CHIRUNDU TALES (Part 5)
The peaceful atmosphere that prevailed in 1964 was gradually eroded by the threat of terrorist incursions from the North. The presence of the military in the Zambezi Valley gradually increased as the months went by. Initially it was very low key, the bulk of the border patrols in our area being carried out by the police. They recruited what were called Reserve Patrol Officers, whose role it was to patrol the river bank and look for tracks that may have been left by insurgents.
This exercise was largely symbolic because to my knowledge, none of the patrols ever found any trace of enemy infiltration. Two or three man units were taken to various points by vehicle and dropped off with instructions to patrol a given section of the border. Later in the day they were collected from their pick up point and taken back to base. Occasionally they were dropped off at places some distance from base and camped for a few days whilst patrolling the area.
These reservists were a mixed bunch and amongst them there were a fair percentage of unforgettable characters, a notable one being a chap called Colin Beer. Colin was very interesting because he was very interested in all things military and could quote verbatim from Churchills War Memoirs. He had been in Kenya during the Mau Mau emergency, the Congo when that blew up, and various other hotspots around the world. He had come to Rhodesia immediately after UDI in the hopes that things were going to be exciting but after several months of boring patrols and no action he left and set off for Vietnam. We met up with him a year or so later in Salisbury where he told us that his application to enter Vietnam as a freelance photographer was turned down because his Box Brownie did not convince the authorities of his authenticity! He was in town on his way to Mocambique where he had landed an advisory position with the Portuguese military. The last time we met up with Colin was several years later at a restaurant he had bought in London. As usual he would not divulge any details of where he had been or what he had been doing in the meantime, always using the line “It’s a long story, I’ll tell you about it sometime”.
The RLI began patrolling the valley usually at platoon strength as did the RAR and some territorial units. Our location made us a popular stopping off point and we got to know some of the officers and NCO’s quite well. After UDI several of the Rhodesian trainees at Sandhurst and other UK academies were sent home, amongst them was Bert Sachse who later became a key member of the Selous Scouts. Bert had a very posh English accent when he started out which made the “troopies” under his command laugh behind his back, but not for long. He soon proved he was as tough or tougher than any of them and very quickly gained their respect.
When his unit was camped in our area he would often call in for a brew and a chat. On one occasion he arrived on foot, accompanied by his platoon medic, bleeding profusely from his right ear! He had hit a tree with his Land Rover and damaged himself in the process. We boiled some water to wash his wound and settled him on a chair on our porch. Helen gave him a shot of brandy which he gratefully accepted but he was extremely apologetic about the spots of blood dripping on the floor. He declined a shot of morphine from his medic and sat quietly whilst his ear was stitched back together. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing as his ear was a mess and the pain from the stitching must have been excruciating. That was typical of Bert.
On one occasion we returned from one of our monthly day trips to Karoi to find our cook Martin in a very disturbed state. As usual he had prepared our dog food which was a mixture of maize meal and ground offal that was sold by the Cold Storage Commission as Rex Pet Food. It was pretty disgusting stuff but very popular with the dogs. Apparently, as he was about to dish it out, a territorial military patrol arrived on foot and asked him for food as they had been lost for several days and were starving. We had instructed Martin not to give away any of our food to strangers unless we gave him permission and so he turned them down. They retreated to the camp site behind the house and decided to await our return. Martin proceeded to dish out the dog food but when he put it out for them the soldiers dashed up, chased the dogs away and gobbled up the food! Martin was helpless and had to let them get on with it. Personally I would have starved first!
About this time, Lt.Col. Peter Walls was appointed Officer Commanding 1st Battalion RLI. He made several trips to Chirundu and we got to know him quite well. The security situation was not very serious at the time and Peter socialized with Chirundu residents. He was seen propping up the bar at the Sugar Estate club on more than one occasion. He was also involved in an impromptu fishing competition that was held in his honour by sugar estate staff.
Helen and I entertained him and Major John Cole for lunch one Sunday. We knew John from our honeymoon on Paradise Island. He and his wife Mary were married the same day as we were so we got to know them quite well. Peter was very relaxed and an absolute gentleman.
Somewhat surprisingly, we were invited to the annual RLI cocktail party at the officer’s mess at Cranborne Barracks. It was a posh (suit and tie) affair and was supposed to last from 6.00pm until 9.00 pm. We used to go to Salisbury every third month for four days shopping, visiting head office and vehicle servicing etc. so we arranged our trip to suit. Amongst the people we were introduced to that evening was Lt. Ron Reid Daly who was newly commissioned. I knew him by reputation from my days at Heany where he was a staff instructor with a reputation for being exceptionally hard on his trainees.
The party was attended by a lot of “Bigwigs” and shortly before 9 o’clock people started to leave. We joined the queue to shake hands and exchange niceties with the various senior officers who were lined up near the exit but when we got to Peter, he leaned forward and told us to go back into the bar where he would join us shortly. He did join us and introduced us to the duty barman. He gave him a warning that if he accepted a single penny from us, he would be put on a charge. He then told us that the formalities were over, the ties came off and the party was ON!
At about 04.00 am I managed to get our Land Rover back to the Windsor Hotel after only one minor collision with a hedge inside the barracks! When we finally woke up next morning, there was still a bit of the hedge hanging from the rear-view mirror.
