Because the Zimbabwe government was deeply embarrassed by their casualties and the fact that it took several hours for their elite 5th Brigade to finally overcome Martin, they officially claimed only a few wounded.
However, eyewitnesses reported fleets of ambulances and other vehicles to cart away the 5th Brigade dead and wounded. Military Intelligence in Pretoria informed us that Martin killed at least 18 of the attackers and wounded and known number of others.
It is understandable why from both perspectives, that of the Mugabe regime and from the farming community, they both wanted to downplay the casualties of this several-hour gunfight, but realistically, a Greys Scout would not have been able to keep a company of well armed 5th brigade attackers at bay for hours without causing numerous casualties.
Also: because of restrictive Zimbabwe laws, gun owners were limited to something in the region of only 120 rounds of ammunition at any one time. Martin ran out of ammunition as a result.
This attack occurred on Zimbabwe's "independence day", 20 years after the Revolution, 1980. The attack on Martin Olds signified the beginning of the 2nd Phase of the Revolution: Farm Invasions... His resistance shocked ZANU-PF & discouraged similar open attacks on other farmers...
Farm Disaster Report 2008:
"...the infrastructure on Martin Olds’ Compensation Farm, which was a thriving safari and wild animal conservation operation, is burned out and abandoned. All the animals, including a herd of rare sable antelope and Olds’ herd of 1,000 pedigree cattle, have been killed for the pot. Peasant subsistence farmers settled by the government on the land in mud and wattle huts have been unable to produce crops…” #martinolds #resistance #courage #farminvasion #LastStand #🙏💔✝️
-van Dean Slater se Facebook blad
