Ninety-six SAS and 48 Rhodesian Light Infantry (RLI) paratroopers and an additional 40 helicopter-borne RLI troops attacked the camps at 07h45 in the morning to exploit the concentration of forces on the parade ground for morning parade, directly after a strike by the Rhodesian Air Force's ageing Canberra and Hunter strike aircraft.
Fireforce comprised units of Selous Scouts, an undercover tracker battalion of 1,500 troops on double pay, 80 percent black, (many recruited by Special Branch from captured guerrillas facing trial and execution) probing ahead of a parachute infantry battalion and up to 200 Special Air Service commandos.
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But the mission was finally aborted and attempted again, unsuccessfully, by the Rhodesian Special Air Service (SAS).
Reid-Daly, who was born in Salisbury, then capital of the British colony of Southern Rhodesia, entered military service in 1951 and served with the all-Rhodesian "C" Squadron of the Special Air Service (SAS) in counter-insurgency operations in Malaya.