Royal Rhodesian Air Force

[mtoroshanga]

I had the privelage to be invited to a reunon of the RRAF this week end and can only be proud to be part of a unit with such top calibre people. My only regret was that Ozzie was not there, I had tears in my eyes to see good friend who I had not seen for forty years.
It is conveniantly forgotten that Rhodesian forces were not fighting for apatheit but were in fact opposing Marxist Communism. The system which has brought Rhodesia to disaster.
I can only thank PB, MK and the rest of the people who organised the event. I speak for my ex wife and myself in saying we had a good time.
Note. Where I come from 'Zimbabwe' means 'a big ruin', how appropriate.
(I must stop putting in postings after a few pints!!!)

[Carrier]

Certain foreign and internal politicians and others ganged up on Rhodesia and South Africa to impose policies that they were warned would destroy those countries and cause untold misery for their inhabitants of all races.

I lived in SA for most of the 1970s and visited Rhodesia several times. I had relatives and friends living there. At any time while I was in SA there were at least one million illegal black immigrants in SA. As fast as they were captured and deported they came back. They were not escaping from SA like people escaping across the Berlin Wall from communist East Germany. They were escaping INTO SA from the surrounding black-ruled countries because they were better off in SA. They voted with their feet in favour of the SA government as being superior to the governments of neighbouring countries! Rhodesia while under sanctions granted aid, particularly food, to surrounding black-ruled countries. Systems and infrastructures in both countries were in fine shape then and crime was under control.

Now look at the ruins of two fine countries. Do those who wilfully imposed such destruction have any sort of conscience? Have any of those politicians and others ever expressed regret for their actions? Whose side were they really on?

[4HolerPoler]

Guys as dear as this subject is to many of you, if this thread heads off into a WhenWe direction it's going in the bin - this is an aviation related site for aviation professionals - use it as such.

4HP

[Whenwe]

4HP, are you talking about me? Probably not. But been there and done it. ww

[rogerk]

The Rhodesia Herald on September 1, 1978 reported the death of President John Wrathall. Yet within a couple of short days the attention of the country, and the world, was on the terrible events that took place near Kariba when the Air Rhodesia Viscount Hunyani was shot down by Joshua Nkomo's ZPRA forces, and the subsequent massacre of most of the survivors by those same terrorists.

Who will forget the sermon The Deafening Silence preached by Dean da Costa at the Memorial Service. Despite it all, the world did remain silent. Their hypocrisy and disdain for anything Rhodesian was laid bare for all to see.

Their death angered and spurred the nation. The subsequent raids into Zambia and the famous Green Leader recording of the Rhodesian Air Force shutting down Zambian airspace brought condemnation from the world that had been deafeningly silent the month before.

[Whenwe]

And just to keep it on track: The second Viscount VP-YND went down to terrorism on 12 February 1979, about 50 km from VP-WAS (I believe the date was actually 3 September 1978)

[Metro man]

How about a thread in memory of those who were murdered in the Viscount Disasters ? We should all remember the incredible skill of Captain John Hood who managed to put his aircraft down in one piece after having been hit by a heat seeking missile, losing two engines and being on fire. Had there not been a ditch across the landing area everyone would probably have got out safely.

After this Joshua Nkomo was the subject of an IFALPA ban, no airline pilot would have him on board.

Hunyani (http://home.iprimus.com.au/rob_rickards/viscounts/hunyani.htm)

The Rhodesians had an early taste of the terrorism the rest of us face today.If only the anti missile technology that saved the Israeli charter aircraft departing Mombassa had been available back then.

Pity the world didn't unite against terrorism back then, what happened to Rhodesia since can be described as an absolute disaster.:(

[4HolerPoler]

For those of you who were associated with the RhodAF who haven't seen or don't have a copy of Prop Geldenhuys' book Rhodesian Air Force Operations (with Air Strike Log) it's a must-have book; extremely detailed and factual -

http://www.lulu.com/author/display_thumbnail.php?fCID=1670937&fSize=320_&1252323689

Great book.

[rogerk]

For those who haven't seen the long version - Enjoy !!

:ok::ok:

YouTube - 'Green Leader' Raid on Rebel Camps in Zambia (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-p1NRLFso6Q)

[Capetonian]

I was in Rhodesia when the Viscounts were shot down and the innocent civilians who survived were raped and butchered by the ZIPRA thugs, the predecessors of the current ZANU-PF government.

The sermon by the Rev. John da Costa is one of the most emotive and moving addresses I have ever heard.

Today, as genocide continues in 'Zimbabwe', his words are as meaningful as they were then.



The Silence is Deafening

Sermon by Very Rev. John da Costa, Anglican Dean of Salisbury

Clergymen, I am frequently told, should keep out of politics. I thoroughly agree. For this reason, I will not allow politics to be preached in this cathedral. Clergy have to be reconcilers. That is no easy job. A minister of religion who has well-known political views, and allows them to come to the fore, cannot reconcile, but will alienate others, and fail in the chief part of his ministry. For this reason, I personally am surprised at there being two clergymen in the Executive Council. It is my sincere prayer that they can act as Christ’s ambassadors of reconciliation.

