In the fall of 1979, the Rhodesians turned their attention to Zambia - more precisely, to its economy. Rhodesia was landlocked - but Zambia also did not have it, and therefore the Zambian authorities were forced to send part of their exports through the territory of Rhodesia, which was ruled by the "illegal white regime" that it hated. Since the armed forces of Rhodesia did not particularly stand on ceremony with striking terrorist camps on Zambian territory, Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda from time to time closed and opened the border with Rhodesia. In the fall of 1978, he opened it again - even despite the fact that not long before that, the Rhodesians had successfully bombed several large militant bases near the capital of the country. The reason was simple - Zambia lacked food, and imports were possible either through the territory of its southern neighbor, or directly from Rhodesia. But Salisbury did not like the degree of openness of the borders - Kaunda had another thread connecting him with the outside world, and he tried to exploit it in the first place. The Tazara (or Tan-Zam) railway was key for Zambia: it was the only highway connecting the country and the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam. The railway to Zambia received 25 thousand tons of cargo every month. In general, cargo turnover in Tazar accounted for up to 40 percent of Zambia's trade balance. So the task was simple: it was vital for the Rhodesians to force Kaunda to use the southern communications - and for this it was necessary to cut off the northern ones. The intelligence of Rhodesia, as well as analysts from the army headquarters, understood the significance of Tazara for a long time.
The most important section of this communication was the large railway bridge over the Chambeshi River, in the northeastern part of Zambia - the longest bridge on this railway. About half a kilometer from it there was a bridge for vehicles - it also played an important role in the transport infrastructure of Zambia: through it, in particular, the transit of cement and oil products to Burundi went.
All this information was collected in advance in the dossier - but the materials for the time being remained just developments. In the summer of 1978, the Rhodesian SAS was tasked with destroying the bridges, and operatives began to develop an operation. But as often happens, soon an order to cancel was received - it was decided at the top that, for some reason, the action could not be carried out. The fact that Rhodesia did strike at obviously terrorist targets, and not at economically important ones, also played a role. The development of the operation, to the displeasure of the SAS command, had to be curtailed.
But a year later, at the very beginning of September 1979, “good” came from above. It is difficult to say why this particular time was chosen - the fate of Rhodesia was actually a foregone conclusion: soon a conference on the final solution of the "Rhodesian question" was to begin in London, after which a new government was to come to power in the country once again. But the Rhodesians were not going to give up just like that. Fortunately, preliminary calculations had already been done, so the operation, code-named "Cheese", began almost immediately.
Literally from the very first minute, the direct executors realized that the task facing them was described in one word - “impossible”. Distance was the main problem. The targets were more than 300 kilometers from the border with Rhodesia (and more than 700 kilometers from Camp Cabrit, the main base of the SAS). Thus, the bridges over the Chambeshi were the most distant target in the entire history of special operations in Rhodesia. Accordingly, the risk that everything would go wrong increased many times over.
Questions regarding the operation multiplied with every minute: what can be said about the situation and condition of the local population in the territory adjacent to the target? How close are the settlements to the bridge and what are they? Is the bridge guarded? How numerous are the police forces in the area? Etc. And the most important question - how will the group leave after the bridges are destroyed? Since after the undermining, the authorities will most likely immediately announce the alarm and begin a search - and the border will be very, very far away.
The first step was to find out how well the bridges were guarded and what the situation with the local population was. Since the SAS did not have accurate operational data, they had to resort to the help of colleagues from intelligence. One of the agents arrived in Zambia and drove his car around the area, collecting the necessary information. According to him, there was a small police post not far from the bridges, and as for the population, they lived more or less evenly along both banks of the Chambeshi along the entire length of the river.
Delivery of saboteurs to the target by land transport and from helicopters was excluded. There was only one way out - a night parachute landing. The penetration was planned in two stages. First, a group of four operatives is parachuted in a long jump - they conduct reconnaissance and assess the level of police and military presence. Then the main group of 12 is parachuted. Then all 16 Sasovites in a canoe
float to the bridges.
The main group took with them a ton of explosives, a rubber boat Zodiac with an outboard motor, and several canoes. The load was huge - and in training, most of the time was spent learning how to carefully and compactly pack it.
