Mayhem in Mazoe

Colin Boxall-Hunt Major

Description

A thrilling sequel to "Congo Cobalt" by the same author, Two Rhodesian farming families, helped by British military comrades, flee Mugabe's evil regime and modern forces to carve out a new life in a new land. Tough soldiers, strong, plucky, voluptuous women, stirring action. A close-run adventure is bravely accomplished.

Sujets

• Adventure (Guyana)
• Adventure

Informations

• Publié par: Spiderwize
• Date de parution: 01 novembre 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781908400789
• Langue: English

Extrait

Mayhem in Mazoe
Major Colin Boxall-Hunt
Mayhem in Mazoe
All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2010, 2011 Major Colin Boxall-Hunt
The right of Major Colin Boxall-Hunt to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 sections 77 and 78.
e-ISBN: 978-1-908400-78-9
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters and incidents are products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1 - Homecoming
Chapter 2 - A Patrimony in Peril
Chapter 3 - An Incursion Repelled
Chapter 4 - A Rescue Team Reassembles
Chapter 5 - A Fighting Withdrawal in contact with the Enemy
Chapter 6 - A Great Trek South to a new life
Chapter 7 - New life in a new land
Chapter 8 - Ranching
Chapter 9 - Visits, communications, and arrivals
Chapter 10 - Conclusion
FOREWORD
T his novel is a sequel to Congo Cobalt , by the same author, (ISBN 978-1-4092-4845-3), published by Lulu books in 2009, and many of the characters appear in both books. Mayhem in Mazoe is dedicated to all my military comrades, past and present, and to my fellow fundraisers for the Army Benevolent Fund ( The Soldiers Charity ), and caseworkers for the Royal British Legion. Many people helped in the production of this work of fiction. Especial thanks are due to my old friends Ian and Heather Stansfield, for help with local colour and attitudes , geography and language. Thanks also go to my Publisher, Angus Muller, and his team at Spiderwize, especially those from Diadem books, and to Major D G A Holt, who drew the sketch maps in Chapters 1 and 6, from information provided by the author.
Special thanks to my sister-in-law, Janis Boxall-Hunt, SRN, RM, for help with many of the medical details. Any mistakes are mine.
NB. The Author stresses that this book is a work of fiction, although if you enjoyed it, you may also enjoy and find of interest an account of an actual land seizure, shown in detail in the prize-winning documentary DVD Mugabe and the White African , produced by Hemlock Productions, directed by Lucy Bailey and Andrew Thompson, and shown on UK TV, and the book of the same name by author Ben Freeth, MBE, published by Lion books, 2010,.. Mayhem in Mazoe includes snippets of fact from this DVD, and also snippets from The Last Resort by Douglas Rogers, ISBN 978-1-906021-91-7. published by Harmony Books in 2009. The author of Mayhem in Mazoe acknowledges these snippets . . .
CHAPTER 1
Homecoming

