Rob Gaunt spent some time in Air HQ before leaving the force to enter into politics. Mentally gifted, he followed in the footsteps of his father, John Gaunt, who had been an outspoken politician in Federal times and again as a minister in the first Rhodesian Front Government. Rob was still a member of the Rhodesian Front party after Robert Mugabe’s ZANU party came to power, by which time he had put on a great deal of weight. Rob had the unusual knack of criticising black ZANU politicians without really upsetting them. On one occasion, when ZANU was giving ZAPU’s immensely fat Joshua Nkomo a particularly hard time, Rob leapt to his feet and looking directly at Nkomo said, “Honourable Minister, you have no need to concern yourself with what you are hearing because I can assure you and all the honourable members present that you and I carry a lot of weight in this House!”
Rich Brand was the grandson of the famous Sir Quintin Brand who, together with Pierre van Reyneveld, made history in March 1920 by flying the Vickers Vimy bomber ‘Silver Queen’ from Britain to Cape Town. Rich was a quiet man, something of a loner that, in Air Force circles, made him appear to be at odds with most pilots. He spent much of his spare time building and flying radio-controlled model aerobatic aircraft. His talents here and his ability to deliver weapons with great accuracy were well known to all—but nobody ever recognised the huge potential that lay dormant within the man.
He left the Air Force in 1980 and moved to the USA where he was associated with an American tycoon who had an interest in building and flying model aircraft. Amongst other things, this tycoon owned a large hotel and casino in Las Vegas. When one day he asked Rich what he had in mind for his own future, Rich said, “I want to start at the bottom of your Las Vegas enterprise and work my way up until I head it.” Without further ado Rich was given the broom and mop brigade. He progressed rapidly through every position rising through management of the gambling halls, the hotel and finally becoming Managing Director of the entire Circus Circus enterprise. He endeared himself to every member of the enormous staff who he greeted personally by first name. Rich Brand, the quiet person in Rhodesian Air Force days, turned out to be a much-revered multi-millionaire in a niche none of us would have believed possible.
Vic Wightman was an eccentric who would not allow his family to use salt in any food. He had three hates. These were Americans, dogs and insurance agents. His worst fear was to be visited by an American insurance agent with a dog. Vic was an excellent squadron commander and strike pilot whose name comes up often in this book. When Vic left the force he ended up flying a Lear Jet out of Nelspruit in South Africa on cloud-seeding and other weather-related work. He started his day there by walking barefoot from home to work over a forested hill to enjoy the bush and the local wildlife. He remained without shoes when flying his executive jet and sometimes astounded his bosses in Johannesburg by emerging barefoot from his aircraft to attend company meetings. In addition to one already covered, some of Vic’s experiences will be revealed later.
Army claims air kills
4 SQUADRON PROVOSTS WERE BECOMING MORE and more involved with internal strikes whether operating in conjunction with helicopters, being called to assist ground forces or acting against targets located during visual recce by other 4 Squadron pilots.
All 4 Squadron pilots were great operators but one junior pilot was already emerging as a star performer. Almost every action involving Air Sub-Lieutenant ‘Cocky’ Benecke with the callsign Juliet 4 turned to success. This had much to do with his amazing eyesight, as will be seen.
Brian Murdoch (E4), Cocky Benecke (J4) and Kevin Peinke (R4), all flying Provost, were involved in an action inside Rhodesia on 18 April when others of 4 Squadron were still tied up with the air search in Mozambique. Selous Scouts operator Mick Hardy and his pseudo terrorist group had initiated this widespread running action.
Mick had been successful in locating three bases that one particularly large ZANLA group used in random rotation. Mick’s problem was that he could not tell which of the bases was occupied at any given time. His Officer Commanding, Ron Reid-Daly, went to JOC Hurricane at Bindura to arrange for the grouping of all available helicopters and troops to move in behind simultaneous air strikes on all three bases. Unfortunately there was some confusion and the terrorists survived.
Undaunted, Mick picked up the trail and established two alternative bases for which a first-light attack by RAR was planned. Due to scepticism following the abortive attack of the previous day, the local RAR commander approached his task in an uncaring manner, causing Mick Hardy to realise that his target of about thirty CTs would be lost if he did not take the initiative. He did this by dealing directly with the Air Force.
Following the action that accounted for eight CTs killed and four captured the RAR, who came to the party late, proudly claimed all to their own credit. This was an ongoing difficulty for the Air Force; not that it should have mattered who achieved the successes. But apart from niggling the airmen, problems caused by ground forces claiming most Air Force successes, a consequence of inter-company rivalries, could prejudice annual allocation of funds to Air Force by the Government Treasury. Fortunately a more balanced situation developed as time went on but the reader can judge who did what in this particular action. The Air Strike Report is difficult to follow without an accompanying sketch, but it gives a fair idea of the widely spread actions involved. As with most hurriedly written ASRs, little attention was given to grammar.
Juliet 4 and Yellow section consisting of 4 helicopters were scrambled to just north of Banji acting on information received from c/s 91 that 14 terrs were heading in a north westerly direction from their location. This group was not seen and whilst orbiting overhead 4 terrs were seen to run into a thicket north east of 91’s location. J4 then directed two choppers onto either side of a stream that they had gone into, to act as stop groups and the one helicopter came under fire. J4 put in a strike using front gun and Sneb with no results. J4 remained in the area and saw one terr running east along the river just south of Bobgarande School. He carried out a front gun attack and was hit in the process. J4 was then informed of 4 terrs running in the fields to the south of the river and was directed to them. A strike was carried out by J4 and one terr with an RPD fell. E4 arrived at this time and carried out an attack on the subsequent three. All 3 fell, 1 then got up and started running again. E4 carried out another attack on him and he fell again. E4 then directed ground forces onto their position. The last terr to fall opened fire on the ground forces and he was shot by them. The other two who were shot by E4 were found dead by ground forces. J4 returned (from rearming) and directed ground forces to the body with the RPD; he too was dead. E4 then departed to rearm. J4 then directed troops to the area just south of Bobgarande School where he had come under fire. An air strike was carried out by J4 and the subsequent sweep revealed 1 dead terr. J4 returned to rearm and R4 took over. More firing had started from the same area, which was a thick reed area on a riverbank. J4 then rejoined R4 and led a further strike that resulted in 1 dead and 4 surrendering, all of whom were wounded. J4 returned to rearm. R4 did a further 2 strikes; as a result 2 more dead terrs were found.