Design
The task set by the command was formulated very clearly: bridges should not only be blown up, but put out of action for the maximum period (preferably, of course, without the possibility of restoration). To achieve the desired effect, some of the charges must be detonated underwater. In addition, during the operation, in addition to standard explosive charges, it was decided to use experimental explosive equipment: a subversive network. It was supposed to be used to undermine the railway bridge - the main purpose of the sabotage. On one side of the central pillar of the bridge (the most voluminous of the three), the demolitionists intended to install three explosive charges of 100 kilograms each under water. On the opposite side, a subversive network was attached - its charges were supposed to detonate a split second before the main ones went off. A pre-emptive explosion will momentarily displace the water, creating an air cushion on one side of the farm. Further, the main charges are triggered - and since at this moment there will be no water resistance from the opposite side, the support, according to the laws of physics, will break in half.
As for the methods of withdrawal, among other things, it was assumed that the commandos would be landing a Land Rover. Alas, after several attempts this thought had to be abandoned. In the end, the command agreed that after the detonation, the operatives would seize the car and drive it to the south of the country. At the same time, it turned out that on the way back, the Sasovites could not stay away from the cities of Chambeshi and Mpika. The terrain maps were unreliable - firstly, outdated, and secondly, large-scale.
The success of the evacuation after the explosion depended only on how soon the saboteurs were able to find a suitable vehicle. If they succeed, then everything should end normally. If not, then the operatives, to put it mildly, had very serious problems.
Unsuccessful landing
On October 3, at 22.00, the plane with an advanced reconnaissance group took off and headed for Zambia. On approaching the area where the bridges were located, the paratroopers stood up in anticipation of the command. The four paratroopers, laden like camels in a caravan, headed for the door. A minute later, the saboteurs, along with an additional load of equipment, jumped into the night, from a height of four kilometers. After spending a minute in free fall, they opened their parachutes and directed them to the landing site. Cargo parachutes were forced to open at a given height. Having gathered after landing, the operatives, to their great relief, found out that all four were alive and well, but there was a nuisance: one of the cargo parachutes did not open. This meant that the cargo fell somewhere in the bush, and there are now two canoes, spare parts and other equipment. And without canoes, the saboteurs could not get close to the bridges to carry out additional reconnaissance on the spot. In addition, the radio station disappeared along with the canoe. Again, fortunately, the head of the group, Dave Dodson, was smart enough to insist in advance that one of the scouts carried a spare kit. The operatives spent the whole night and half of the next day in search of the missing equipment. Towards evening, Dodson decided that further searches were pointless, and turned them off.
Do not retreat and do not give up
Any sane person would consider such a beginning a bad omen. Dodson, in general, was of the same opinion, but even less was he willing to end the entire operation. He decided to get to the bridges on foot. This, of course, was much more difficult than canoeing down the river, and significantly reduced the total time of the entire operation - but still better than nothing. He contacted SAS headquarters and informed the command of his plan, requesting also that the main group include in the list of equipment any that were missing.
at the first disembarkation.
Two and a half days later, four tired operatives reached a tributary of the Chambeshi River. Leaving one of the commandos on guard, Major Dodson, Lieutenant Phil Brook and Lance Corporal Andy Standish-Whitey undressed and swam to the bridges. Having reached the structures, they were relieved to find that the area adjacent to the bridges was virtually deserted, with the exception of a single guard on the bridge. The width of Chambeshi in this place was no more than 200, the depth was about 4 meters. The dimensions of the bridges turned out to be exactly those that were presented by the analysts after processing the aerial reconnaissance data. After that, the saboteurs swam back to the place where the fourth member of the group was waiting for them.
They made the way back to the landing site faster - in general, the journey to the bridges and back took them four days, during which they covered a total of about 100 kilometers. The scouts even had time to rest a little before the arrival of the main group, which carried explosives and canoes.
Sudden problem
At 1 am on October 8, twelve SAS operatives safely landed from a height of approximately 300 meters and landed without incident at the designated location, where they were met by the advance group. Before sunrise, the commandos hid their parachutes and repackaged their equipment. After the explosives and canoes were safely hidden in the bush, the operatives went to bed. The morning passed without incident. Sometime after noon, sentries detected smoke from a fire in the bush - but it was so far away that it posed no threat. The commandos continued to rest, gaining strength for the upcoming task.
With the onset of darkness, the saboteurs proceeded to the first stage - it was necessary to drag a ton of explosives, six canoes, a rubber boat, an engine, fuel and their equipment 400 meters to the river bank. For a couple of hours, 16 people were doing exactly this, scurrying to and fro. Despite the fact that they were all strong, healthy and strong, they were so exhausted that Dodson called a 30-minute halt before starting to collect boats and load into them.
