MORTAR BLAST: “Bullets were flying all over” — Major Patrick Adjei-Ampofo Recalls the Deadly Attack During the 1966 Coup

It was about 4 a.m. in February 1966 when Major Patrick Adjei-Ampofo found himself heading towards Flagstaff House with a company of soldiers.

He did not know exactly what awaited them.

All he had been told by his company commander was:

“D Company, Flagstaff House, follow me.”

It was one of the most dangerous moments of Major Adjei-Ampofo’s military career and one he would remember decades later as he recounted his experience of the 1966 coup that overthrew Ghana’s first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, in an interview with Kafui Dey.

Speaking to the broadcaster, Major Adjei-Ampofo recalled how the operation began in the early hours of the morning.

Having been away from Ghana for about two years, he said he was disoriented when the sudden order came.

“I said, what is this?” he recalled.

There was, however, little time to ask questions.

He climbed into a truck with the other soldiers while the company commander travelled ahead in a Land Rover.

As they approached Flagstaff House, the situation quickly became clear.

“Bullets were flying all over,” Major Adjei-Ampofo said.

The gunfire was so intense that bullets were hitting the truck carrying the soldiers.

Realizing the danger, he prepared his men for the moment they would have to abandon the vehicle.

He climbed out of the turret and shouted instructions to the soldiers at the back.

“When you hear me shout, ‘debouch, debouch and follow me,’ that’s all,” he recalled.

As they got closer to the entrance of Flagstaff House, the Major gave the command.

“I shouted, ‘debouch’, and the tailboard opened, and they started jumping out of the truck,” he said.

The soldiers scrambled out, taking their ammunition, rations, packs and other equipment with them.

But Major Adjei-Ampofo was still inside.

Near the entrance, he saw the company commander taking cover behind the curved wall.

Then, as he opened the door of the truck to get out, a powerful blast struck.

“I opened my door to get out, boom, a mortar.” He quickly clarified that the weapon was a recoilless gun, an anti-tank weapon.

The blast was enormous.

“Massive. Very massive. It blasted the truck,” he recalled.

For Major Adjei-Ampofo, surviving that moment was more than a matter of military experience. It was sheer fortune.

And decades later, he would discover just how close he had come to death.

While in London, he encountered the very man who had fired the weapon that blasted his truck.

The two men would later be together in the Armed Forces Ex-Servicemen Association, where Major Adjei-Ampofo became chairman.

Then came the extraordinary revelation.

The former soldier told him that he was the one who had fired the weapon. His words were simple but chilling: “Master, you were lucky”