Groups of Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) fighters attacked both ZIPRA and the government forces during the revolt, which followed a smaller outbreak of fighting between guerrillas in November 1980.

Black nationalist movements, backed by communist powers and themselves variously Marxist–Leninist, launched military campaigns to overthrow Rhodesia's Government and bring majority rule to the country; the main nationalist groups were the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), which was Chinese-backed, mostly Shona and influenced by Maoism, and the rival Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU), which was largely Ndebele, more orthodoxly Marxist–Leninist and supported by the Warsaw Pact and associated nations, prominently Cuba.

ZAPU was led by Joshua Nkomo, a trade unionist from Bulawayo in Matabeleland,[9] while ZANU was headed from 1975 by a former teacher from Mashonaland, Robert Mugabe after the assassination of H Chitepo.

[12] During the ensuing Bush War, ZANLA and ZIPRA fought the Rhodesian Security Forces, and also regularly clashed with each other, despite their parent organisations being superficially allied from 1976 as the Patriotic Front.

[13] The war ended in December 1979 with the Lancaster House Agreement in London, following which Britain took interim direct control of the country to oversee fresh elections during early 1980.

[18] With the new army's ex-guerrilla battalions still far from ready, the Zimbabwean Government leaned heavily on former Rhodesian units under white command to maintain law and order during this period.

[15][20] Feeling he needed to secure ZANU–PF's position, Mugabe signed a secret deal with North Korea in October 1980 whereby the Asian country would provide instructors and equipment for an elite brigade that would handle political dissidents and report directly to the Prime Minister.

[3] After the Minister of Finance Enos Nkala railed against Nkomo and ZAPU at a Bulawayo political rally in November 1980, saying they had "become the enemy of ZANU–PF" and should be challenged by "vigilante committees",[21] ZANLA and ZIPRA veterans clashed near the city's western township of Entumbane for two days.

[1][23] According to Brigadier Mike Shute, then head of the Zimbabwe National Army's 1 Brigade, groups of ZANLA and ZIPRA guerrillas, theoretically under his command, were soon "all over the place and having continual clashes and minor battles with each other".

[1] Amid the rising tensions in Zimbabwe, Shute and McKenna identified Entumbane, the township on the western outskirts of Bulawayo where the November 1980 clashes had started, as a likely flashpoint.

In late January 1981, McKenna set up an operational headquarters in a beer hall overlooking the two guerrilla camps; this building, surrounded by six-foot walls, was dubbed "the Alamo" at the suggestion of Lieutenant F W "Chomps" Fleetwood, an American officer in A Company, 1RAR.

Worried that a new Entumbane clash would prompt the ZIPRA forces at Gwaai River Mine and Essexvale to join the fray, McKenna set up a string of observation posts on each of the roads leading towards Bulawayo.

When the ZIPRA portion of the 13th Infantry Battalion, based at Glenville Camp near Entumbane, learned of this later in the day, it waited until its instructors from the British Army left in the evening, then attacked its ZANLA comrades, killing 12 of them and scattering the rest.

The major reported to Brigade headquarters that the number of ZIPRA troops at Entumbane appeared to have swelled considerably, and that the chain link fence surrounding the camp had been taken down.

[26] Soon after fighting broke out between ZANLA and ZIPRA members of a recently integrated Zimbabwe National Army battalion at Ntabazinduna, just north-east of Bulawayo,[27] the two guerrilla camps at Entumbane began exchanging rifle, machine gun and mortar fire at about 20:00 (CAT) on 11 February.

Husher's men shot out all nearby overhead street lights, and some of them went to scout ahead; Devine positioned two of his Elands on each of the two lanes of the road under cover of darkness.

Nobody inside was killed by these rockets, but when Dyck's dog was wounded, the major flew into a rage and ordered his men to pour more aggressive machine gun fire on the advancing ZIPRA combatants.

The air force turned down the request, but Flight Lieutenant Colin James took off anyway in his Lynx armed with an FN MAG machine gun and SNEB rockets.

The ZIPRA cadres concentrated a huge amount of fire on James' aircraft, and hit it several times, but failed to shoot it down; the pilot put in a number of ground attacks before returning to base.

Devine was sent to Essexvale to engage the rest of ZIPRA's armoured battle group, which surrendered when he arrived; the T-34 tanks were later found by the Zimbabwe National Army to be nonfunctional.

The official count released at the time was 260,[6] but historians place the number higher; Martin Meredith records "more than 300" dead,[3] while Alexandre Binda writes that the Zimbabwe National Army units alone killed over 400 guerrillas.

[31] In his history of the Rhodesian African Rifles, Binda describes Entumbane as the regiment's greatest victory, commenting that it was won "by dint of professionalism, discipline and determination" in the face of forces that were far larger numerically.

[1] Major Michael P Stewart of the United States Army writes that 1RAR's actions at Entumbane "saved Mugabe's Government from certain civil war", and provided the "final blow to the military might of ZIPRA".

[20] Local ZIPRA commanders claimed ZANLA had started the fighting, while Nkomo and the mayor of Bulawayo blamed Nkala's inflammatory speech and similar statements from other ZANU–PF politicians.

[6] Mugabe's sense of resolve regarding his political rivals was greatly strengthened, meanwhile; Entumbane satisfied him that white army officers and airmen could be counted on in future conflicts with ZAPU.

In what became known as Gukurahundi( special mention will have to be super ZAPU, a group of captured 'askaris' who were turned to come into the Zimbabwe government by the apartheid regime ), it perpetrated a number of brutal massacres and atrocities against civilians in Matabeleland accused of supporting "dissidents", far exceeding anything that had occurred during the Bush War.