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Battle of Mapai revisited

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SEPTEMBER is a momentous month in our history.
The British armed robbers flew their flag at what they called Fort Salibury, now Harare, on September 12 1890.
Eighty-nine years later, September 1979 was the month they bowed down to the freedom fighters, ZANLA and ZIPRA of ZANU and ZAPU respectively, and went to the negotiating table at Lancaster.
The talks began on September 10.
Although it was clear they had lost the war, the Rhodesians still sought to reverse the process.
They wanted to turn the tables by weakening the bargaining position of the freedom fighters.
Mapai was the ace they thought they had.
Mapai, situated across the Limpopo border in South Africa, was critical to both Rhodesia and South Africa.
From Mapai, FRELIMO controlled all its forces in the Gaza Province.
From Mapai, ZANLA controlled all its forces in the Gaza Province.
Rhodesia needed Mapai because all its critical supplies from South Africa passed through there.
Thus, their plan was to capture the FRELIMO headquarters commanding Gaza Province and the ZANLA headquarters commanding Gaza Province in Mapai.
The South Africans and Rhodesians acquired fighter jets on September 1.
These included Pumas and Super Frelons helicopters, Canberra bombers, Dakotas, Hawker Hunters and Lynxes, Mirage jets and Bucaneer strike aircraft.
Ground troops in excess of 388 were to storm Mapai.
They were going for the jugular.
The Rhodesian commander of combined operations, General Peter Walls, was in charge.
The Rhodesian Airforce director of operations, Air Commodore Norman Walsh, Brigadier Van Loggerenberg, the South African Defence Force operations commander, as well Rhodesia’s commander of ground force operations and Captain Dave Padbury of the SAS were there.
The first phase of the attack on Mapai, which commenced on September 5 1979, was to destroy five strategic bridges so that FRELIMO could not reinforce Mapai.
They succeeded in destroying all but the Barragem Rail and Road bridges.
The next phase was the capture of Mapai.
At 6:35am on September 6, Rhodesian and South African strike jets started pounding Mapai.
Cde Dominic Chinenge (Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga) was the ZANLA commander in the battle of Mapai.
FRELIMO was commanded by Brigadier Fondo.
The assault was met with fierce resistance from FRELIMO and ZANLA anti-aircraft positions.
FRELIMO had the ZU-23mm, ZU-37mm, 12,7mm and 12,5mm anti-air guns.
According to Cde Felix Muchemwa, the ZU-23mm and ZU-37mm anti-air guns fired war heads designed to burst at between 10 000ft and 15 000ft.
The Rhodesian and South African arsenal included cluster bombs 1 000lb and 500lb napalm bombs, golf bombs as well as rockets and cannon fire.
In the cover of their bunkers and trenches, ZANLA and FRELIMO fiercely repulsed the bombardment.
Among the Rhodesian and South African casualties was a Puma 164 which was destroyed by a ZANLA RPG7 in which they lost 17 of their forces.
The force of heliborne helicopters was reduced from 196 to 153.
At 10am, the Rhodesians and South Africans began the ground assault to capture Mapai.
They were no match for FRELIMO and ZANLA forces.
They were caught in a maze of trenches they could not figure out.
FRELIMO started bush fires and the Rhodesians and South Africans could not bear the September heat.
They were choking and the smoke reduced visibility.
The heavy fire from ZANLA and FRELIMO forces crippled the ground and air attacks.
According to Cde Muchemwa: “At one point, such heavy machine gun fire forced Commander Wilson and a few of his troops to make a hasty retreat behind an anthill for cover, but within seconds, the antihill melted in front of their eyes, razed to the ground by a concentrated and sustained machine gun fire.”
The battle of Mapai proved their undoing.
By 2pm of that very day, the Rhodesians were calling for a retreat.
Their casualties were mounting, while ZANLA and FRELIMO remained intact.
The Rhodesians and South Africans had no choice but to retreat.
They admitted they had hit a brick wall.
SAS commander Graham Wilson and RLI commander Garth Barret recommended to General Peter Walls and the SADF Brigadier Van Loggerenberg that it was time to retreat.
Their casualties were mounting and there was no possibility of reversing the situation.
Peter Walls agreed.
This was no Nyadzonia and no Chimoio!
“For the first time in the history of the war, the Rhodesians had been stopped dead in their tracks, it was a first time defeat on the battlefield,” says Cde Muchemwa.
The Rhodesians and South Africans had been crushed and defeated.
They could not even recover their dead.
They had lost the battle for Mapai.
ZANLA and FRELIMO forces proved what the Rhodesians already knew but would not accept — they had lost the war.
Lancaster House talks would start in four days.
They had sought to strengthen their hand during the negotiations, instead the liberation forces had been strengthened.
The liberation forces, and not the Rhodesians, would negotiate from a position of strength.

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