My own ministry began in Ghana, where Kwame Nkrumah preached: "Seek ye first the political kingdom and all these things will be added to you." We know what became of Kwame Nkrumah. We are not to preach a political kingdom, but the kingdom of God.

Clergy are usually in the middle, shot at from both sides. It is not an enviable role. Yet times come when it is necessary to speak out, and in direct and forthright terms, like trumpets with unmistakable notes. I believe that this is one such time.

Nobody who holds sacred the dignity of human life can be anything but sickened at the events attending the crash of the Viscount Hunyani. Survivors have the greatest call on the sympathy and assistance of every other human being. The horror of the crash was bad enough, but that this should have been compounded by murder of the most savage and treacherous sort leaves us stunned with disbelief and brings revulsion in the minds of anyone deserving the name "human."

This bestiality, worse than anything in recent history, stinks in the nostrils of Heaven. But are we deafened with the voice of protest from nations which call themselves "civilised"? We are not. Like men in the story of the Good Samaritan, they "pass by, on the other side."

One listens for loud condemnation by Dr. David Owen, himself a medical doctor, trained to extend mercy and help to all in need.

One listens and the silence is deafening.

One listens for loud condemnation by the President of the United States, himself a man from the Bible-Baptist belt, and again the silence is deafening.

One listens for loud condemnation by the Pope, by the Chief Rabbi, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, by all who love the name of God.

Again the silence is deafening.

I do not believe in white supremacy. I do not believe in black supremacy either. I do not believe that anyone is better than another, until he has proved himself to be so. I believe that those who govern or who seek to govern must prove themselves worthy of the trust that will be placed in them.

One looks for real leadership One finds little in the Western world: how much less in Africa? Who is to be blamed for this ghastly episode?

Like Pontius Pilate, the world may ask "What is truth?" What is to be believed? That depends on what your prejudices will allow you to believe, for then no evidence will convince you otherwise.

So who is to be blamed?

First, those who fired the guns. Who were they? Youths and men who, as likely as not, were until recently in church schools. This is the first terrible fact. Men who went over to the other side in a few months were so indoctrinated that all they had previously learned was obliterated. How could this happen if they had been given a truly Christian education?

Second, it is common knowledge that in large parts of the world violence is paraded on TV and cinema screens as entertainment. Films about war, murder, violence, rape devil-possession and the like are "good box-office". Peak viewing time is set aside for murderers from Belfast, Palestine, Europe, Africa and the rest, to speak before an audience of tens of millions. Thugs are given full treatment, as if deserving of respect.

Not so the victims' relations. Who else is to be blamed? The United Nations and their church equivalent, the WCC. I am sure they both bear blame in this. Each parade a pseudo-morality which, like all half-truths, is more dangerous than the lie direct. From the safety and comfort of New York and Geneva, high moral attitudes can safely be struck. For us in the sweat, the blood, the suffering, it is somewhat different.

Who else? The churches? Oh yes, I fear so. For too long, too many people have been allowed to call themselves "believers" when they have been nothing of the kind. Those who believe must act. If you believe the car is going to crash, you attempt to get out. If you believe the house is on fire, you try to get help and move things quickly. If you believe a child has drunk poison, you rush him to the doctor. Belief must bring about action.

Yet churches, even in our own dangerous times, are more than half-empty all the time. We are surrounded by heathens who equate belief in God with the Western way of life. In many war areas, Africans are told to "burn their Bibles". If this call was made to us, what sort of Bibles would be handed in? Would they be dog-eared from constant use; well-thumbed and marked? Would they be pristine in their virgin loveliness, in the same box in which they were first received?

There are tens of millions of all races who call themselves believers, who never enter any house of prayer and praise. Many are folk who scream loudest against communism, yet do not themselves help to defeat these Satanic forces by means of prayer, and praise and religious witness.

For, make no mistake, if our witness were as it ought to be, men would flock to join our ranks. As it is, we are by-passed by the world, as if irrelevant.

Is anyone else to be blamed for this ghastly episode near Kariba? I think so. Politicians throughout the world have made opportunist speeches from time to time. These add to the heap of blameworthiness, for a speech can cause wounds which may take years to heal.

The ghastliness of this ill-fated flight from Kariba will be burned upon our memories for years to come. For others, far from our borders, it is an intellectual matter, not one which affects them deeply. Here is the tragedy!

The especial danger of Marxism is its teaching that human life is cheap, expendable, of less importance than the well-being of the State. But there are men who call themselves Christians who have the same contempt for other human beings, and who treat them as being expendable.

Had we, who claim to love God, shown more real love and understanding, more patience, more trust of others, the churches would not be vilified as they are today. I have nothing but sympathy with those who are here today and whose grief we share. I have nothing but revulsion for the less-than-human act of murder which has so horrified us all.

I have nothing but amazement at the silence of so many of the political leaders of the world. I have nothing but sadness that our churches have failed so badly to practise what we preach. May God forgive us all, and may he bring all those who died so suddenly and unprepared into the light of His glorious presence.

[skyshark]

H, I got some archive photo's from the airforce. PM me if you would like them (I will try to post if I can but computer blip+time=hard) Anybody got pics of the RAA 707's. Saw JT;s in PE nit so long ago.......beautiful....Boeing......