Ian Pringle - Green Leader: Operation Gatling, The Rhodesian Military’s Response to the Viscount Tragedy

On 3 September 1978, a Russian-supplied heat-seeking missile shot down an Air Rhodesia Viscount civilian airliner shortly after it took off from the lakeside holiday resort of Kariba in the Zambezi Valley. Miraculously, 18 people, including small children, survived the crash only for most of them to be gunned down in cold blood shortly after the crash by terrorists loyal to the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union (ZAPU) leader Joshua Nkomo.

Just days before the plane was shot down, the Rhodesian leader, Ian Smith, had met secretly with Nkomo for discussions, brokered by Britain, Zambia and Nigeria. However, this event dramatically changed the political landscape and wrecked a plan by the British government to mould an alliance between Smith and the Ndebele leader Nkomo, and smoothed the path for the Shona leader Robert Mugabe to become the first leader of Zimbabwe.

In this fascinating two-part account, Ian Pringle (author of Dingo Firestorm), describes the Viscount tragedy and the military response. He uses exclusive interviews with two survivors of the crash and the massacre, and with the first person to arrive at the horrendous crash scene (commanding officer of the Rhodesian SAS Regiment), as well as accounts from other key witnesses, to recreate the tragic event. He describes the white-hot anger felt by the small white community in Rhodesia, who howled for revenge and demanded martial law and total war.

The Rhodesian military responded with Operation Gatling, a risky three-phased revenge attack on Nkomos guerilla bases and infrastructure in Zambia. The prime target was Nkomos military headquarters on the outskirts of Lusaka, the Zambian capital. The author uses a cockpit voice recording from the lead Canberra bomber, and exclusive interviews with the lead navigator and pilots involved in the raid to tell a fascinating, authentic and gripping story of the audacious attack, which became known as the Green Leader Raid.

On the same day as Green Leader, two more bases in Zambia were attacked using air power and elite paratroops and helitroops in a well-honed tactic known as vertical envelopment. Pringle uses his own experience as a jet and helicopter pilot, and skydiver, as well as top-secret documents and interviews with key personnel involved in Operation Gatling to recreate a gripping account of Rhodesias first large-scale attacks on Zambia. He describes the aftermath, another tragedy and a reprisal attack in Angola, which brought southern Africa to the very brink of a full-scale regional war.

Green Leader is an exciting recreation of a calamitous time in southern African history.

After national service in the South African Air Force, Ian Pringle migrated to Rhodesia to work as an industrial chemist and flew aircraft as a hobby. He was drafted into the Police Reserve Air Wing as a pilot, and was involved in numerous enemy contacts.

Pringle read his MBA in the UK and worked for Castrol International and BP plc at a senior executive level, spending much of his career in Asia and Europe. He learnt to fly helicopters and ex-military jets in England. He retired to Cape Town in 2004, bringing two Cold War jets with him, and he teamed up with Thunder City, where he still flies the Hawker Hunter, Buccaneer and aerobatic aircraft.

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Published by Helion & Company 2015
Designed and typeset by Bookcraft Limited, Stroud, Gloucestershire
Cover designed by Euan Carter, Leicester (www.euancarter.com)
Printed by Lightning Source Limited, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire

Text Ian Pringle 2015
Photographs as individually credited
Maps drawn by George Anderson Helion & Company 2015

Front cover: Hawker Hunter landing at Thornhill Airbase, Thornhill photographic department. (Courtesy Doug Reitz).

ISBN: 978 1 909982 93 2
PAPERBACK ISBN: 978 1 911096 72 6
EPUB ISBN: 978 1 911096 78 8

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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Contents

List of Photographs

List of Maps

Picture acknowledgements

Cover photograph Hawker Hunter landing at Thornhill Airbase Thornhill photographic department courtesy Doug Reitz

Viscount Hunyani at Kariba Airport and Umniati at Jan Smuts Airport Kjell Oskar Granlund collection, Norway

Air Rhodesia timetable 1978 courtesy Bjrn Larrson, Sweden

Kariba dam wall under construction courtesy Alan Smith

Viscount VP-YNI Sabi taken from above by Greg Todds Canberra courtesy Greg Todd

Hunyani First Officer Garth Beaumont and Jeanne Dodd courtesy Mitch Stirling

Viscount passenger cabin courtesy Chris Brittlebank

Captains cockpit views in Viscount courtesy John Reid-Rowland

Cheryl Tilley courtesy Lyn Gibb, Cheryls sister

Herald news headline courtesy David Cushworth

Joshua Nkomo via Google images

Rhodesian insurgent courtesy Dennis Croukamp

Keith Spence and Dave Curwen flying Ian Smith and Chief Chirau in Alouette helicopter courtesy Paul Curwen

Herald newspaper photographs of crash (3) taken by Alexander Joe courtesy John Gardiner

Viscount tails courtesy Kjell Oskar Granlund collection and Francois Darquennes

Hans and Diana Hansen in Kariba shortly after surviving the Hunyani tragedy courtesy Hans Hansen

Hunyani memorial service card from the Anglican Cathedral in Salisbury courtesy Anne Janeke

Reconnaissance picture of Freedom Camp before the attack Peter Petter-Bowyer collection, courtesy Clive Bloor

Norman Walsh when he was commander of No. 1 (Hunter) Squadron courtesy Merilyn Walsh

Canberra R2504 damaged by Strela during Operation Snoopy courtesy Greg Todd

Forward Air Controllers (FAC) course with Hunter courtesy Tol Janeke

Medal award-ceremony photo courtesy John Blythe-Wood

Hunter FGA9 (Red Section) and Vampire FB9 at Fylde during Op Gatling courtesy Alf Wild

Hunter Blue and Red Section pilots, and technicians with Jebel Cat at Fylde courtesy Alf Wild

Lieutenant General Peter Walls boarding command Dakota Norman Walsh collection courtesy Bruce Davies

Alouette K-car gunship with 20mm Matra cannon Norman Walsh collection courtesy Bruce Davies

Rhodesian Canberra B2 WJ613 (R2175) whilst in RAF Service John Sheehan collection

Rhodesia-bound Canberra during refueling stop in Cyprus courtesy Iain Fidlin

RhAF Canberras in flight Rhodesian Air Force Archive, UK

Unexploded Alpha bombs and an unexploded Golf bomb recovered by bomb disposal crew in Mozambique courtesy Vic Wightman

Chris Dixon learning to fly and wings parade courtesy Prop Geldenhuys

Green Team, No. 5 (Canberra) Squadron air crew courtesy Greg Todd

Mike Ronne in Canberra nose cone courtesy Mike Ronne

Typical Canberra bombsight courtesy John Sheehan

Greg Todd learning to fly the Percival Provost courtesy Greg Todd