Dingo Firestorm Read online

  Published by Zebra Press

  an imprint of Random House Struik (Pty) Ltd

  Reg. No. 1966/003153/07

  Wembley Square, First Floor, Solan Road, Gardens, Cape Town, 8001

  PO Box 1144, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa

  www.zebrapress.co.za

  First published 2012

  Publication © Zebra Press 2012

  Text © Ian Pringle 2012

  Maps by MapStudio

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owners.

  PUBLISHER: Marlene Fryer

  MANAGING EDITOR: Robert Plummer

  EDITOR: Mark Ronan

  PROOFREADER: Lisa Compton

  COVER DESIGNER: Michiel Botha

  TEXT DESIGNER: Jacques Kaiser

  TYPESETTER: Monique van den Berg

  INDEXER: Sanet le Roux

  ISBN 978 1 77022 428 5 (print)

  ISBN 978 1 77022 429 2 (ePub)

  ISBN 978 1 77022 430 8 (PDF)

  Over 50 000 unique African images available to purchase from our image bank at www.imagesofafrica.co.za

  This book is dedicated to the memory of Lieutenant General Peter Walls MBE and Air Marshal Norman Walsh OLM, BCR, ESM.

  Contents

  Author’s note

  Acknowledgements

  Maps

  South-east Africa, 1977

  Helicopter routes to Chimoio and Tembue

  The attack on New Farm, Chimoio

  The attack on Tembue

  Prologue

  Part 1 | The gathering storm

  1 Stirrings at home

  2 The birth of ZANU and UDI

  3 The Silver Queen sows a seed

  4 ZANU starts the Second Chimurenga

  5 New strategy for ZANLA

  6 Lessons from Sinoia

  7 Tete Province

  8 Tongogara’s Phase 1

  9 Phase 2: The hit-and-run war begins

  10 Hurricane and Tete

  11 Détente and the Carnation Revolution

  12 ZANU falls apart

  13 Mugabe heads east

  14 Mosi-oa-Tunya

  15 Meat-axe diplomacy

  16 Geneva

  17 Finding Chimoio

  18 Planning Dingo

  19 The Year of the Fire Snake: 1977

  20 ComOps is formed

  21 Autumn in spring

  22 Walls between the SAS and RLI

  23 Secret is secret

  24 There’s a kind of hush

  25 The Dingo commanders

  26 The Dingo briefing

  Part 2 | Zulu 1: Chimoio

  27 Short Handle

  28 D-day

  29 Brand – the marksman

  30 Lake Alexander

  31 New Sarum

  32 The magnificent seven

  33 The mass paradrop

  34 Cover Point chaos

  35 Long Stop

  36 Rubbernecking and the sweep

  37 Pit-stop bingo

  38 Centre Wicket

  39 Sleepless in Chimoio

  Part 3 | Zulu 2: Tembue

  40 Lightning over the Saudi desert

  41 Tembue by train

  42 Mount Darwin, P minus 1

  43 P-day

  44 Square Ring

  45 The battle

  46 The mystery of the empty parade square

  Epilogue

  Glossary and abbreviations

  Select bibliography

  Index

  Author’s note

  Deploying virtually an entire air force (61 aircraft) over hostile foreign territory and dropping 184 troops to face an enemy numbering in the thousands in two bold attacks are what in essence make Operation Dingo such a remarkable story. It needed sound intelligence, excellent planning and bold decision-making to pull this operation off. The story that follows is, to the best of my knowledge, a fair and accurate account of what happened. It is primarily a story about people. To tell their story, I have interviewed a selection of key people involved in Dingo. I have also used a variety of sources, both published and unpublished, to bring authenticity to the story. Most of the text within quotation marks is what I have been told; the rest I have drawn from the battle log, autobiographies and previous accounts of the operation. In some cases, such as aircraft radio patter, I have assumed that standard radio language took place. Underpinning the story are the standard operating procedures used by the Rhodesian forces, which were well tried and tested, albeit on a smaller scale before Dingo.

