Piss Poor Planning: The Debacle of Nyahuku (Part 2)
March 7, 2026
The journey to Salisbury was fairly uneventful, and except for the occasional stop for the customary pee, smoke and leg stretch, we arrived in good time and still in daylight.
Reporting to the 2 Squadron HQ, where we were expecting a hero’s welcome and friendly smiles turned out to be a pretty poor assumption and was far from reality. No one seemed to have a clue why we were there and evidently we should have pushed all the way through to Mtoko without a stop in Salisbury. This was light years from the instructions given to us in Bulawayo, and it was pretty clear it was another of those military blunders – sadly this was just the first example of many to come on this mission.
We were not keen to travel through to Mtoko immediately, and in any case we would not be allowed to as it would be breaking the curfew if we did, so it would be a night stop sleeping under our vehicles and the stars as there was no accommodation arranged either. This by default also meant no catering arrangements either. I asked that a message be sent to 1 Squadron, informing them of the situation and apparent miscommunication. This of course to cover my arse.
We were given permission to park our trucks on a piece of open ground for the night. After collecting money from the crew we sent a couple of lads with the Unimog to buy beers at the canteen, and cokes for the teetotalers. It was going to be ratpack stew for supper. At least we could have a few drinks and shoot the shit before climbing into our sleeping bags – life was as good as we could make it within our cohort. I fell asleep looking at the stars.
Early the next morning we cleaned up the area, washed and shaved using the taps on our water bowser. I then sent the drivers to fill our vehicles at the Petrol, Oil and Lubricants (POL) point, while one of the sergeants and I paid a visit to the Squadron HQ once again. I recognised one of the junior officers and asked if we could have a word. According to him, he knew we were on the move to Mtoko, but there was never a plan for us to night stop in Salisbury, which I found very strange indeed, considering we would not have enough daylight to get from Bulawayo to Mtoko in a single day without breaking curfew. I considered this and as it was a lovely sunny day, decided that it was just one of those things. He added that the 2 Squadron contingent had left for Mtoko at the same time we left Bulawayo – so they were already there waiting for us, and had already been informed by radio of the change in plan, and that we would be arriving later today.
Our next dilemma was rations. We had only drawn 2 ratpacks each at Brady Barracks and therefore already breaking into our second and last one. Should we encounter any further delays on the way to Mtoko, we would be in a bit of a fix, food-wise. I asked the officer if we could be issued a further 2 packs per man and to my surprise he told me all of our rations were with the 2 Squadron contingent and there was nothing available for us in Salisbury. No use arguing, but the plan was continuing to unravel. If you want to mess with troop moral, take away a soldiers food and pay.
By now our vehicles had refueled and were parked-up close to the Squadron HQ, waiting for the sergeant and I to join them. As we were leaving the HQ, the Squadron Sergeant Major, who I also knew approached me and asked what those waster 1 Squadron vehicles and troops were doing in his lines. I explained the situation we were in and he immediately got very pissed off, not with me but rather the 2 Squadron HQ in general. He berated them for not providing us decent accommodation and a warm meal on arrival and insisted that rations be issued to us for our journey to Mtoko. Whoever his ire was aimed at I do not know, but there was much activity while arrangements were made for us to collect additional rations for the journey. At least there was someone who understood where the fault lay and done his best to make things right. He directed us to the QM store where we were issued what was known as tinned equivalent, not rat packs per se, but rather bulk rations in big cardboard boxes containing larger tins and other bits and pieces that we could share between us when the time came.
Everyone loves a Sergeant Major – and normally avoids pissing them off.
After thanking him for bringing some inter-squadron cooperation to an otherwise hard start to the day, we mounted the trucks and got on our way to Mtoko.
The 140-odd kilometer journey would take around 3 hours – but this was a dangerous route where high vigilance was required. To add context, attacks on this road were frequent, characterised by gook ambushes, minelaying, and infiltration attempts, crucially as the enemy had established so called “liberated zones” in the Mtoko area.
The gooks knew that if they could dominate this road, they would be successful in disrupting Rhodesian Security Force logistics.
Above: ZANLA CTs making a plan – Owner unknown but I do acknowledge that this is not my media
And we were going to be travelling right through the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) hunting grounds.
