The Sunday News
ON 19 October it would be the 42nd anniversary when the racist Ian Smith regime deployed its forces to Zambia to carry out raids on two Zipra camps, the Freedom Camp (FC) and Mkushi, which was facility for women guerillas.
The two Zipra camps were bombed on the same day, 19 October 1978 under Operation Gatling. As part of commemorating those sad events in the history of our armed struggle, we will in our Lest We Forget column during the month of October carry out interviews of survivors of the two bombings. However, this week we publish inside information on how the two attacks were planned and prepared by the Rhodesian forces. We picked the information from an autobiography of a former Rhodesian combat pilot, Peter J H Petter-Bowyer. The autobiography is titled Winds of Destruction: The Autobiography of a Rhodesian Combat Pilot. Petter-Bowyer wrote thus:
On 19 October, the Air Force engaged in three operations in Zambia, the first which did not include any troops. This was because the target, previously white-owned Westlands Farm, was too close to the Zambian capital, Lusaka. Lying just 16km to the north-east of the city centre, this farm had become Zipra’s military headquarters and training base.
Zipra called it Freedom Camp (FC). Being so close to Lusaka, Zipra considered the location to be immune to attack. However, with some senior Zipra staff there and odd CTs (communist training) undergoing training in a relatively compact area, FC Camp made an obvious and very inviting target for airstrikes.
One thing that had to be taken into account was the possibility of Zambian Air Force fighters interfering with Rhodesian aircraft.
There were also the matters of British Rapier missiles known to be somewhere in Zambia and civilian air traffic movements in and outside Lusaka Airport. To deal with the former issue, it was decided that the lead Canberra would forewarn Lusaka Airport by passing a message through the duty Air Traffic Controller to the Station Commander at the Zambian Air Force base, Mombwa. This was to let him know that Hunters were over his base with orders to shoot down any Zambian fighters that attempted to take off.
Timings were crucial because Canberras, Hunters and K-Cars allocated to the FC raid had to turn around after their strikes and link into a combined operation with SAS against Zipra’s Mkushi Camp. The third target known us as CGT2 (communist guerilla training) was to be handled by Vampires, Lynx, four K-Cars, G-Cars and RLI (Rhodesia Light Infantry) paratroopers. CGT was one of at least four Zipra bases established in rough country south of the Great East Road that ran eastward from Lusaka to Malawi. Not knowing Zipra names for these bases, they were named Communist Guerilla Training (CGT) bases with identification numerals 1-4.
Attack
Green Formation of four Canberras left New Sarum (now Manyame) a little after four K-Cars had taken off from Mana Pools on the Zambezi River. A total of six Hunters were involved. Two with sidewinder air to air missiles headed directly for the Zambian Air Force Base at Mumbwa and the other four followed a prescribed route to FC Camp.
Squadron leader Chris Dixon with Mike Ronnie as his navigator led Green Formation. Ted Brent with Jim Russel, Grey Todd with Doug Pasea, and Glen Pretorius with Paddy Morgan followed. The Canberras, flying low under Zambian radar, were loaded with a total of 1 200 Alpha bombs. The four Hunters of Blue Formation were led by Squadron leader Vie Wrightman with wingmen John Blythen Wood and Ginger Baldiwn.
But the Rhodies feared the Zipra conventional forces.
Although the Rhodesians attacked FC and Mkushi with devastating effects they feared the Zipra regular forces stationed at Mlungushi and Petter-Bowyer captures it in his own words in his autobiography. He says of Mlungushi:
Mountain Gutu had also confirmed that a main Zipra base for conventional forces existed in the old Federal Cadets Training Centre (later the Zambian National Service Training Centre) on the west bank of the Mlungushi Dam situated north of Lusaka.
Selous Scout recce specialists, Schulie Schulenberg and his African partner, made a detailed close-in reconnaissance of the base to confirm what Gutu had said. This was done during the lead-up to Mboroma rescue operation.
By the time he was uplifted back to Rhodesia, Schulie had set a record by being in hostile territory for two weeks without resupply. He reported that there were over 200 men in camp (Mlungushi) who did not seem to have any concerns following the attacks on FC Camp, Mkushi and CGT2 because they were so well dug in. Because of this, it was decided not to pursue the joint-force approach again, as we were likely to suffer unacceptably high casualties.