  Memories fade over time and, in some cases, I encountered discrepancies between what I was told, often very lucidly, and what has been written before. Although I have tried to seek consensus, sometimes this proved futile and, in most cases, I have gone with the accounts of those I interviewed and who were there during this operation. No doubt there will still be controversial and disputed elements in this book, something that is inevitable when looking back at an event that took place over three decades ago.

  The other issue is the operations orders (ops orders). Like all good plans, they were modified, tweaked and improved, so what actually happened differed in a number of cases from the written plan. An accurate written summary of the operation, however, is provided by the high quality of the air-strike log; this is supplemented by radio messages and telexes. Very helpful too was the Operation Dingo debriefing, which helped me clear up a few grey areas. And the invaluable Super 8 movie footage I was able to view – the only filmed account of parts of Operation Dingo – has given me a vivid, virtually first-hand insight into certain aspects of the operation.

  I was able to pilot a Hawker Hunter (from Thunder City in Cape Town) and simulate the attack profile that Rich Brand used to commence the Dingo attack, to give me a better feel for recording that tense moment. Granted, the adrenalin factor, precision, ground fire and weapons were missing, but it served a story-telling purpose. I apologise to residents in the Kommetjie area for disturbing their peace as I repeatedly rolled off my perch and dived at an imaginary target on the beach.

  Being a helicopter pilot has also helped me describe parts of the story about those amazing Alouette pilots of the Rhodesian Air Force (RhAF). The parachuting details of the operation have been reinforced by my own skydiving experience.

  There is an aerial bias to the book for which I do not apologise – every combatant in Operation Dingo got there and back by air.

  Nomenclature

  Place names, rivers, towns, and the like are presented in this book as they were at the time of the operation.

  The Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) headquarters complex in the Chimoio district of Mozambique was known as New Farm, but it was often simply called Chimoio, and these terms are used interchangeably. The town of Chimoio, formerly Vila Pery, is 17 kilometres south of New Farm; I refer to this as Chimoio Town to differentiate it.

  The terms ‘ZANU’ (Zimbabwe African National Union), the political party, and its military wing, ‘ZANLA’, are used interchangeably according to the context: once the war started, the organisation’s political and military identities very much merged.

  Acknowledgements

  Writing Dingo Firestorm has been possible only because of many people’s generous support. When the idea came into my head to write this story, my first port of call was Peter Petter-Bowyer (PB), who agreed to help me without hesitation. PB, a former pilot, innovator and senior officer in the RhAF, and author of Winds of Destruction, has proved to be the key that opened many doors for me. His direct involvement in Operation Dingo, his book and our interviews have formed an in
valuable foundation on which my story has been built. PB has corrected my interpretation of events a few times. I am deeply grateful to him for his enormous contribution and for repeating, without a word of complaint, our first interview, which I accidentally erased.

  To make the story more interesting, I needed to speak to the man who opened the battle, the person who fired the first shots of Dingo. The chances of this happening were slim, as I was told repeatedly that former squadron leader Rich Brand, a highly successful businessman and aircraft builder, was unlikely to agree to be interviewed. PB gave me Rich’s email address, and advised me to introduce myself first through my flying credentials. I am sure PB put in a good word for me because Rich readily agreed to chat to me from his home in Las Vegas. (His wife, Susan, even commented that he had never spoken on the phone to anyone for more than a minute.) For this reason, I am all the more grateful to Rich for generously interrupting his busy schedule to spend many hours telling me his story and explaining the finer details about how to really fly a Hawker Hunter.

  Getting in contact with people has its challenges, yet one connection often spawns many more. I am most grateful to Dennis Croukamp for putting me in touch with Peter Walls. I spent five riveting hours interviewing General Walls at his home in Plettenberg Bay and a wonderful day in Knysna with him and his wife, Eunice. Over lunch on Thesen Islands, I mentioned to Peter that, try as I may, I had been unable to get in touch with one of the key Dingo personalities, Norman Walsh. Peter opened the door and thus began an invaluable dialogue with this remarkable man and the air force brains behind Operation Dingo. I must also pay a huge tribute to Norman’s wife, Merilyn, for facilitating my dialogue with Norman under very difficult times and for connecting me to Hugh Slatter, a close colleague of Norman’s.