It was originally planned that six canoes would take 12 people and as much equipment as possible. A rubber boat with a motor will carry 4 soldiers and the main part of the explosives. By the time the commandos were ready for the rafting, it was midnight. According to initial calculations, at this time they should have already been halfway to the bridges.
From the photographs of the river, the experts determined that the current in this place should not exceed 6 knots or 11 km / h. Since the advance team, due to the loss of the canoe, could not verify how the experts' conclusions were true, no one knew exactly how strong the current was. The answer came as soon as the saboteurs tried to get under way.
The operatives very quickly realized that there was no question of any 6 nodes - rather, about 15 nodes, that is, 27 km / h. In addition, on the river, as it suddenly turned out, rapids, pitfalls and hippos began to come across in abundance. Even the 11-kilowatt outboard motor on the Zodiac struggled to cope with its task. The scouts from the forward group began to realize that even if they had not lost the canoe, they would still have to spend the same amount of time to get to the bridges along the river and raft back.
Those in the canoe were jealous of those in the motorboat. Those who were in the boat considered those in the canoe to be lucky - small boats, successfully maneuvering, without much effort passed through the rapids. But Bob Mackenzie and his three comrades in the "Zodiac" had a hard time - the boat was loaded to the maximum, sat low and moved very hard. Every now and then she was carried to the shore, and the engine from time to time caught the stones.
It was obvious to everyone that the initial timing was somewhat presumptuous, and the saboteurs simply would not have time to reach their goal the next day. God forbid it will take two, if not three days. The operatives could not sail around the clock - during the day they were forced to hide in the thickets in order to avoid the attention of the local population living along the banks of the river. The current on the river was much stronger than everyone expected.
Insurmountable difficulties
On one of the rapids, the exhausted crew of the Zodiac lost control at one moment, and the boat was swept backward by the current, a couple of hundred meters, almost overturning at the same time. They tried again to cross this threshold, but with the same result. Then Mackenzie decided to donate part of the cargo. With such a load, the boat was powerless to overcome the threshold. So Mackenzie was forced to overboard 150 kilograms of explosives - this automatically meant that one of the bridge supports would remain intact. There was no other alternative. But, even getting rid of some of the explosives, they crossed the threshold with great difficulty.
The difficulties did not end there. As soon as the crew of the Zodiac crossed the unfortunate threshold and swim a little further, the outboard motor stalled and did not respond to all attempts to bring it back to life. The reason became clear almost immediately - water got into one of the fuel canisters, and when the fuel was poured into the engine, the water "blocked" the carburetor.
Bob and his group began to drift downstream. They were eventually able to row to the shore and get tied up. Bob understood that if by some miracle they did not fix this motor, then the operation would have to be curtailed.
Meanwhile, Dave Dodson and the rest of the saboteurs rowed on, unaware of what had happened to Mackenzie's crew. Fortunately, the selection for the Rhodesian CAC was based not only on physical qualities, but also on the extent to which a person can instantly adapt to an extreme situation and resolve it. Sergeant "Vossi" Vosloo, by the light of a flashlight, was able to disassemble the engine, clean the carburetor, and reassemble the engine. The Zodiac was on the move again - but the crew was an hour and a half behind their comrades. Nevertheless, Bob and his group managed to catch up with them.
Finally, on the night of October 10, the group approached the bridges. The commandos were close enough to hear the noise of trains on the Tazar railway and the passage of vehicles on a nearby bridge. The group found an accumulation of dense thickets a couple of kilometers from the bridges and lay down for a day.
At nightfall, 12 saboteurs in six canoes sailed to the bridges. Bob Mackenzie and three of his colleagues in the Zodiac with explosives were supposed to follow the main group some time later. Two canoes with saboteurs headed for the coast - this was a subgroup that combined the functions of attack and support. She, acting on land, was responsible for identifying and neutralizing guards, warning the main group about the occurrence of unforeseen circumstances and ensuring security during an enemy attack.
Two other crews moored to the middle support of the railway bridge and began to tie it with a cable so that a rubber boat with an explosive could moor to it. Another 4 people began to fasten hooks on the same support in order to suspend three hundred-kilogram explosive charges.
When the Zodiac and Mackenzie's group reached the bridge, the main group had already done their job: the hooks were secured, and a cable was tied around the truss. After that, mooring to the support, the Rhodesians began to unload the explosives. The charges were lifted on ropes, using the hooks as blocks, and then carefully lowered into the water. The commandos then began to set up this experimental disruptive network on the opposite side of the farm. But it was heavy, so while it was installed, while it was fixed in the right place so that it would not be carried away by the current, while it was checked whether everything was correct, time passed. After that, they reinforced the fuses on the charges in order to connect them in a ring pattern at the last moment.
