Second Phase (1972–1979) Related incidents 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.

[1] The attack resulted in millions of dollars’ worth of damages and the destruction of more than a quarter of Rhodesia's fuel.

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 130 km (80 mi) away.

After surveying the burnt out ruins, Ian Smith described the sabotage as being the one of Rhodesia's biggest setbacks since the war began.