base in Mozambique where ZANLA groups were assembled, armed and briefed before being launched into the Thrasher area.
Captured CTs repeatedly referred to ‘Pungwe Base’, which they said was sited on the banks of the Pungwe River, but photo-reconnaissance along this large east-flowing river failed to find anything. Then, quite by chance, Squadron Leader Randy du Rand was returning from an unrelated Canberra task when he happened to fly directly over Pungwe Base. His navigator spotted the large camp through an opening in the cloud and rolled the cameras just before cloud obscured the ground again.
When the JSPIS interpreters at New Sarum viewed the photographs of this large base, they were astounded to see hundreds of people gathered in a box formation around a flagpole in the centre of a large parade ground. What excited them was the fact that the flagpole itself stood at the centre of an outline of Rhodesia that was fashioned from whitewashed rocks. The word ZIMBABWE, also laid out in painted rocks, clearly identified the base as belonging to ZANLA.
Ron Reid-Daly was delighted with the Air Force find that gave final proof of the large number of ZANLA in residence. The location of this base was not on the Pungwe River as reported but was on one of its south-flowing tributaries, the Nhazonia River, also known as Nyadzonya. With the position of the Pungwe Base established, the Canberra squadron flew repeated photographic sorties to monitor developments. These showed that base occupancy was increasing daily. Captured CTs continued to indicate that this was ZANLA’s primary base and their hand sketches confirmed the base layout, including the whitewashed outline of Rhodesia surrounding the word ZIMBABWE, also structure from whitewashed rocks.
After much detailed planning for another ‘flying column’ assault, a Scouts force was authorised to attack the Nyadzonya base. But again, direct air support was disallowed. The attack was a huge success and something in excess of 2,000 armed ZANLA, plus a few FRELIMO, were killed, wounded or drowned in the Nyadzonya River. The barrage of light and heavy automatic gunfire, including high-explosive rounds from two Hispano cannons, had been devastating. (The third vehicle fitted with a Hispano cannon met with misfortune just before the raid was launched.)
Only when the column was under attack from FRELIMO very close to the border during exfiltration, was air assistance authorised. A pair of Hunters flown by Flight Lieutenant Abrams and Air Sub-Lieutenant Lowrie neutralised troublesome FRELIMO mortar and gun-emplacements in failing light. A helicopter collected the most serious of four wounded men and a Lynx, flown by Air Lieutenant Ray Bolton assisted the column by choosing the best route for it to bundubash its way to safety inside Rhodesia.
A Canberra photo-recce sortie was run over Nyadzonya after the attack. The resulting photographs revealed hundreds of bodies strewn across the parade ground, between the many burnt-out buildings, and in the adjacent bush. As our politicians had feared, but expected, the international press reported the action as a slaughter of innocent refugees—ZANLA having registered Nyadzonya and all its other bases as refugee centres.
For years Rhodesia had suffered bad international press at the hands of unscrupulous sensation-seeking reporters and photographers. Even before ZANLA became effective, British reporters deliberately produced misleading articles that were supported by concocted photographs. For instance, one reporter and his photographer threw coins and sweets into rubbish bins to induce children they had gathered together into frenzied scrambling for prizes in what the children believed was a lovely game. Photographs appearing in overseas newspapers showed ‘starving children scrambling for food on the streets of Salisbury’.
For years the residents of Salisbury had been used to the sight of many black office workers taking a lunchtime nap on the lawns of Cecil Square, a small park in central Salisbury. Overseas photographers recorded this common sight. Next day photographs appeared in UK papers under the banner headline ‘Slaughter of innocents by the Smith regime’.
Mixed events
1976 HAD BEEN A YEAR OF mixed events. Robert Mugabe had been installed as President of ZANU. South Africa was under increased pressure from the West following a civil uprising in Soweto. Dr Henry Kissinger, the US Secretary of State, visited South Africa as the somewhat reluctant conveyer of a joint American and British proposal for a suicidal change in political direction by Rhodesia. By highlighting western concern over the Soweto tragedy and manipulating South Africa’s power over Rhodesia, the ‘Kissinger Proposals’ were forced on our country by both Kissinger and Vorster. One component of these proposals was for the Rhodesian Government to participate in negotiations with ZANU and ZAPU in what was to become the Geneva Conference. Both ZANU and ZAPU had been pressurised into accepting the ‘Kissinger Proposals’ by the Frontline States though they disliked the conditions as much as the Rhodesian Government. Anyway the Geneva Conference, chaired by Britain’s lacklustre Ivor Richard, ended in total failure.
During the year the Air Force lost men and machines in offensive actions and accidents. Without exception they were superb individuals whose loss emphasised the sheer wastefulness of war and the high cost in lives from accidents associated with war.
On 16 February, Squadron Leader Rusty Routledge was killed when a young SAAF pilot attempted to overshoot his overloaded Cessna 185, following a botched approach for landing at Perrem Airfield near Umtali. The aircraft stalled at low level and all three souls on board died when it ploughed into the ground.
On 10 June, following a FRELIMO cross-border attack on Zona Tea Estate inside Rhodesia, a Hunter flown by Flight Lieutenant Tudor Thomas received a fluke bullet strike during a rocket attack on offending forces at Espungabera in Mozambique. The bullet severed a hydraulic line resulting in the loss of all hydraulic fluid. In fading light Tudor returned to Thornhill where the OC Flying Wing, Wing Commander Keith Corrans, ordered him to abandon his aircraft. This was because Keith did not want Tudor to attempt a very fast, flapless landing at night with his flight controls in manual mode and too many other associated problems. Main undercarriage legs were drooped but not locked whereas the nose wheel was down and locked. In addition the air brake was half-extended and full left aileron was needed to hold wings level at 210 knots. Undoubtedly the slightest error would have been fatal.
Tudor positioned wide downwind for runway 13, trimmed fully nose-down and ejected. As intended, the Hunter crashed in open farmlands and Tudor escaped with little more than a bruised back. The loss of this Hunter was devastating because it reduced our Hunter strength to ten aircraft.
On 13 June 1976, a Z-Car gunner (name forgotten) was killed whilst firing at CTs in a Fireforce action. Then on 18 July, air-gunner Sergeant J.P. Graham was killed in the same way in the Inyanga area. Six weeks later, on 1 September, airgunner Sergeant Belsted was killed in yet another Fireforce action in a helicopter flown by Flight Lieutenant Ian Harvey.
Flight Lieutenant ‘Starry’ Stevens died the very next day when he flew into an air ambush deliberately prepared by FRELIMO forces acting in support of their ZANLA colleagues. A group of CTs made their presence purposely known to induce a hot-pursuit operation into Mozambique. Their path ran along the base of a 1,200- foot-high west-to-east ridge along which FRELIMO had set up a number of heavycalibre anti-aircraft guns to take on aircraft they knew would come. Starry’s Lynx stood no chance as it passed close to and level with the guns.
On 11 August, as a direct result of the Selous Scouts attack on Nyadzonya, FRELIMO retaliated by mounting a mortar attack on the city of Umtali. Superficial damage was caused to buildings in the eastern suburbs of Greenside and Darlington. Fortunately, not a single casualty was reported and very little structural damage occurred.
On 21 October, Flight Lieutenant Roy Hulley was flying a Vampire FB9 on a routine gunnery sortie at
