Salisbury fuel depot attack

The Salisbury fuel depot attack was a raid on the fuel depot in Salisbury's Southerton industrial area on December 11, 1978, during the Rhodesian Bush War. It was claimed by both ZIPRA and ZANLA groups. The attack resulted in millions of dollars’ worth of damages and the destruction of more than a quarter of Rhodesia's fuel.

Attack
On the night of 11 December 1978, a unit penetrated the outskirts of Salisbury (now Harare) and fired a volley of rockets and incendiary device rounds into the main oil storage depot. The storage tanks burned for five days, giving off a column of smoke that could be seen 80 mi away. The fire destroyed 22 of the 28 giant storage tanks and wiped out about 17 million gallons of fuel, a quarter of Rhodesia's fuel reserves. After surveying the burnt out ruins, Ian Smith described the sabotage as being the one of Rhodesia's biggest setbacks since the war began.