The Wild Geese (1978) Firearms – Guns of the Mercenaries

That movie was a JOKE! https://jacklawsonbooks.substack.com/p/copy-anoma-anoma-anoma

The movie “The Wild Geese” was one of the only new full length Box Office movies we watched in the bush. It was usually rank and skanky English porno movies we got now and then. Trust me… they’d put you off sex. Former African mercenary operations were the basis of the movie “The Wild Geese,” starring Richard Harris, Roger Moore and Richard Burton. We watched that movie at a fire base one night some time before Christmas. We laughed so hard we had tears running down our faces, because it was so absurd and unrealistic.

The Rhodesians had gotten hold of a bootleg copy of “The Wild Geese” and the whole of Support Commando watched this at one of our forward jumping off “To f%#k up the Terrorists” operating across the Rhodesian Border. I think the base was Mabalauta or maybe Grand Reef. I can’t remember… too long ago. I do remember how uproariously we all laughed at one of the grenade explosions. A hand grenade explosion that looked like a combination of a napalm explosion and a small tactical nuclear explosion. The movie was scene by scene narrated jokingly by one of our Irish Lads… Paddy, which made us laugh even harder. He was one of the funniest guys I’ve known.

Later in the week, we stopped our armored convoy and pitched camp at a hot springs resort that was closed and abandoned because of Terrorist attacks. There were all these beautiful family rondavals (cottages) with the straw roofs falling in… but a huge swimming pool. The terrorists would use this resort when we weren’t around. We’d find some of their gear and AK mags in the bottom of the pool fed by a hot Sulphur spring.

While there, I was laying under my bivy tent cover playing with a hand grenade, when I noticed how perfectly the grenade fit in the concave bottom of one of our French made stove’s propane fuel containers. So, began one of my “out of boredom projects” of making a “Wild Geese” grenade. I was hoping to make an explosion like the one in the movie we’d watched a week ago. I duct taped this ‘pineapple’ High Explosive grenade to the bottom of the gas container. About half the Commando started forming when I was finished and showed it around, as all the guys examined my device with amazement and anticipation.

One of them, as their character was, wanted to pack C4 plastic explosive around it… overkill, which I decided not to do… at least until I knew what this one would do without it. So, I took this gizmo and wandered over to our Sergeant Taffy, who was totally absorbed in reading a Wilbur Smith novel. I laughingly said, “Look at this Taffy… I made a Wild Geese grenade. I’m going to throw it in one of the rondavals.” He barely took his eyes off his book, glanced at me and my creation and nonchalantly said… “Okay, just don’t kill yourself, Lawson.”

So, I wandered over to one of the rondavals with half the Commando following me, walked out ahead of them, pulled the pin on the grenade, threw this contraption through a broken window and high-tailed it back to the guys. It was the strangest explosion. First the grenade went off… then whoooosh!! …the propane ignited! As the secondary explosion engulfed the rondaval, flames belched out the door and windows. The blast blew what was left of the windows out and the roof off… glass flying everywhere. It made a hell of a racket… which got everyone’s attention… including Taffy who ran over and said… “What the f%#k are you doing!?” Indignant, I told him… “You just told me I could do it.”

My Lieutenant Vernon and our Commanding Officer came over and watched while the rondaval burned to the ground, kind of like a Christmas Bonfire. They periodically scowled at me as the Major asked me “Lawson, what in God’s name possesses you?” I told them the Sergeant gave me permission and then I described my invention to mimic the Wild Geese grenade explosion, which made it all okay. They were impressed. Then the whole of the Commando had to put the fire out with shovels and dirt before it burned down the entire resort… as the fire was spreading to the other structures.