  Sadly, both Peter Walls and Norman Walsh passed away shortly after I interviewed them; my great regret is that they never got to read Dingo Firestorm. For this reason and out of sheer respect, I have dedicated this book to the memory of these two great men.

  I must also thank SAS Commander Brian Robinson, the army brains behind Operation Dingo, for the brief insights he shared with me. Brief, because Brian has no desire to be involved in writing about himself or the SAS, which I understand and respect. I hope I have done justice to his pivotal role in this story.

  I started writing this book after interviewing Kevin Milligan, who helped me understand the intricacies of the mass parachute drop. Kevin also shared with me his vivid memories of Operation Dingo, for which I am very thankful. Then I tracked down Vic Wightman, Rich Brand’s deputy at the time of Dingo, who helped me better understand the attack profiles and sight settings for various types of air-to-ground weapons delivery in the Hunter, especially flechette canisters. Thanks also to Vic for sharing his experience of ejecting from an English Electric Lightning supersonic interceptor.

  Writing a story some 30 years after the event is always fraught with the ravages that time exerts on people’s memories. In this respect, I have been incredibly fortunate to have documentary evidence of Operation Dingo in the form of the ops orders. I am most thankful to Chris Cocks for allowing me to use the ops orders for the first phase of Operation Dingo, as published in his book Fireforce. Chris then put me in touch with Professor Richard Wood, who had spent many hours meticulously copying parts of the original ops orders, air-strike logs, messages, telexes and the debrief summary for the Dingo section of his book Counter-Strike from the Sky and for Operation Dingo. These invaluable records were held at the British Commonwealth and Empire Museum in Bristol. Richard unselfishly sent me copies of these, for which I am most grateful. These documents underpin the architecture of the story I tell.

  Then I had more luck. I remembered that my old skydiving buddy, Keith Samler, formerly a senior Police Special Branch (SB) officer attached to the Selous Scouts, had been a participant in Operation Dingo and had recorded it with a Super 8 camera. I was delighted to learn Keith still had the film, which he generously lent me and then talked me through it. The camera doesn’t lie, and this footage enabled me to see parts of the operation first-hand. Keith also allowed me see ZANLA photographs he and his colleague recovered from the Chimoio base, some of which are reproduced in this book. I cannot adequately describe how valuable this material has been to my account of the story. I am grateful to Keith for the film and photographs and for sharing with me his own (considerable) experiences of Operation Dingo.

  When Keith told Ron Reid-Daly, the former commanding officer of the Selous Scouts, that I was writing a story about Dingo, Ron asked to see me. Although he was not directly involved in the operation, Ron was keen to give me his perspective, which has certainly enhanced my understanding of the military landscape leading up to Dingo. I thoroughly enjoyed chatting to ‘Uncle Ron’, sipping red wine on his balcony overlooking False Bay. Sadly, Ron too passed away not long after our meeting.

  SAS Captain Robert ‘Bob’ MacKenzie wrote a great account of his experiences of Operation Dingo in the magazine Soldier of Fortune. I am most grateful to Colonel Robert Brown, the editor of Soldier of Fortune, for granting me permission to use the article, which has effectively allowed me to bring the late Bob MacKenzie back to life.

  My thanks also go to Jean Tholet, Ian Smith’s daughter, for giving me permission to quote from his memoirs and to the Flower family for allowing me to use extracts from Ken Flower’s memoirs.

  As the project progressed, I found more leads. I was particularly looking for someone who knew Norman Walsh well, because Norman did not enjoy talking about himself. Merilyn Walsh obliged by asking Hugh Slatter, a close friend of Norman’s and pilot of one of the attack aircraft used in Dingo, to contact me. Hugh’s contribution filled a hole in my book. So did the valuable input from Dave Jenkins, who flew as technician/gunner with Norman Walsh and Brian Robinson in the command helicopter. Dave’s perspectives of the battle from the command ship were most helpful.