Suddenly, the sounds of shots were heard on the shore. The Sasovites froze. There was no more shooting, and the saboteurs continued their work. Later it turned out that, unfortunately, a policeman appeared in the area. Seeing armed Phil Brook and Frank Booth, he pointed his shotgun at them and demanded an explanation of what they were doing here at such an inopportune time. Then, apparently realizing that it was no good, he tried to open fire and received short bursts of AK-47 with a silencer in response. He managed to escape, but not far from his wounds he died.
The mining of the bridges continued, and each of the saboteurs was busy with his own business.
At the same time, Lieutenant Brooke and his subordinates began preparing the group for withdrawal. Phil and his group blocked the road by deploying a "portable checkpoint" on it. This element of the plan was key to capture the car. We prepared for this carefully - the group took with them exact copies of Zambian road signs and police barriers. The trick worked - cars, which by this time began to appear on the highway, slowed down, stopped and then passed on at the command of the fake "Zambian police". The traffic was average - morning had not yet arrived, and the traffic was interrupted from time to time. The Rhodesians were ready for such a turn of events, and coped well with the role of traffic police, regulating traffic and portraying activity. Nevertheless, so far, no suitable vehicle that could take on board 16 people with equipment has appeared.
The rest of the group continued to mine the bridges. Since the saboteurs were under the bridge, they were not visible from above - and the activity of the special forces remained outside the scope of attention of passing drivers. Some continued to check and recheck the installation of the charges, while others disassembled and collapsed the equipment. Dodson monitored all the activities of his subordinates on the radio. Thanks to the many training sessions conducted at facilities in Rhodesia, everything went according to plan. Finally, all the charges on the railway bridge were connected into one network and connected to the same network on the highway, forming a single disruptive network.
Problems with vehicles
Time began to run out, and Brooke still could not find a suitable transport. Dodson inquired on the radio with a subordinate how he was doing, making it clear that it was undesirable to delay this part of the operation. At the approach to the bridge, a small traffic jam began to accumulate - cars slowed down at the checkpoint, but Brooke feverishly waved to the drivers so that they could pass without stopping. Finally, a twenty-ton truck with a load of mineral fertilizers appeared on the road, and Phil realized that this was what he needed.
The truck pulled up at an impromptu checkpoint and Brooke signaled the driver to pull over to the side of the road. The white driver and his African partner exited the cab and were immediately taken into custody. The alleged police officers quickly installed signs reporting a car breakdown, while the checkpoint barriers and police signs, on the contrary, were removed. The hope was that the drivers, seeing the "police", a stopped car and signs informing about the accident, will pass without stopping. However, life immediately made its own adjustments.
Another truck stopped next to the "broken" truck. The white driver who got out approached the "broken" car and began to offer his help. I had to take him into custody too. A few minutes later, another truck appeared, one of those that had passed earlier. It turns out that the driver of the third truck, also white, having discovered that the fertilizer machine that followed him was lost somewhere, turned around
and drove back.
Around this point, Bob Mackenzie, who had finished helping the minerals on the road bridge, took a couple of people with him and headed out to see if his fellow “cops” needed help. As they got closer, they saw two trucks parked at the curb, a third truck returning. In addition, a fourth was approaching from the opposite side. The situation threatened to turn into a traffic jam at any moment. But the driver of the fourth truck, seeing the men armed with machine guns, put on the gas. But the driver of the returning truck, on the contrary, felt that he was obliged to intervene, and stubbornly refused to leave. He stated that without the driver of the fertilizer truck, he would not go anywhere.
Then the commandos realized that these two trucks were traveling together, in one convoy, and moreover, the drivers were brothers. The Sasovites unsuccessfully tried to convince the driver that it would be better for him to leave, but he turned out to be stubborn and insisted that without his brother he would not even think to get under way. As a result, he had to be taken into custody. As it later turned out, at that time there were only six white truck drivers in all of Zambia - and exactly half of them were captured by the SAS!
Problems are growing
But the drivers were just the beginning of the problem. In addition to adult men, the Rhodesians "in captivity" was a 10-year-old boy, the son of one of the drivers. Butch Shawn took his son Neil on this trip to give his child a birthday present - to drive across the country in a big truck. The gift was a 100 percent success - neither father, nor son, nor Neil's uncle, Mike (the other driver), could even have foreseen such a turn of events.
