Operation Dingo
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Operation Dingo, also known as the Chimoio massacre,[1] was a major raid conducted by the Rhodesian Security Forces against the ZANLA headquarters of Robert Mugabe at Chimoio () and a smaller camp at Tembue () in Mozambique on November 23, 1977. More than 3,000 ZANLA fighters were killed and 5,000 were wounded while only two government troops died and six were wounded.[2]
SAS, paratroopers and helicopter-borne light infantry attacked the camps in the early morning to achieve surprise, directly after a strike by the Rhodesian Air Force's aging Canberra and Hunter strike aircraft. The operation was considered so important that six mothballed Vampire jets dating from the 1940s were brought back into use for the day.
A DC-8 airliner was flown over the camps an hour before the airstrike. When the first military jets arrived, the assembled ZANLA forces did not take cover again as they assumed it was the DC-8 that was returning. [3]
A moving line of soldiers, supported by helicopter gunships, swept through the camps, driving the guerillas into a stationary line of troops which inflicted the majority of the casualties.
The Rhodesian force withdrew in good order having suffered one SAS member being shot and killed at Chimoio, and a Vampire pilot being killed after his plane was shot down at Vanduzi cross-roads () on the return leg of his bombing sortie.[4]
Several tons of equipment were destroyed or returned to Rhodesia.
[edit] References
- ^ Attack on ZANLA military headquarters of Chimoio 29th anniversary Newsnet
- ^ Page 446 Winds of Destruction
- ^ JRT Wood. Helicopter Warfare in Rhodesia: 1962-1980. Retrieved on 2007-09-27.
- ^ JRT Wood. Rhodesia: Roll of Honour. Retrieved on 2007-09-27.
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