Wankie Campaign – The Lupane Group Virtually Decimated
On 18 August 1967, the Lupane Group, under the command of Jonathan Moyo (aka “David Madziwa”) of the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA), with Andries Motsepe of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) as his deputy, was engaged in another confrontation with the Rhodesian security forces.
The entire episode began on 17 August 1967, just after sunset, when the Lupane Group began marching again, and at that time they were retreating west towards Botswana, as they were being hunted by tracker teams. When they reached an open area where there were two dead trees, Moyo instructed a portion of the group to sleep by one tree, and the other portion at the second. The group remained in these positions until around 15:00, on 18 August 1967, when the Rhodesian African Rifles (RAR) Tracker Unit under the command of Lieutenant Wardle arrived.
When one of the guerrillas crawled out of one of the trees, he was challenged by a member of the RAR forces to surrender. When the call was made several times in IsiNdebele and was not heeded, the patrol began opening fire. Three men then emerged with their hands up, surfacing from the thick bush surrounding the tree. The RAR forces then extended the challenge to the second group of guerrillas to surrender, which was not answered, and so they began opening fire. These shots caused a grenade to explode in the guerrilla positions, sparking a fire that detonated the guerrillas’ other gren
