C 130 thread
Hi Smudge
Ref your enquiry on a wee bullet hole in a Rhodesia Det Herc, yep I was part of the crew on that frame. By today's standards this incident is nothing but trivia -Iran - Afganistan etc but at the time it generated a deal of excitement as the Hercules in UK service had lead a charmed life. If I can ever get on top of uploading pics I have one of this frame which from memory I think was XV176.
We were on a VERY low level routing with 30 odd soldiers on board having been briefed and had demonstrated the abilities of the tracking head on ground/air missiles which the rebels held. The demo was simply passing a lit match across the front of the missile head and just watch it respond, gulp, hence low level. A further ground demo was passing the head across the front of the airframe with props turning and this damn thing was responding to the variations in light created by the spinning prop and tip paint job.
The bullet strike was as the result of a burst of AK47 fire (confirmed by Rhodesian Army weapons team). We had chosen to fly a non direct route to our drop off point as intelligence told us of several known treats. The rebels had radar tracked multi barrel weapons so the re-route was essential. Way out in the scrub following a dirt track a couple of shepherds were seen going about their business but alas part of their business was to take out a UK aircraft. The swack as the round hit concentrated the mind but as you correctly say the Lox tanks were purged and whilst the round rattled around a bit I don't recall the techie team getting too excited. Same old story but a fraction of a second later and it would have struck one of the troops who were on the same line down the aircraft side as the strike.
God, sorry war stories but you did ask.
Incidentally the landing strips were generally on narrow open roads which immediately prior to our landings were driven up and down several times by a Rhodesian Army vehicle, the underside shaped to form a "V" thus dissipating any land mine explosion effect. Brave guys.