By Chakamwe Chakamwe

THE two ZANLA companies crossed the border from Mozambique into Zimbabwe without any problems, but with bated breath and hearts beating fast expecting a firefight with an odd Rhodesian army unit on patrol along the border. Thank goodness nothing of the sort happened!
When the two companies had gone some 10 kilometres or so into Zimbabwe, they decided to eat the supper they were carrying which was mostly made up of tinned fish and beans.
After their supper which was pretty quick they resumed their journey.
They forced- march all night across the mountains and only rested the next day.
At day-break they camped on the mountain east of the settlement of Penhalonga. They were now near their target.
Soon Commander Cabora Bassa Chitsato had got in touch with local ZANLA commanders, who operated in the area and arrangements were made that a four- man reconnaissance team made of two men from the two companies and two from the local freedom fighters would go and carry out a close target recce of Grand Reef airbase that night.
Nightfall, the four-man recce team left for Grand Reef airbase taking a south west direction.
Arriving at the junction of the Harare-to-Mutare road with the Nyanga road, they crossed the Harare Highway, took a westerly direction following the foot of a long mountain range that runs east to west from Christmas Pass all the way to the Odzi River.
When the liberation war became hot from December 1972, the Rhodesians were pushed onto the corner by the freedom fighters.
The racists decided to create ‘a quick reaction force’ called ‘Fireforce’ which involved the use of airpower to aid their foot soldiers.
When the ‘Fireforce’ was finally constituted, it was made up of a helicopter gunship, which acted also as command vehicle, four other helicopters which carried troops, a lynx fixed wing aircraft which acted as a spotter plane and sometimes a Dakota, transport plane which carried more troopers to the scene of action.
The use of the above aircraft in fighting the freedom fighters led to the construction of airforce bases out in countryside which became referred to as Forward Airfields (FAF’s).
The first of these forward airfields were created at Mount Darwin and Centenary.
These were then followed by new ones at Mutoko in Mashonaland East, Grand Reef and Chipinga in Manicaland, Buffalo Range and Rutenga in Masvingo province.
The above forward airfields housed helicopters, fixed wing aircraft, sometimes even Dakotas, etc.
They also kept lots of fuel for the aircratft.
Whenever freedom fighters were sighted at a particular place or were seen attacking a unit of the Rhodesians anywhere, fire-force was activated.
The reasons why Grand Reef was targeted were that, one it was a forward airfield which housed Rhodesian fighter aircraft.
And since the Chimoio attack, Grand Reef became an obvious target.
Two, on top of this, from a Chimoio revenge point of view, Grand Reef was enemy number one.
During the Chimoio attack itself, some of the helicopters that had been used in the fight had been housed at Grand Reef.
Furthermore, 10 helicopters were stationed there as reserve during the attack itself. To crown it all, Grand Reef was used as a recovery base for the Rhodesian troops that had taken part in the Chimoio attack.
The four guerrillas on recce were able to get very close to the airbase and were able to establish that yes there were lots of aircraft although they appeared to be well defended.
With the recce over the quartet went back to report their findings to Commander Cabora Bassa Chitsato.
And so the following evening, the two companies left for Grand Reef airbase. There had been a new development.
Instead of one of the companies going to bomb Mutare, the other going to Grand Reef, there was no more separation.
A local company was going to bomb Mutare instead.
When the companies got to within shooting range of the airbase, they took up positions and got ready to give the Rhodesians a taste of their medicine.
The 82mm mortars opened the show with rapid fire.
But after a while of mortar shelling, it became clear that everything was not going to plan.
While some shells were hitting home, many were way off target.
This was because the two companies had taken positions off the centre of the target.
However, all was not lost.
The Rhodesians foolishly then decided to advance and attack the ZANLA positions.
A massive battle ensued with ZANLA who were occupying high ground having the upper hand.
Soon the Rhodesians were overwhelmed by numerous explosions from recoilless rifles, mortars, bazookas and machine guns.
It was a real monster of a battle.
Yes like two giant African elephants fighting to the finish.
Now and again ZANLA boys broke into song indicating they were really on top of the situation.
The Rhodesians soon found themselves dancing inside a hyena’s mouth.
They were now hugging the ground for dear life instead of putting up a fight.
They then ran back to their bunkers like rats.
After satisfying themselves that they had won that battle, ZANLA went back to Penhalonga where they attacked a police station.
As another way of revenging the Chimoio attack, ZANLA again targeted another Forward Field Base.
This time it was Mutoko the following January 1978.
The target was the Mutoko fire force in Action.
P.J.H. Petter-Bowyer an airforce commander tells the story which he called ‘Black Friday’.
“On Friday January 12 1978, Air LT. Francois du Toit had been on helicopters for some time when he led a fireforce action supported by K-car (gunship) and three- G-cars (those that carried troops).
“The action was not yet over when K-car 2, Flown by Air Lt. Chaz Goatley with gunner Flight Sergeant Ian Flemin was hit under heavy fire… resulting in the instant death of Ian Fleming.
“Then the airborne army Commander Lt. Adams was hit in the hand and was transferred to the G-car flown by Air Lt. Mantovani who took many hits as he lifted off.
“On arrival at Mtoko his G-car was grounded.
“Then another G-car flown by Air Lt. Norman (Bambam) Maasdorp with gunner Flight Sergeant Henry Jarvis came in with a load of troops.
“Just before touchdown they came under heavy fire and Henry Jarvis was killed. Norman and one soldier were wounded and the aircraft was severely damaged necessitating a forced landing.
“The two K-cars and a Lynx flown by group Captain John Mussel were left over at the scene.”
It was an aircraft massacre by ZANLA forces that day.
This pattern of hitting Rhodesian fighter aircraft was repeated right across the country, from the Chimoio attack onwards.
Now and again ZANLA who had then been trained thoroughly to deal with aircraft brought down helicopters by RPG7 bazookas mostly.
The attack on Grand Reef triggered a big revenge against Rhodesian aircraft which culminated in the Rhodesian defeat in 1979 at the Battle of Mavhonde.