Mocambique

Last year, I was stunned to find out 2 things:-

It was 30 years since my cousin was killed on a cross border raid into Mocambique, fighting against ZANLA terrorists who were attacking the country then known as Rhodesia. I had always understood that the Puma helicopter he was in, exploded when it was hit by a Sam 7 Anti aircraft missile! I always believed that either his body was destroyed by fire either when the heavily armed helicopter exploded or when the wreckage hit the ground

It turns out that the bodies of the 17 killed in this tragedy were buried by the locals, and that the gravesite is reasonably well maintained, again by the locals!
At the time of the incident, the RLI did not try to recover the bodies as the area was obviously teeming with the enemy! Since I was in the Pat Corps, our office was ordered to take money down to near the Moz border and to pay the "returning heroes" I think it was just Mugabe trying to get on the good side of criminals! I am convinced that the gang of "heroes" who shot down my cousin, were there! - Heroes my foot!

Trips into Mocambique are occasionally conducted by the people who found the grave - as well as some of the wreckage of the helicopter, and this is a reason that I was keen to buy a V8 4x4 Landrover. Amazingly fortunate - for me - that it is Automatic!

Always when I get advised by the people who found the grave, a poem is quoted

“They shall not grow old
As we who are left, grow old.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn,
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.”

If my (greying) memory serves me, this is from a poem by Robert Browning. It is however 35 - 40 years since I was seated in an English poetry class!

These people put me in touch with a group who are involved in an RLI Regimental association, which keeps all advised of current happenings! I hear more about my old regiment than I hear of my old high school. The ex RLI are currently active in places as diverse as Botswana, Australia and New Zealand.

This always gets me in the strings of my heart. This poem was used at my primary school and then at my senior school as a standard quote at any memorial day. My primary school was named after a WW2 Ace, John Nettleton - a Spitfire pilot - who was awarded the Victoria Cross, and was in a sports house also named after another WW2 Ace. When I went to High School, the houses were also named after WW2 aces, who were awarded the VC decoration. Then when I was in my years national service, the unit that I served in, also used this poem as a kind of anthem! When I served my national service, it was in Base Group in the barracks, since I was in the Pay Office. My cousin had served in 1 Commando, and practically the barracks he lived in was right next to the Base Group barracks. Every day, we had to march across what was called "Holy Ground" and salute the "Troopie Statue" next to the chapel, and was a memorial to those who had died serving their country!

Whilst I was in the Pay Office, this statue was airlifted out of the barracks and brought down to SA - the military museum near the Zoo in Johannesburg. I went there to see the statue, but they would not admit to the fact that it had been taken to Hatfield House just outside of London. It is erected overlooking a river there! Next time I am in the UK, I intend to go there and pay tribute to the statue! When I was in the army, it was the only link that I knew of to my cousin! I do not feel that this is in any way a version of Idol Worship - at least no more than visiting a gravesite.

Since I found out that my cousin was buried and his grave has been located, I have bought myself a 4x4 Land Rover Discovery - V8 automatic - that I want to use to drive in to Mocambique!

For 30 years, I truly believed that the explosion had completely destroyed the bodies, but found out that there exists a mass grave, that is accessible by road, in an ordinary car, although the last time I was in Mocambique, the roads were not very good, and in their 35 - 40 years of independance, the Moz government has done nothing to maintain the roads. Even the bullet marks in the walls from the fighting when there were cross border raids in 1980, have not been plastered over or repainted, 31 years later! If they have not repaired or even repainted buildings, there is absolutely no chance that roads have been maintained. The roads into Mapai are still dirt roads!

I have a friend who was involved in a project to tar the roads off of the main SA to Maputo road, but they soon stopped, as the graders were exploding buried landmines!

When we used to visit Beira (nearest sea to Salisbury where we lived) the roads there were in terrible condition. We had huge fun the one time watching a worker repairing potholes in the tar road on a one way bridge over a river. The traffic was held up when the lights changed on the one end, and the worker would run into the road with a bucket of stone/bitumen that he flung into the hole and patted it briefly with a spade, before he had to flee from the oncoming traffic! Then he had to wait for another change of the robots, to attempt the same suicide mission!

Those were the days when I and my brothers were bitten by a real live African Lion! Ruff was maybe 4 weeks old and played endlessly. In playing, it bit although the teeth left no bite marks. What amazed us was the size of Ruffs paws! They were HUGE! So it is honest to God truth when I say that I have been bitten by a lion - admittedly it was playing, not vicious - but it was a lion!

I remember that this was one of our holidays where we were away at the sea at the same time as my cousins. I even remember that the one evening, we went out to a restaurant - "The Oceana" - on the seaside near the docks. That is one time where we were graced with a sight of an Ocean Liner leaving port in the evening!

I even recall the Christmas decorations on display - plastic soup plates glued together!

I remember Jeremy fishing off of the pier with his father. Terry was moaning that Jeremy was not casting far enough out to sea to catch fish. Jeremy would cast, be shouted at, reel in, take a fish off the hook, rebait then recast! Terry moaned at his son, but in all the time we were there the only fish caught were by Jeremy!

That was before Moz Independance, and even then there was an air of decay about EVERYTHING. That must be 35 or even 40 years ago, and I am not sure that they have bothered to maintain anything since then! The only capital development is that since we last went there, the Zambesi has been dammed with the Cahorra Bassa Dam. I know that many people in Eshowe own property in Mocambique.