Another character amongst the officers was Lt”Spike” Powell who had seen service in the Mau Mau emergency in Kenya, for which he was awarded an MBE, as well as the Sultan’s forces in Oman. He was Kenyan by birth and a really tough individual. He apparently returned to Oman where he was severely injured in a landmine explosion. He then returned to Rhodesia where unfortunately he was killed in the second Viscount disaster.
I have already mentioned Julius the Zambian whose tracking skills were faultless. He used to patrol the station boundary on a regular basis and on several occasions he reported to me that there was a military patrol in the area that had not made their presence known to me. On one occasion he alerted me that there was some military activity about a mile downstream from the station so I decided to check it out. Julius led me about a mile away from the river and then we turned back and approached the position from the rear. We were very careful in our approach and suddenly found ourselves right in the middle of a South African Police unit. The officer in charge was stunned and said “Jesus Christ, we’ve been attacked”! His troops were all relaxing and it seems that they had no sentries in place. It transpired that they had been dropped off in the middle of the night to set up a “secret” observation point. Some secret! Casualty percentages amongst the SAP were higher than they were amongst the Rhodesian forces which came as no surprise to me, their security measures left a lot to be desired.
One of many major projects we undertook on the station was the construction of a 16 mile all-weather road linking us with the main North road a few miles south of the Nyakasanga bridge. It was considered to be major as we did the entire thing by hand. I was given a map (designed by Mr Bob Pillson of the Tsetse Department), a prismatic compass and a 100ft chain. The map gave me a start point followed by a long list of compass bearings and the number of chains on each bearing, so each day or two I would peg out the next section to be cleared. The exercise took about a month and when we reached the main road we had the meeting point inspected by the Ministry of Roads for their approval. Despite the fact that the contact point was on flat ground, they insisted that we move it 20 meters to the North so we cut a detour which left a small island of very thick “Jesse” bush. The road was a complete success once we sorted out a couple of problem spots where drainage was difficult.
One day I drove up the road accompanied by Julius and got stuck in a very small but deep muddy patch about three miles from the main road. There was no chance of anyone coming along to tow us out so we walked it hoping to pick up a lift to Chirundu. I decided that it would be better for me to try and get a lift alone so I told Julius to keep out of sight. I also left my rifle with him as I feared it might spoil my chances of getting a ride. A few minutes later, Julius came out of hiding and reported that there was someone in the Jesse island. I couldn’t see anything but Julius told me he could smell them! As I approached the island, there was the sound of a bullet being chambered and a voice warning me to stop. It turned out that Julius had sniffed out an SAS ambush!
On another occasion Julius and I were travelling up the road and came across a tree that had fallen and blocked it. We got out to have a look at what had caused the tree to fall and examine the possibility of towing it sideways to make the road passable. An elephant was the culprit which was a relief as the thought that it may have been felled by terrorists was always in the back of my mind. As we were assessing the situation, Julius pointed to some human tracks on the road. To my knowledge there were no military patrols in the area which was a cause of concern to me. I drove straight to the military base at Chirundu and reported the matter to the RLI officer in charge. He asked if he could borrow Julius to accompany a patrol to the spot and follow the tracks. I readily agreed and returned to the station feeling a little uneasy.
Later in the day a military Land Rover arrived at the station and dropped off Julius. It turned out that the tracks had been left by another “secret” patrol and Julius had led the RLI straight to their ambush position! Julius’ tracking skills became legendary and a couple of years later I heard that the military had employed him after our project ended. I was told that when Julius was on the tracks of terrorists he would only go so far and then find a thick tree to hide behind. He would then sit down and light his pipe! Apparently this was a signal that safety catches should be OFF and troops on maximum alert as all hell was about to break loose!
Although the military activities were on the increase, they had very little effect on our day to day lives. Work went on as usual and we were assured by the military that there was virtually no chance of being attacked as being as we were, right on the border, any attack would be considered a declaration of war! This was all very well but my thoughts at the time were that they only had to be wrong once! Anyway we tried to ignore the possible threats and enjoy our unique situation.
On one occasion we had some visitors and decided to treat them to a day out in Mana Pools reserve. Shortly after we left the station we met a hunter from “D” camp who had been instructed to suspend hunting until further notice. Undaunted we carried on but when we arrived at Mana, the Ranger asked us why we were there as the reserve had been closed due to the presence of a group of terrorists that were being followed up by the military. There was nothing we could do about it at that stage so we spent a very nice day as the only visitors in the park!
On the way home we came across a RAR patrol and had a chat to the white officer in charge. He was less than polite because we were not supposed to be out and about and I was equally impolite and told the gentleman that I obviously needed to brush up on my clairvoyant talents or words to that effect.
When we took our visitors back to Chirundu to collect their vehicle that evening, we called in at the police mess to enquire why we had not been alerted to the problem. The officer in charge invited us in for a drink (by this time the estate club had closed and the police mess had become the local “watering hole”) and it was well after dark before we set off for home without a care in the world!
The first major ‘contact ‘ in that part of the valley happened near the Nyakasanga Bridge and it was a major success from the RLI point of view. I cannot recall exactly what the score was but a figure of 26 terrorists killed or captured comes to mind.
On the station, we had built a very comfortable guest cottage for use by research staff from Salisbury who were mainly American. After the Nyakasanga incident, none of the Americans used the facility again. They preferred to stay at Makuti Motel and drive down on day trips, or else fly in to Chirundu also for the day. For our part we just got on with life.
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