When Dodson learned about the detention of several prisoners, he was furious. Coldly asking Brook if he was aware of his actions, the major ordered the detainees to be brought to him. Dodson didn't expect things to go this way. Now I had to decide what to do next. Taking the prisoners with you back to Rhodesia would create a lot of problems. On the other hand, if you let them go, they waste no time in raising the alarm. And, given how far from the border the Sasovites were, the prospect of getting on the tail of the surrounding Zambian garrisons, the Air Force, the police and the unfriendly population of the saboteurs clearly did not smile.
The order of the headquarters stated categorically: "The operation, under no circumstances, should not be" exposed "!" No soul in Zambia should know who blew up the bridges. In the end, Dodson decided that they would take the prisoners with them, and the problems could be solved later. Not the most optimal solution, but the commandos had no alternative.
Before the track …
While the commander was puzzling over what to do with the prisoners, the saboteurs were finishing the main stage of the operation. The canoes were disassembled and packed, the Zodiac was rolled up, the equipment was taken to the road, and the last charges were placed on the railway bridge. The group at the trucks equipped the future transport - the bags with fertilizers from the truck were thrown out and hidden in the bushes. Only those bags that covered the perimeter were left on the car - thus, in an open body, an impromptu "fort" was obtained, in which the soldiers could hide.
Two miners connected all the charges into a single chain, and the remaining commandos loaded the boats and the rest of the equipment into the truck. Mike and the Butch Shawn climbed into the cockpit. Dodson sat behind the brothers, holding a silenced pistol in his hand - the hint was obvious. Mike pulled the car to the south end of the bridge, ready to take off on orders. All that remained was to set fire to the fuse. The ignition tubes provided a fifteen-minute delay that allowed the group to retreat to a safe distance. Disruptive networks have been duplicated and tested repeatedly to ensure that the disruption is reliable.
The miners set fire to the cords and ran across the bridge to the truck, where their colleagues were waiting. The clock was 02.15 and Dave Dodson ordered Mike Shawn to touch. A noticeably nervous driver obeyed, and the car drove south. Both Mike and his brother Butch asked to be kept alive. Dodson was eventually able to convince them that as long as they drive, they will not be in danger.
When the truck with the whole crew on board approached the town of Chambeshi, the brothers, without a word, informed Dodson that there was a small police station in the town. Fortunately, at that hour no lights were on in its windows, and the car reached the outskirts of Chambeshi without incident.
Mike Shawn ordered to stop 20 kilometers from Dodson Bridge. A couple of saboteurs, leaving the truck, cut telephone and telegraph wires in all directions. Just as they finished destroying their communications, everyone saw a huge orange flash in the distance. After some time, the rumble of an explosion came to them. In the first second, the Sasovites could not even believe that everything had finally worked out.
Time to get away
Unfortunately, they could not return to the place of sabotage and look at the destruction - now the time factor became critical, and it was time to get away with it. They assumed the possibility that some of the drivers passing through the fake checkpoint could later report this to the police. In addition, the saboteurs still had to pass Mpiku, the city where the police was, on their way - and it would be better to do this before dawn. Judging from the map, the road did not enter the city, but skirted it, but Dodson was not sure of the accuracy of the map. Fortunately, Mike, who was driving, chose the right route, and they did not enter Mpiku. After that, they had only to go forward, until the sun rises above the horizon.
There were quite a few cars on the highway during those early morning hours, but none of the drivers paid any attention to the truck. It simply didn’t occur to them that there were six prisoners and sixteen SAS Rhodesian saboteurs in the car who had just inflicted more than a tangible blow on the Zambian economy.
Khan's bridges
When it became clear that dawn was about to dawn, Dodson ordered the driver to turn onto some country road, where they could wait out the day. He hoped to get a day off somewhere near the town of Serenge, from which the road led south to the South Luangwa National Park.
Bob Mackenzie moved into the cab of Dodson's truck to help navigate and read the map; in addition, Butch changed his brother behind the wheel of a truck. Dawn found the commandos and their captives exactly in the middle of the vast territory of tribal agreements - the so-called territories in Rhodesia and Zambia, set aside by the government for the residence of the tribes. For an hour and a half, they drove through a fairly populated area, watched by hundreds, if not thousands, of people. Both Mackenzie and Dodson were still wearing make-up, their faces and arms smeared with camouflage cream. This gave some chance that from afar they could be mistaken for Africans, but of course there was no guarantee. Nevertheless, the Zambians gaily waved after the truck, and no one suspected that the Rhodesians sitting in the cab were white. Mackenzie and Dodson waved back briskly, silently amazed at their luck.
