REMEMBERING CHIMOIO ATTACK
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Today the 23rd of November we remember the massive attack on ZANLA’s Chimoio Camp in 1977 by the racist Rhodesian regime of Ian Smith.
Many died on that particular day and those that remain shed tears each time when they think of that gruesome attack when the enemy crept on them.
The ZANLA Chimoio Base Camp in Mozambique’s Manica Province some 90 kilometres from the Zimbabwe border was ZANLA’s biggest military camp in that country and its military headquarters.
With several camps in one sub-camps included Percy Ntini (recuperation camp for injured freedom fighters) Osibisa (for women) Chindunduma (for freedom fighters of school going age) and Takawira Base Two (military training camp) among others.
Codenamed: ‘Dingo’, the entire Rhodesian Air force which was the second biggest Air force in Sub-Sahara Africa was used in what was the first ever large scale air attack by the racists on freedom fighter camps since the Second Chimurenga had begun in 1972.
The operation was aimed at “seriously disrupting ZANLA” and this witnessed in preparations the use of banned weapons.
Bowyer who was a member of the Rhodesian Air force and took part in the Chimoio attack itself disclosed that an improved version of the flechette bombs was used.
“In January 1977, Norman Walsh (who was a Rhodesian army commander from the SAS regiment) laid a larger – scale photograph across my desk.
“It was of ZANLA’s main base and headquarters in Mozambique.
“Norman Walsh said they had attack plans for Chimoio.
“He asked me to visit him regularly to keep him informed about weapons availability.
“Norman knew about the flechette dispenser system and the startling effects that could be expected from this weapon so I suggested he considers them for use against large concentrations of exposed enemy forces such as parades at Chimoio.”
Sadly the above bomb was used at Chimoio against ZANLA freedom fighters there.
What then was this evil flechette bomb like?
“The French produced an anti-personnel warhead for 68mm rockets that incorporated thousands of tiny darts known as ‘flechette’.
“When the rockets were fired they flew for just under one second before explosive charges warhead casings to release the flechettes into very high- speed free flight.
“A salvo of flechette carrying rockets results in a dense cloud of lethal darts covering a large area of ground.
“Flechette rockets were forbidden by international law because the darts, upon impact with a human body had the habit of tumbling and making nasty exit wounds.”
When the Rhodesians’ knew banned weapons were released from a jet for example, “it resulted in an immensely dense cloud of 9 000 flechettes which made survival of exposed people impossible within the 900 metre long by 70-metre strike area.
“To give some idea of a flechette strike from a single hunter jet, it would require no less than 450, 303 Browning machine guns firing in unison to match a single flechette bomb.”
How evil the weapon was.
And it was used at Chimoio targeting people who were at parades and children at Chindunduma who were at assembly.
Another evil and banned weapon used at Chimoio by the Rhodesians was one referred to as the CS pellet.
These CS pellets were simply pellets filled with a special type of teargas.
And these CS pellets were more deadly than teargas released from teargas canisters.
“CS pellets act differently in that they release invisible gas over a long period of time.
“The unheated heaver than air gas spread out at ground level and migrates in every nook and crany.
“Its presence makes it quite impossible for any human to remain where pellets are present.”
Evil Rhodesians used them without caring at Chimoio.
And a lot of freedom fighters lost their eyesight due to them.
The Rhodesians also felt that to use accepted conventional bombs was not good enough for them at Chimoio.
They questioned the ‘effectiveness of conventional bomb and rockets’.
And so they went for their own internationally banned bombs called Alpha bombs.
The Alpha bomb system was a system, “based on a large number of small bomlets that could be included to spread laterally in a wide carpet over an effective strike length of at least 800 metres.
“The detonation occurred above ground which ensured that shrapnel reached an enemy hiding in recesses and trenches.
“For example, the effective coverage of 300 Alpha bombs was 1 100 metres in length by 120 metres in width.”
This was an evil bomb system which even the imperialist nations of United States of America and United Kingdom could not match.
To put it simply, it was Satan’s bomb and the Rhodesians used it against freedom fighters at Chimoio.
Then there was the banned Napalm bomb which was nicknamed ‘Bomb remaporridge’ by freedom fighters.
This bomb was totally banned across the world because it was the most evil. When it exploded, instead of hitting the intended victim with shrapnel it hit him or her with an evil ‘porridge’ which when it came into contact with the human body it began to burn and eat away his or her human flesh the way a veld fire quickly consumes dry grass!
Terrible.
Besides using banned bombs at Chimoio, the Rhodesians used poison to finish off the freedom fighters.
The Selous Scouts – Masikuziapo who were the evil specialists in this area poisoned water sources around Chimoio such as wells, rivers, streams using cyanide – germs etc, after bombing camping they also poisoned all the food in the freedom fighter stores.
After the battle came to an end and the survivors drank water in the rivers and streams around their camps or ate any of their food in the stores which they thought were safe, they died horrifying deaths from the Rhodesian poisons.
Whoever says Rhodesian racists were human beings does not know what these people did during their attack on the ZANLA base of Chimoio, on November 23 1977.
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