Green Leader

After the shooting down of an Air Rhodesia Viscount on 3 September 1978, with 56 passengers on board by ZIPRA terrorists, Ian Smith vowed to hit back and hit hard, on the 18th October 1978 the Rhodesian Air Force launched Operation Gatling
The guerrillas were based in Zambia, just across the Zambezi to the north of Rhodesia. Their main camp was at Westland Farm, north of the Zambian capital of Lusaka, and hundreds of miles away from the border. For the Rhodesians to strike back would mean taking wholesale control of Zambian airspace, and ferrying aircraft and soldiers deep into a hostile country. Needless to say, neither the guerrillas nor the Zambians expected them to do it.
On October 18, 1978, the Rhodesians did it.
Led by a man known only as "Green Leader," aloft in a Rhodesian Canberra

[@SuperCoenraad]

Green Leader R.I.P. Man among Men !!!

[@MrBuddydan]

Green Leader ,you are a hero!

[@stephmarx87]

RIP Green Leader :(

[@seekoie]

Sorry Chaps and Girls....South Africa is gone already! Sad to say...I can never go home. We have only to say thanks to USA and UK who insisted that white rule must go. We just have to look at the whole of Africa to see what happens when the "Europeans" are kicked out...Angola, Mozambique, SWA....etc....Ek huil nou!

[@maddog3902]

A new day will come. It can't remain a savage land for eternity and the call to adventure will always bring the brave back to Africa. It's historically not a good idea to heed that call but hey to each their own, right?

[@Zoot3252]

The UK is going the same way. Pretty soon the English will be in the minority in their own country.

[@seanhartnett79]

RIP Rhodesia!

[@brendonalison3411]

What happened is something we all live with so let's get on with life and make the best. We all feel for those who gave the ultimate. May the good lord up above take us all.

[@whatservicetojoin8593]

*Please can we have some 2018 updates about mugabe being removed from power ?*

[@TheGWEN1965]

@bgibb101 RIP Chris

[@AustinLancer1958]

Great song - different version to others on You Tube - does any one know the lyrics ???

[@deoncoates5233]

SORRY RHODESIA

[@TheIceman567]

Saying all Americans are "ignorant" is just ignorant in it's self by the one who said it. I wasn't around during Rhodesia's time 1965-1979. But i read the history and wish i was around i would have fought for the little country. But to blame other is to blame one's self.

[@deoncoates5233]

WHERE U PART OF THE RAID

[@jamesnapier3802]

"This is what God would have willed" is pure blasphemy. May God have mercy on your soul!

[@xoio]

2:00+ = WEAK!!! LOL

[@deoncoates5233]

DO U EVEN KNOW THAT WETLANDS FARMS IS IN NORTHERN RODISIA

[@BigFujiLittleFilm]

Which was Zambia, not Southern Rhodesia.

[@ghost-jesus]

*Westlin's farm*

[@seanhartnett79]

Why didn’t the Zambian Air Force interfere? You would think they would be angry there airspace was violated. And they did nothing the entire raid. Again unbelievable.

[@vrystaat8082]

I CAN TELL YOU THAT KENNETH KAUNDA HAD DIPLOMATIC TALKS WITH RHODESIA ON THEM STRIKING RHODESIAN DISSIDENTS/TERRORISTS OVER THE BOARDER IN ZAMBIA.......THESE DISSIDENTS WERE TERRORIZING THE ZAMBIAN PEOPLE.....STEALING , RAPE WAS HIGH , ROBBERIES WERE SERIOUSLY OUT OF HAND....SHOPS WERE LOOTED , BUT """MOST OF ALL THE TERRORIST POWERFULLY OUT POWERED , OUT GUNNED THE ZAMBIAN FORCES """ ....KAUNDA NEEDED HELP AND HE CALLED ON THE RHODESIAN GOVERNMENT.....HE NEEDED THAT HELP....POLITICALLY......THE UNFORTUNATE SHOOTING DOWN OF THE CIVILIAN PLAIN WAS THE MAIN REASON FOR THE GREEN LEADER RAID......RHODESIA TOOK THE ADVANTAGE OF KAUNDA'S DILEMMA......ZAMBIAN MILITARY AND THE MAN IN THE CONTROL TOWER NEW OF THE RAID IN ADVANCE.....

[@ghost-jesus]

@@vrystaat8082 I can tell you with confidence though that Kaunda had disagreed with Smith over the need to carry out the raid and condemned Smith for suggesting a raid, so Chris Dixon lead the flight at very low altitude just over the treetops to prevent detection which would result in defensive fighters being scrambled, as there were no escort fighters in the raid, only helicopters, so any Zambian aircraft would have to be destroyed on the runway before takeoff. To prevent a war with Zambia and Angola, a confrontation had to be avoided at all costs.

[@philimonmsindo3137]

The Green Leader saga,the Nyadzonya raid being killed for your own country the British owe us compensation.