Around this time, a short message from the pilots of the Rhodesian Air Force who flew over the site of the sabotage arrived - literally - a short message: "Khan's bridges - they were blown up!" The task was completed.
Sudden delay
The Rhodesians had been driving along a country road for several hours and were sure that they had gotten away from possible pursuers more than enough - without the involvement of the Air Force, it would be extremely difficult to find the group. But life has once again denied all plans. Crossing a small hill, they saw in the distance a rather large power plant, standing alone in the middle of the savannah. The only plus was that, having seen the station, Mackenzie was able to tie on the map to the terrain and determine the exact position. Everything else in their situation was minuses, the main of which was the security, since she was one hundred percent at the station. Dodson ordered the driver to stop. The soldiers and prisoners got out of the back and made some tea for themselves, while the commander and his deputy began to confer, trying to figure out how best to proceed.
The Sasovites did not know that the station guards had already noticed them. While the commanders were conferring, and the subordinates and prisoners were resting, the guards decided to go and find out what a lone truck with a large number of people needed in these parts. At about 10 o'clock, the Rhodesians heard the noise of an approaching car. The operatives immediately scattered, took up defensive positions around the truck and prepared for a possible attack. Six uniformed Africans emerged from the Land Rover that pulled up. One of the Sasovites, still disguised as an African, went to meet them, hoping to lure them closer in order to take them prisoner. But the guards suspected something was wrong, and after making a couple of shots, turned around and ran away. The commandos opened fire, and four of the six guards remained on the ground.
After such a noise, the Sasovites had no choice but to get out of there as quickly as possible. Dodson decided to drive straight across the bush, heading south.
We ask for evacuation
By the end of the day, the terrain they were driving had become so rugged that there was no way to go any further. But by that time, they were so close to the border with Rhodesia that helicopters could be called. According to Mackenzie's estimates, they were separated from the border by about 200 kilometers - which fit into the range of "birds" of the 8th Squadron. The Sasovites contacted the headquarters, but the evacuation was postponed the next morning - night was falling, and it would be too risky to send helicopters. The saboteurs were told to await evacuation by 8.00 the next morning.
The soldiers spent the rest of the day clearing the landing site for the helicopters. This was followed by a short dinner - the commandos shared their meager rations with the prisoners (traditional tea), and everyone went to sleep. After some minutes, the entire camp, except for the sentries, was asleep deeply - everyone was exhausted to the limit.
As soon as the helicopters appeared in the distance, the brothers-drivers became nervous again. Despite the fact that almost everyone unanimously promised them that not a single hair would fall from their head, the Shawns decided that now they would definitely be slapped in a bullet between the eyes and thrown into the bush. Only when they were almost poked to the helicopters did they calm down.
The helicopters headed for Rhodesia - across the Luangwa River, across the Great Eastern Road - the main highway in Zambia, through Mozambique and Lake Kabora Bassa, and finally landed at the Musengezi mission. There they refueled once again and took off to deliver the Sasovites to the Cabrit camp.
The operatives reported to the command on the completion of the task, after which they put themselves in order and headed home. As for the prisoners, they were to be guests of the special service of Rhodesia for some time.
Economic sabotage
As for the reaction of the official Lusaka, it was predictable. In his speech, President Kenneth Kaunda called the incident "an economic sabotage that undermines the country's economy." The reasons were: 18,000 tons of goods Zambia needed, including maize, which Zambia was in short supply, were stuck in Dar es Salaam. At the same time, 10 thousand tons of copper, the main item of Zambian export, were trapped inside the country.
Zambia's hopes of securing food for the next year were dashed with the blown-up bridges. Due to a severe drought and fertilizers delivered on time, the maize harvest was negligible, and there were no reserves in the country. According to engineers, the restoration of the railway bridge would take at least six months, and the transport one - three. The cost of the restoration work, according to the most conservative estimates, was about six million kwacha. Lacking that kind of money, Zambia turned to the EEC for help.
The Rhodesians have achieved their goal. Having brought down bridges on Chambeshi, they forced Kaunda to negotiate with the regime he hated, completely open the borders and start up cargo flows in a southern direction, which was beneficial to Rhodesia.
