The date was November 1977 - the tactics of Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) dramatically shifted as FRELIMO joined forces with ZANLA to engage the Rhodesian Security Forces (RSF) in the South Western Gaza Province of Mozambique. Supported by their Russian and East German advisors joint ZANLA / FRELIMO aggressively took the fight to the Rhodesians such that the border region became known by the RSF as the Russian Front. The flood of ZANLA and FREMINO into southern Rhodesia had to be stopped as it threatened to cut off the rail and road links to South Africa. To counter this shift, the RSF redeployed its SAS to Gaza. The SAS launched several strikes inside Gaza South of Mapai, a FRELIMO and ZANLA stronghold, with the objective to disrupt supply from Maputo to Mapai before Op Melon was launched to attack a large supply convoy from Maputo to the border camps. Intel on the supply from Maputo was received from informants via South Africa. 16 SAS were ferried by Dakota flying below FRELIMO radar and parachuted from 500 feet 125 km inside Gaza. The Dak headed home dropping the occasional Alpha bomb to confuse FRELIMO that the aircraft was on a bombing mission not dropping troops. In error, the Dak pilot flew over Mapai and was subjected to massive ground fire. The pilot dived towards earth levelling out at under 200 feet and avoided the bulk of the AA rounds. Landing at Buffalo Range they discovered considerable damage to the aircraft with over 30 direct hits and a cracked cylinder head of one engine. Days later the SAS ambushed a large convoy with the lead vehicle carrying ammunition detonating a land mine that halted the convoy. The Air Force were called in to attack the stalled convoy. Having a Lynx aircraft locate the convoy and drawing massive ground fire, the Hunters were able to target and strike in pair rotation effectively over a five hour period. The SAS were harassed by FRELIMO over the next few days. Some SAS returned to the battle scene recording 21 burned out vehicles that were ferrying the FRELIMO 4th Brigade, large ammunition supplies and with evidence of Russian and Cuban advisors. There was also evidence of spares for T34 battle tanks being transported. All SAS were choppered out and back to Rhodesia to prepare for the next operation called Dingo. retributionbook
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 01:58:52 +0000
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