  Another ‘door opener’ was Eddy Norris, the moderator of one of the world’s best websites dedicated to ex-servicemen, Old Rhodesian Air Force Sods (ORAFs). Eddy has always been quick and keen to help, pointing me in the right direction and connecting me with many people. One of the first was Rex Taylor, who set up a major helicopter refuelling and transit base during the second phase of Dingo on a mountain in Mozambique known as the Train. Rex made life easy for me by jotting down his experiences, which have certainly added colour to the story.

  Peter Stanton, an SB officer who worked closely with Brian Robinson and Scotty McCormack to identify and select the Dingo targets, is gifted with an excellent memory. I am grateful to Peter for shedding light on the mysteries of intelligence gathering, particularly as it related to this story. Another man with an incredible memory is Neill Jackson, a Rhodesian Light Infantry (RLI) officer during Dingo, who remembers the operation as if it were yesterday. I am grateful to Neill for selflessly sharing his experiences.

  I needed to speak to a K-car (helicopter gunship) pilot. PB and Dennis Croukamp immediately pointed me to Mark McLean, a passionate helicopter (and fixed wing) pilot, who took a bullet through his helmet over Chimoio during Dingo. Mark recalled his experiences, particularly as a K-car pilot, with infectious passion and vivid clarity. It was a fascinating interview, enhanced by the wonderful view from the veranda of Mark’s home in Barrydale in the Western Cape.

  Steve Kesby, one of the last pilots in the world to fly the de Havilland Vampire in action, vividly depicted the important contribution these super little jets made to Dingo. Derek de Kock, the officer in command of the Parachute Training School, helped me understand the finer details of how paratroopers envelop their target. Darrell Watt, a tough-as-nails SAS officer who was shot at Chimoio, shared that awful moment with me. John Norman of the RLI was also shot at Chimoio, and I am grateful to him for eventually agreeing to talk about it. Through John I got talking to Mark Adams, a fellow troop commander on Dingo, who gave me some great insights. Mark, in turn, connected me, through a book he and Chris Cocks are
writing called Africa’s Commandos: The Rhodesian Light Infantry, to Simon Haarhoff and Graeme Murdoch, who gave good accounts of their Dingo experiences.

  Thanks to Mark Jackson for allowing me to use his photo collection and to Bob Manser for unselfishly trekking around New Farm to take pictures for me of the shrine and some of the gravesites there. Bob Manser also helped me pinpoint exactly where some of the major battles took place.

  I am grateful to David Linsell for editing my original script, and for giving me honest and open critique. I would also like to thank Mark Ronan, who edited the final script and whipped the book into shape, as well as correcting some of the Shona words I used.

  The final hurdle, especially for a first-time author, is to find a publisher. I was fortunate: the first publisher I sent my manuscript to, Zebra Press at Random House Struik, accepted it. I am grateful to them, and in particular to Robert Plummer, the managing editor, and his team for managing the process of turning Dingo Firestorm into a book so professionally and seamlessly.

  There are others, too many to mention, who have helped in some way. To you all, my sincere thanks.

  And finally, my biggest thanks goes to my wife, Nina, and my family for their love, patience and unwavering support during the research and writing phases, which have taken up a huge chunk of my time over the last few years.

  IAN PRINGLE

  CAPE TOWN, JANUARY 2012

  South-east Africa, 1977

  Helicopter routes to Chimoio and Tembue

  Prologue

  Mozambique, 23 November 1977, 07:42

  Lines of white vapour streamed off the wing tips of the speeding Hawker Hunter jet as it turned tightly in the moist, early-morning air. An eerie, haunting howl from the Hunter’s four gaping cannon ports preceded the war machine, shattering the morning calm. Fishermen on the banks of the Pungwe River fled in panic as the jet screeched over their heads at treetop height. The pilot rolled the wings level on a southerly heading, breaking radio silence with a terse transmission: ‘Red 1 at initial point.’