Wankie – The First Confrontation: The Battle of Inyatuwe River
On 13 August 1967, at approximately 00:30, just after midnight, Patrol Officer Hopkins and an African tracker crossed a dry river stream, the Inyatuwe or Nyatuwe River, ahead of a Unit consisting of Rhodesian African Rifles (RAR) troops and some policemen. While Hopkins was crossing the stream, he was fired on from a nearby bush, but the bullets missed him, thus enabling him to run back and to shout a warning to his colleagues who were standing exposed on the river bank.
They then contacted headquarters, where the voice of the Captain of the RAR Unit, Peter Hosking, sounded clearly over the two-way radio, saying “There they are, the bandits”. He then called for urgent helicopter reinforcement, which was to be added to the Provost spotter plane that was hovering above the scene. Following difficulties to spot the “enemy”, the Rhodesian Unit began to open fire from the river bank in the direction from where Patrol Officer Hopkins was fired at.
During that time, “Comrade Rodgers” (real name Freddie Mninzi), who was the third in command of the Lupane Group, lifted his head and saw his comrade manning the guerrillas’ outpost, about twenty metres away, being hit by an enemy bullet. He then saw the Rhodesian forces firing towards the bush from hip position. According to Comrade Rodgers, they had reached the Nyatuwe River stream, which was dry at the time, early in the morning before sunrise on 13
