The first half of this week’s blog is comprised of one more excerpt from Hannes Wessel’s book ‘A few hard men’, which is about the dreadful atrocity of a civilian Viscount aircraft belonging to Rhodesia Airways being shot out of the air by Joshua Nkomo’s ZIPRA terrorists, killing all on board except about fifteen people who were then subjected to the unbelievable horror of being raped and bayoneted to death(the women) while the men were forced to watch, thereafter bayoneted also. (After surviving a plane crash! This is the depravity of the people we fought and who govern Zimbabwe to this day.
The story (text) in Part 1 is from Hannes Wessel’s book but the above picture is from Keith Nell’s book ‘Viscount down’. Keith, also an SAS operative, tells his story about helping to track down the vile gooks that shot down this plane full of tourists and then murdering most of the survivors. A few weeks later another Viscount was shot down with a Strela missile, with no survivors
The second half of the Blog is a few excerpts from Jim Barker’s superb book ‘Paradise plundered’. I think this is the equivalent of Hemmingway’s ‘For whom the Bell tolls’. Sadly very few books were printed but I am privileged to own a copy. You will read snippets about how he converted his farm from bush, day to day life and fierce battles to defend it.
Site of the first Viscount shot down. Not much was left. Men that survived were forced to watch women and young girls being raped before execution.
The tailplane of the Hunyani Viscount aircraft acts as a lone marker of the terrible tragedy that took place here.
Part 2 of the blog “Paradise Plundered” will be published tomorrow. If you’ve enjoyed reading these brief excerpts I have provided links above to amazon where some of the books can be purchased.
