tank at the Zimbabwe Military Museum,
Gweru. Because ZAPU's political strategy combined political negotiations and armed force, ZIPRA developed by elaborately training both regular soldiers and guerrilla fighters. However, by 1979, it had an estimated 20,000 combatants, based in camps around
Lusaka,
Zambia and at the front. ZIPRA's crossing points into Zimbabwe were at
Feira in Zambia, opposite
Mashonaland East and West. For example, the operational boundary was Sipolilo, where ZIPRA,
Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) and
Rhodesian Security Forces clashed. ZIPRA operated alone in Mashonaland West. No ZANLA combatants were present in that area until the war's later stages. Besides the overall political ideologies, the main differences between ZIPRA and ZANLA were that: • ZIPRA did not follow ZANLA's ideology (inspired by
Maoism) but followed Soviet
Marxist-Leninist principles. • ZIPRA controlled zones from Sipolilo to Plumtree. ZIPRA formally allied with
uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the
ANC's militant wing. In the mid-1960s, ZIPRA and MK mounted a celebrated, if strategically unsuccessful, raid into Rhodesia. Rhodesian Security Forces, working in concert with the
South African Police, stopped the incursion.
Downing of passenger planes of Air Rhodesia (pictured in the early 1970s), similar to the
Hunyani and the
Umniati. In 1978 and 1979, ZIPRA downed two civilian passenger planes of
Air Rhodesia, killing a total of 107 passengers and crew.
Air Rhodesia Flight 825 (named the
Hunyani) was a scheduled flight from
Kariba to
Salisbury that was shot down on 3 September 1978 by ZIPRA guerrillas using an
SA-7 surface-to-air missile (SAM). ZAPU (the political body behind ZIPRA) leader Joshua Nkomo publicly claimed responsibility for shooting down the
Hunyani on
BBC Television the same evening, saying the aircraft had been used for military purposes, but denied that his men had killed survivors on the ground. Eighteen of the fifty-six passengers in the Air Rhodesia plane survived the crash, most of whom were seated in the rear. Three crash survivors who remained on the aircraft managed to avoid being killed by running away and hiding in the bush. A second plane,
Air Rhodesia Flight 827 (named the
Umniati), was shot down on 12 February 1979 by ZIPRA guerrillas, again using an SA-7 SAM. ==ZIPRA commanders and soldiers==