Armed and dangerous - Robin Watson’s Beech 35 Bonanza VP-WHM (c/n D-8547) fitted with Browning machine-guns mounted in gondolas on the wings outboard of the mainwheels. The Bonanza was also fitted with a chute in the cockpit below a handmade device from which hand grenades could be dropped.

Bonanza VP-WHM in action over the African veld, with its wing-mounted machine-gun pods clearly visible. Its owner and operator, Robin Watson, was awarded a Meritorious Conduct Medal for his PRAW service with the aircraft, which was returned to its civilian configuration circa 1983 and given the Zimbabwean registration Z-WHM.

PRAW pilots in 1979. From left: Harvey Middleton; Wally Barton; Hennie Jooste and gunner Ben Nieuwoudt.

It is clear from this April 1978 photograph that during a typical lefthand bank as part of the attack profile, the PRAW pilot was both extremely vulnerable to groundfire through the door aperture and deafeningly close to the machine-gun mounted a matter of inches behind his or her seat. Such operations were markedly more dangerous than those undertaken by the Rhodesian Air Force under the same conditions.

A pair of photographs showing the Browning machine-gun fitted to Cessna 182G VP-WGN (c/n 55072). The image to the left shows the gun fitted in the cabin, with canvas cartridge-catching bag. The image on the right shows the tubular frame on which the gun was mounted in the cabin. Note the “after-market” ring gunsight fitted.

Allan Murray’s Cessna 177 Cardinal VP-WEE on standby at Forward Air Field 5, Mount Darwin. In the background is a Reims Cessna FTB 337G Lynx of the RhAF used for ground attacks during Fire Force operations.

Cessna 206C ZS-ZGZ was fitted with armoured seats and a single machine-gun mounted in the open doorway. Note also the bulletproof shield. Stored behind the closed rear cargo door would be 3,000 rounds of belted ammunition. Matt-orange paint has been applied over the anti-SAM grey to provide a civilian appearance ahead of the arrival of the international election monitoring force in December 1979.

The armament fitted to Cessna 206B Turbo VP-WFO, including a side-firing 7-62mm machine-gun firing through the port rear door aperture, and the anti-personnel bombs fitted to the undercarriage; 2,500 rounds of belted ammunition were carried for the gun in five boxes, along with a spare barrel.

Cessna 177 Cardinal VP-WEE under armed guard at Karoi in what is now central northern Zimbabwe in 1978. Necessity was very much the mother of invention for the PRAW, and numerous ingenious methods were devised to turn machines designed entirely for leisure purposes into effective armed ground-attack aircraft.