What many forget is that Muslim forces can be willing to spend more men than an eight-man patrol has ammo for.
The Brits would have been better off dropping a satellite phone from a UAV on each rebel stronghold and chatting with them remotely. If they got somebody worth talking to, they could use another UAV to airdrop a small video conferencing system.
Re post 34. Good idea. Too bad the Brits didn’t think of it. You are thinking like its the 21st century. They are thinking like its the 19th.