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We had them for a long time in ireland. I loved going for a flight when they needed passangers for weight when trg new pilots . It was great during the summer and low level around the wicklow mountains just south of Dublin
@@khaldrago911 heh... There's always a France/war joke somewhere to make fun of- 'Cheese eating surrender monkeys' -Groundskeeper Willie... etc. Though TBH, the French were often victorious in their wars. Pre-Waterloo, anyway (heh)... And, post WW2, they really don't f*** around (vis. their indigenous nukes, supercarrier(s?), aerospace, arms industry in general, nuclear subs, strategic triad, and so on, along with the (in)famous 'warning shot' doctrine, an expeditionary capability second only to the U.S, etc- there's a lot to admire there. (And a lot to laugh at.). Actually, come to think if it, France is one of ONLY THREE nations with a strategic nuclear triad, (Though their ground based ballistic missle component is questionable. (China's sub force is a joke, with no continuous, or particularly modern at-sea deterrent/surviveable second-strike capability, especially compared to US, Russia and France, so I don't include them)... And, again, theor 'warning shot' doctrine is particularly 'we're really not joking, we will nuke cities' kind of serious.
I served as a paratrooper in the South African Defence Force in the 80’s during the Angolan/SWA war. The gunship variant with the 20mm cannon mounted in the door was a godsend for close air support during counter-insurgency operations/contacts.
My father flew on Alouette III based on the Clémenceau during operation Prométhée as Pedro (plane guard) and for SAR, MEDEVAC and transportation in French Polynesia . He crashed on an island near Tahiti resulting a total loss for the alouette and just minor injuries for the crew . There's a legend in the french navy that says that the only original part in the remaining alouettes III before their retirements was the manufacturer plate . As long you have parts, you can replace anything, making them virtualy eternal .
No legend. We had 8 in the Irish Air Corps and after a few overhauls, the original parts left were the subfloor, the pilots cyclic column and a few other small parts. The whole thing was designed to ne replaced bit by bit as required. Proper field helicopter!
Etant eléve du Lycée Français Charles Lepierre a Lisbonne, j'ai eu la chance de visiter le _Clem_ deux fois en 1979. Je me souviens trés bien de l'Alouette III embarqué, bleu foncé, entouré par des Etendard, Super Etendard, Breguet Alizée et Crusader. Le Clemenceau etait vraiment magnifique! Dommage qu'il n'existe plus... 😦
A wonderful machine. I was shot down in an aloette gunship , fitted with what we called an alpha fit gunship, 4 .303 browning machine guns slaved to a sight. Survived the crash with minor injuries. Rhodesia bush war 16th July 1979. Category 4 crash due to us flying low for fire effect. Aircraft was rebuilt by amazing rhodesian air force engineers and flew again. The now zimbabwe air force has one alo 111 still flying.
The sadf called it the draad kar "( wire car) which references the little wire cars many african children made and played with. In "Gunship Ace" by AJ Venter it was stated that these helicopters could take enormous punishment. Sa air force alouettes were involved in rhodesia and angola and espcially in counter insurgency with koevoet units.
A Helicopter with flexibility of missions and versatile weapons platform basically a good bit of kit and combat tested as such. Also used for many other roles. Great French design 🇫🇷.
The South African aircrews flying the 20mm cannon-armed gunships had a very low-tech way of allowing the pilot (who was facing forward) to indicate a ground target to his gunner who was sitting on the floor behind him, facing sideways. While banking to the left, the pilot had the gunner fire a test burst directly 'in front of him' (directly to the left of the aircraft), and the pilot used a grease pencil to mark on his left side window where he saw the shells hit the ground. Thereafter, he only needed to circle a target, keeping it in the crosshairs on his side window, to place it directly in front of his gunner.
Reminds me of driving the Buffel on tar roads from Wolmanstal down to East London, there was a splash of white paint on the left of the armoured windscreen that you kept over the solid white line on the left of the road. The Buffels cab was on the left of the vehicle, which was confusing to us right hand drive operators.
Flew the weaponised-version in the Indian Navy in 1980s. We carried depth charges and occasionally, the Mark-44 torpedoes. It had a basic SAS/Autopilot and also a 'Harpoon' to lock on the small frigates helideck. Real fun was flying these at night at sea...
The world's second oldest independent airforce, the SAAF 🇿🇦, 2 years older than the RAF, used Sud-Aviation's Alouette and Puma helicopters and Dassault's Mirage. My dad was an aircraft electrician, working at Waterkloof AFB in Pretoria, and remember going with him to work just so I could climb all over aircraft. I was about 5yo, when I first sat in the cockpit of a Mirage jet fighter. At age 22, I did it again, but I was too tall then but being daltonic prevented me from joining the air force. Due to the sanctions in the 70s and the need to equip the nation for the low-intensity war in Angola, the Oryx was developed from the Puma and the Rooivalk, from the Alouette. The Mirage likewise gave way to the Cheetah.
