DURING this month of November, every year, we look back at the Chimoio massacre which took place on November 23 1977, near Chimoio Town, the capital of Manica Province in Mozambique.
The racist Rhodesians christened it ‘Operation Dingo’.
When one looks back at the Zimbabwe liberation war of the 1970s, the Chimoio massacre stands out as the major turning point in the war.
It was a game-changer.
The Rhodesians themselves describe it: “The Rhodesians raid against the ZANLA camp in Chimoio, Mozambique, in the November of 1977 was a milestone in the war.
Apart from previous smaller raids, such as the Rambanayi Operation and the Selous Scouts attack on Nyadzonia, this was the first time that the Rhodesian military command had openly flaunted world opinion.
A new phase emerged in the military vocabulary – the pre-emptive strike.
This raid led the way for subsequent larger scale cross-border operations into Mozambique itself, Zambia and as far afield as Angola and Tanzania.”
Yes, after this massacre, the liberation war was never the same again.
Battles became bigger and bigger.
Before we come to the preparations for the Chimoio massacre where Rhodesians used aircraft as their main weapon of choice, early in that year, 1977, the Rhodesians had gone on to carry out raids into Mozambique where they had lost valuable aircraft.
The first incident involved a raid the Rhodesians carried out in the Tete Province of Mozambique.
One P.J.H. Peter-Bowyer helps us with our story.
“Members of the Rhodesian Air Services regiment entered Mozambique sometime in March 1977 to attack ZANLA camps in the Tete province.
On the night of March 15 1977, Air Sub Lt. John Kidson was tasked to fly the Officer Commanding Special Air Service on a sortie over Mozambique so that an Airforce commander, one Brian Robinson could communicate directly with his Special Air Service call signs engaged in those external operations mentioned above.
The pilot got airborne from Mutoko Airforce base, but crashed soon after.
The aircraft caught fire and was completely destroyed.”
In May 1977, the Rhodies went on another raid on Mozambican towns of Jorgo do Limpopo and Mapai in Gaza Province.
“On May 29 1977, Rhodesian soldiers attacked ZANLA forces at Jorgo do Limpopo and Mapai.
During the operation, they captured some quantities of arms and ammunition. So they called for a Dakota to come and ferry these.
The Dakota landed at Mapai air base before sunset.
ZANLA fighters, using the cover of darkness, attacked the Dakota.
A hail of bullets and RPG rockets racked the Dakota as it took off from the airbase.
Flight Lt. Bruce Collocott in the co-pilot’s seat died instantly, the starboard engine was knocked out and leaking fuel ignited.
The skipper, one Jerry Lynch, also died while trying to remove the dead Bruce Collocott’s body from the burning Dakota.
So too was the loss of the very first Dakota itself ever owned by the Southern Rhodesian Airforce.”
As the year wore on, Rhodies decided that it was a good idea for them to carry out big raids into Mozambique in a full scale way rather than in a piecemeal fashion which they had been doing all along and which had proved costly.
And so the ZANLA camp at Chimoio came onto the radar big time.
“By June 1977, Rhodesian intelligence had established that there were 8 000 ZANLA in Chimoio Base and photographic evidence confirmed that the base was growing rapidly.”
Because the numerous ZANLA forces at Chimoio posed a big threat, the Rhodesians, right from the highest level of Peter Walls the army ‘supremo’, decided to attack it.
“Their proposed attack of Chimoio involved relatively straight forward air attacks that were to be followed with vertical envelopment by paratroops and heli-borne forces.
This was considered absolutely essential to ensure maximum results and to seriously disrupt ZANLA.”
Yes, the Rhodesian Airforce was going to be the master of ceremony when the attack finally took place.
And so the stage was set to attack the ZANLA, Chimoio base.
Below we outline the forces that were put together to attack the ZANLA Chimoio base with the Airforce at the forefront.
The mission was predominantly an air strike supported by ground forces.
The following air support was made available.
l Seven Hunter jet bombers.
l Four Vampire jets.
l Seven Dakotas.
l One Dc 8.
l One Dc 7.
l Four Lynx fighter aircraft.
l Four Canberra bombers.
l 31 Helicopters.
Three officers were to provide control at the following places
l Grand Reef (outside Mutare)
l Administration base near Chimoio ZANLA base
l Heli assy area.
From the above we can see the Rhodesian air power was pretty huge.
In addition, there were forces from the following Rhodesian regiments: “Rhodesian light Infantry – troops for a parachute role, troops with helicopter role, troops for the administration base, doctors and medical orderlies.
There were troops from the Special Air Services, providing troops with a parachute role, reserve role and helicopter role.
There were members of the Special Branch, Selous Scouts and lots of other ground forces such as the African Rifles.”
After the above troops had been assembled, they carried out rehearsals many times over on how to attack the Chimoio ZANLA base successfully.
Then bang!
On the morning of November 23 1977, they set out to carry out their mission and so attacked from the air the big ZANLA base in Mozambique, setting off the biggest air battle in Zimbabwe’s history.
Next week we look at some aspects of the actual battle itself, particularly ZANLA’s response and the atrocities that the Rhodesians carried out during the battle itself.