Would we make it through unscathed? Part 3 will tell.
Copyright
© Mark Richard Craig and Fatfox9’s Blog, 2009-2026. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.
Piss Poor Planning: The Debacle of Nyahuku (Part 1)
February 28, 2026
As a member of the Regular army within the Rhodesian Corps of Engineers, it was not unusual to be redeployed to different operational areas to assist where additional manpower or specialist military engineering expertise was required. If you were in-between missions, and idling around at Squadron HQ in Bulawayo (Brady Barracks), you were a prime target for any dodgy task that might be dreamt up by the upper echelons.
The following posts recount one of those occasions.
I was in the Squadron admin office doing my best to look busy, operating the Gestetner machine, rolling off precis for the next intake of recruits from Llewellin Barracks – they would have just finished their basic training, and been selected for Engineers.
There was much to prepare for their arrival, and to be honest I was not into this arranging barracks rooms, stapling A4 sheets together and arranging bed-linen lark – luckily I was about to snivel out of it – although I would have been much better off staying and helping with the incoming Gobbies1.
Someone shouted my name from one of the offices in the HQ. I recognised the voice – it was Staff Sergeant Vic Hydes and he was someone you never kept waiting and I quickly doubled-away to see what he wanted. Vic was often referred to as “Little Hitler”, and it was for a good reason – he was the bloke that had made me swim from one end of Umzingwane Dam, to the other – at night. For more on these aquatic activities please follow this link: https://fatfox9.net/2010/05/22/mzingwane-dam-part-1-combat-engineer-practical-training-phase/.
Vic briefed me, although with the little he knew himself, I was only marginally wiser after leaving his office. The short of it was that hot intelligence (laughing my head off) had been received (laughing again) that a large group of gooks2 were planning to cross into Rhodesia somewhere along a 30 kilometer stretch of the border with Mozambique in an area of East Mashonaland within the next two to three weeks. The general location of the suspected crossing point was within an area known as Nyahuku, and is shown below in the orange circle:
During the day more information came to light and I learnt that we had been tasked, together with elements of 2 Engineer Squadron from Salisbury, to lay a rapid barrier minefield (Cordon Sanitaire pattern – see https://fatfox9.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=491&action=edit) to block the suspected enemy line of advance where it would cross the Mozambique/Rhodesian border, and kill them.
Due to the geographic location of the target area, 2 Engineer Squadron would be calling the shots on this one, with overall command, control, administrative and logistic responsibility. 1 Engineer Squadron was only providing personnel.
1 Engineer Squadron would mobilise approximately 30 Territorial Force and National Service Field Troop (NSFT) personnel for this mission and they were due to arrive at Brady Barracks in drips and drabs over the next 48 hours. In the meantime I would be working to get 3 troop carrying vehicles prepped for the 650 kilometer journey that lay ahead of us. Nyahuku was a world away from Bulawayo and it was going to be a monster of a drive of 10 to 15 hours, not including stops. Our route would take us through Salisbury where we would night stop and join the 2 Squadron personnel, and then on to Mtoko the next day. Joint Operations Center (JOC) Mtoko, was a key fire-force and intelligence hub within the Operation Hurricane area, and we would take our last stop there before making the final leg to Nyahuku via Kotwa.
Over the next few days I cobbled together 1 x Unimog 25, and 2 x Rodef 45s for the force that would deploy with me. These were reliable Mercedes-based vehicles and I was pleased that we had these three available for us to use, as we would also be towing a full water bowser and fuel bowser.
On the night before we were due to depart we had a good session in the pub, the usual banter between Regulars, Territorials and National Servicemen continued well into the night. Most of us knew one another – we were a small band of brothers, highly experienced in our craft and more than capable of carrying out the task ahead.
The last thing to be done on the morning we left was to test our TR48 radio for comms with 1 Engineer Squadron ops room, plus inter vehicle comms with A76’s, draw our weapons,/ammunition, and 48 hours of rations per man – 2 rat-packs each.
With vehicles full of fuel and final trips made to empty bladders, we fired the Mercedes engines up, and were on our way before noon, most of the passengers dozing-off before we hit the road to Salisbury.
Salisbury would prove to be where things started going wrong at pace.
More to follow in Part 2
Fatfox9's Blog 