Congratulations for an excellent coverage about the Portuguese Air Force Allouettes during the Colonial War. They did everything, from insertions to Medevac and general supply. You even mentioned the correct call sign used by the Helicannon, _Lobo Mau_ indeed. Sud Aviation never certified the MG 151 arrangement as the recoil of the cannon was brutal for such a tiny airframe and stressed the rotor excessively. But it was a most effective weapon, giving every enemy the feeling that he was being _personally_ targeted. Sometimes unarmed Allouettes flew with a black painted broomstick sticking out, giving the impression that they were armed with the 20mm cannon, and it seemed to work! But after the introduction of the _Strela_ MANPADS by the enemy, all missions suddenly became extremely dangerous. If you ever visit the Portuguese Air Force Museum in Sintra AFB, the Helicannon is the very first aircraft you will see, just on the left after entering, complete with cannon and 20mm link. Even today it looks deadly.
Excellent video as always. Especially, the part for the combats in Africa is superb. Plus the reference to the song Alouette made me laugh. Alouette, gentille alouette...
I remember a video where a former Alouette III pilot told how great, easy and reliable they were to pilot. He said you could 'feel it' because no electronic controls compared to the new helicopter he piloted who felt souless and disconected with the electronic controls
Im a fixed wing guy myself BUT the Alouette is a GREAT rotor wing Airframe. The Guys Ive talked with said its easy to fly with Maintenance Engineers said easy to maintain. Many in SA and Europe.
Rhodesians copied the Portuguese counterinsurgency tactics with the Alouette III. K car was the same as the lobo mau and G car was a canibal. Lobo mau used Hispano canons same with Rhodesians, who in fact bought the Hispano cannon from the Portuguese. South African Air Force used the Alouette III unmarked in the Angola Portuguese colonial conflict as transport aircraft of Portuguese special troops. However they did not engage in fighting, only troop transport and casevacs. Portuguese were by far the air force that most used the Alouette III in combat.
Not true. The Porra's did make use of them, but nothing in comparison to the Rhodesians and nowhere near as much as the South Africans. The SAAF used them unmarked in Angola Pre 1975. For obvious reasons. After Portugal abandoned Angola and Mozambique, it became a different story. As did South Africa lend them to the Rhodesians, as well as flew them themselves under the SAPolice command.
@@PhansiKhongoloza Three different wars the Portuguese fought simultaneosly for 13 years in Angola, Mozambique and Guinea Bissau. They used the Alous as much as they could, improvising and improving their performance. I know it hurts but fact is they were pioneers in chopper counterinsurgency, to the extent that Rhodesians and SA copied them, perhaps also improving their own strategies like the Rhodesian Fire Force. Be fair for once. Read John Cann’s books on Portuguese African wars. An American who served NATO. Rhodesian war was short and small compared to Portugal’s wars.
@@TimSerras The Porra's fought a low key war against FAPLA, FNLA and UNITA in Angola. And somewhat smaller low key war against FRELIMO in Mozambique. Both of those were counter insurgency wars. There were no pitched battles involving armour or artillery. The South Africans on the other hand fought major conventional battles against Cuban and East German armour who were backing up FAPLA. Not to degrade the Porra's as loads joined the SADF after 1975.
@@PhansiKhongoloza 100% agree with you. Portugal realised that to borrow time fighting a loosing war ( the World was against them) they had to keep a low profile war, avoiding cross border raids, heavy equipment,etc. The only time they really did invade a foreign country (Guinea Conakry) was in 1970 operation Green Sea (Mar Verde in Portuguese) were they successfully rescued and freed Portuguese war prisioners from Conakry main prision. To this day despite books, witnesses, even officers that took part in that operation , Portugal still officially denies its involvement. The war in Guinea Bissau was compared to Vietnam by some foreign witnesses namely a French TV crew. Portugal, a backward and poor country did a tremendous job in Africa, its soldiers peasants who knew fuck all about the bush but bravely fought, some well others not so well, still, a brave nation that deserves our respect.
The largest helicopter formation flight ever according to The Guinness World Record, is 32 helicopters flown in 2016 by the US 17th Cavalry Regiment in North Carolina. This actually did not set the record as 39 years earlier 32 Alouettes of the Rhodesian Air Force on 23 Nov 1977 in single formation from the Eastern Border participated in Ops Dingo
hey i had an idea you could maybe also talk about the representation of these machines in pop culture at the end of the video. like the fact that the allouette 3 was used in the video game "call of duty black ops 2" in africa. would be cool imo.
Saint Anthony’s hospital in Denver flew them for medivacs years ago , my Dad had an aortic aneurysm , Saint Anthony’s sent the Alouette to our small hospital at around 7800 ft , flew him out , Dad lost blood pressure half way through the flight , he did survive , his one complaint , he always wanted to fly on a helicopter , and when he did he couldn’t remember the dang flight , he passed in 99
The MG 151/20 was the gun used by the Luftwaffe. They probably liked this gun on the helicopter because even though it was a little less powerful than the Hispano or Oerlikon it was much much lighter and had a good rate of fire. I mean getting hit by a 20mm round no matter the velocity isn't going to be pleasant 😉😉
About ten years ago I got into an Alouette 3 to follow the Catalonia rally. I must say that when in the cockpit I saw the factory plate meaning that the helicopter was from 1963 and therefore older than me, I was only moderately reassured... But everything went very well despite, I must admit, quite significant tightening of the buttocks.😪
