The rope snaking 200 metres down the side of the steep gorge allowed the men to quietly clamber over the rockface, although they occasionally flinched as rocks loosened by those above them hurtled downwards. His team would lead them from Point Lolo across the river to Base One. Emerging from behind a tree was their comrade, Boston Gagarin, a short and stocky man in swimming trunks. ‘Lolo,’ replied one of the men in the detachment. The crossing point had been carefully selected, with the thinking being that the enemy would not expect the liberation fighters to cross at such a difficult spot. Far below, the men could hear the sound of rushing water. The howl of a jackal, the hollow bark of a hippo. As they approached the riverine escarpment, the echoes of the wild broke the night air. Hani investigated the source of the noise, as the report could have carried across the river to patrolling enemy troops. Finally, the mission could get underway.Īs the group made their way towards the river, February, fiddling with his rifle, accidentally let off a shot. The detachment was now armed with an assortment of SKS rifles, AK47s, submachine guns, light machine guns (LMGs), rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), Makarov pistols and small radios. By the next day, each man had been given an additional magazine, a grenade and 300 rounds of ammunition. Mjojo backed up Hani’s assertion.Įarlier, the MK commander-in-chief, Joe Modise, had turned down a request from the men for additional ammunition. Marching at the head of the Luthuli Detachment with Tambo and fellow commander Mjojo Mxwaku, Hani told Tambo that this was a serious enough issue to stall the entire campaign. But once they arrived, it became clear to Hani that there was insufficient weaponry. By the time the almost 100-strong contingent was loaded onto trucks under cover of darkness for the 25-kilometre journey to the crossing point, trucks had ferried their equipment to the same point, so it seemed as if preparations had been more than adequate.
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