Sketch map of Mazoe Dam and Reservoir area ( not to scale )
T he newly wedded Bobby and Sarie Hastings-McKenzie, having enjoyed their all-too-brief honeymoon in South Africa, as we have seen in the final chapter of Congo Cobalt , motored northwards toward Zimbabwe, with their final destination the Hastings-McKenzie family farm in the Mazoe valley, where Bobby s people had lived for some one hundred and fifty years, and where they too planned to settle and raise a family.
They crossed the Limpopo River via the ugly new concrete bridge at Beitbridge, just north of the South African town of Messina, noticing that the old iron girder bridge was still in existence on the same site. After a very brief break for refreshment in the border village, also called Beitbridge, and having cleared Customs and Immigration at the adjacent border crossing post, they decided to take the more direct route on the wide tarmac road A4 towards Masvingo, rather than the more scenic but tiring route on the A6 through Gwanda to Bulawayo, (one-time home of Jannie and Hazel Rhodie-Stansberg). Even so, calculated Bobby, the journey would be tiring enough, especially for a new bride, so he formed a standby plan to break their trip with an overnight stop in a small comfortable hotel, possibly the well-known Chevron Hotel in Masvingo (the former Fort Victoria). This they did, found that the Chevron Hotel lived up to its (pre bush war) reputation, and, refreshed, continued the next morning, passing through Harare without problem, Sarie expressing amazement, as most first-time visitors do, at the sight of modern towers rising from the African bush, as one approaches from afar, they needed only one more stop, for fuel, and for Sarie to consult a fellow nurse in a pharmacy for over the counter medication for a very minor feminine complaint not at all uncommon to a new bride on her honeymoon..
They had decided not to stop to view the ruins at Old Zimbabwe, close to Masvingo, although Sarie insisted on a visit at some future time, possibly also to see Sergeant Majors Sibanda and Mutepfa, who lived with their wives and goats in one of the Makaranga kraals in the area. Little did she and Bobby know that a cruel Fate would decree that they would soon meet these seasoned warriors again under far more unpleasant circumstances than heretofore in the Congo.
The River Mazoe, not much more than a stream for most of the year, flows in a very general north-easterly direction from the region of Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe (the former Salisbury, capital of Rhodesia). About 25 miles from Harare, it enters the Mazoe valley, flowing along the valley floor. In 1920, the valley was dammed, creating a reservoir/lake (in the local parlance the Mazoe Dam ), principally to provide irrigation water for the extensive citrus fruit plantations in the Mazoe valley. This reservoir is about 900 yards long (ie North to South), and some 300 to 400 yards wide (i.e, West to East). Any overspill pours over the dam wall, and, becoming once more the River Mazoe, continues to meander in a general northerly direction, until, having joined with other small rivers en route, becomes eventually a tributary of the mighty River Zambezi, many miles to the North.
A major road, invariably (and logically) called by locals the Mazoe Road despite the efforts of various agencies to give it other designations, leads Northeast from Harare into the valley where it runs parallel to and to the West of the river and reservoir, at a varying distance of between 75 and 200 yards, depending on the shoreline. Some few miles, (up to six in places) to the West of the road is a range of low hills. Most of the farms are still predominantly citrus plantations (- although small amounts of maize are grown and a few cattle raised), and lie on the flatter land between the hills and the river. The indigenous tribes in the area are mainly the Chizazuru people, a subdivision of the Shona group.
As they drove over the final low crest down to the farm, eager to reach home, and for Sarie to meet her in-laws and her new sisters-in-law, Dawn, Helen, and Sandra McKenzie, Bobby realised with a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach that something was very wrong. He felt once again that prickle of nerves on the back of his neck which has saved the lives of many soldiers over the centuries. There was no evidence of the farm workers busy about their tasks. The farmhouse had not been rethatched, but was still was roofed in the wriggly tin (corrugated iron and asbestos sheets) which had replaced the original ancient golden thatch as a precaution against fire during the bush war-(a favourite terrorist tactic had been to set the thatch alight, often with an RPG7 missile fired from some 200 yards away, and then to murder the occupants as they tried to escape the flames engulfing their home, And now, worst of all, Bobby s favourite faithful dog, a Rhodesian Ridgeback called Inkosi, that he had raised from a puppy was hanging grossly and hideously mutilated from the farm s protective wire fence. Recognising Bobby as he approached on foot, Inkosi tried to greet his old master and lick his hand before he gave his final death spasm and the light faded from his big brown eyes.. Heart-broken, but succeeding in maintaining his emotional self-control, as was proper for a former officer in the Rhodesian Light Infantry, twice recommended by his Commanding Officer Bullet Rhodie-Stansberg for the Silver Cross for gallantry, Bobby shouted for someone to open the large metal gate set in the fence His father, old Angus Hastings-McKenzie, still spry and alert despite his grey hair and an age approaching the mid seventies, with his trademark briar pipe jutting aggressively from his mouth, ran over with the senior houseboy, Jonas, who was of a similar age, and who had been born on the farm and lived there all his life. Angus and Jonas had served together in the Rhodesian Police Reserve during the bush war, and they now swung open the gate, with Angus muttering welcome to the laager as Bobby drove inside and up to the wide porch of the farmhouse, or stoep as it was called locally, from where his mother emerged to clasp him to her bosom and smother him with maternal kisses, while Sarie was captured by her new sisters-in-law, and dragged with much giggling and feminine screeching into the house.
Bobby and his father thankfully let them get on with it, and sat on the stoep with a cold Lion beer each. Angus rapidly brought Bobby up to date with the situation and how Mugabe s policies had encouraged ZANU-PF landgrab gangs, posing as War Veterans to demand that they hand over their farm following Government legislation to reallocate legally owned white farms. So far, they had been able to resist this overt threat and terrorism, but had needed to adopt a