diff --git a/dev/source/docs/git-rebase.rst b/dev/source/docs/git-rebase.rst
index 4cb6dc5d64..8728b80ad9 100644
--- a/dev/source/docs/git-rebase.rst
+++ b/dev/source/docs/git-rebase.rst
@@ -47,6 +47,11 @@ the "Git Shell" or "Git Bash" utility that should already be :ref:`installed <gi
 
        git remote add upstream https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot.git
 
+#. Ensure that your git config for ArduPilot does not automatically recurse through submodules
+
+    ::
+        git config submodule.recurse false
+
 #. Fetch changes from the upstream repository (this simply downloads changes into a local cache, it will not overwrite or modify your changes in any way).
    If you are rebasing your branch on your own fork's master branch, replace upstream with origin
 
diff --git a/dev/source/docs/git-submodules.rst b/dev/source/docs/git-submodules.rst
index 35618a6b8d..82690c127b 100644
--- a/dev/source/docs/git-submodules.rst
+++ b/dev/source/docs/git-submodules.rst
@@ -84,9 +84,9 @@ Disaster recovery
 
 If things have gone very badly wrong with your git tree the simplest
 thing to do it to remove the modules/ directory completely from your local repo and run these commands
-to reinitialise and update the submodules:
+to delete and reinitialise and update the submodules:
 
 ::
 
-    git submodule init
-    git submodule update --recursive
+    ./waf submodule_force_clean
+    ./waf submodule_sync