machine guns but carried ‘4-man sticks’ in combination with a pilot and a technician. The G-cars were also used for casualty evacuation and resupplyment of the fireforce troops on the ground with ammunition and equipment.
When the country was rebaptised as Zimbabwe the aircraft carried over to its new air force. Although some aircraft ended up with the South African Air Force.
More of my skins can be found on the Ninetalis War Thunder Live page or by using #ninetalis on War Thunder Live