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November 23d marks the 31st anniversary of the highly successful "Operation Dingo" raid during the Rhodesian Bush War of 1965-80.
By late 1977 the Rhodesian goverment had made the politically risky decision to act proactively by mounting cross border raids against enemy forces sheltering in neighboring countries. One of the first of these planned was against the headquarters of Robert Mugabe's (yes, THAT Robert Mugabe) ZANLA terrorist organization at Chimoio in Mozambique.
The raid would be a massive (by the standards of that small war in any event) combined arms operation. To maximize enemy casualties, the begining of the attack was planned to coincide with the morning muster parade in the camp. Early on the morning of the 23rd a civillian airliner was flown at low altitude over the camp. The camp's occupants took cover briefly, but soon resumed normal activities when they realised they were not under attack. About an hour later when the first wave of attacking aircraft aproached, the terrorists assumed that the airliner was returning and went about their business without concern.
At this point Rhodesian strike aircraft pounded the camp and it's imdediate area with conventional high exlposive bombs, napalm, and so called "golf bombs". (a nasty device that combined a fuel air explosive mixture with fletchettes made of chopped up nails) Imediately afterward units of Rhodesian Light Infantry and SAS were inserted by helicoptor and were parachuted in to attack the camp from the ground. Some of the infantry swept through the camp, driving the surviving terrorists into kill zones on the far side of the camp were static "stop points" have been established by other units. All the while "K-Car" gunships (Alouette 3 helicoptors mounting 20mm autocannons) orbited the site, engaging targets of oportunity.
The result was a virtual massacre for ZANLA. The true death toll is still unknown, but some estimates put the number of terrorists killed as high as 3,000 and as many as 5,000 wounded. This was at the cost of only two killed and six wounded amongst the Rhodesian Security Forces. (one SAS operator had been killed on the ground by enemy fire and a fighter pilot died when his aircraft was shot down) Several tons of weapons and suplies were captured and taken back to Rhodesia and many more were destroyed on the ground. Before leaving the attackers torched every building that would burn.
Unfortunately, international condemnation of the violation of Mozambique's border swiftly followed. (despite the fact that Mozambique was harboring terrorists) Moreover ZANLA would later claim that Chimoio was in fact a refugee camp and that most of those killed were noncombatants....but they would, wouldn't they?
Many other cross border raids would occur during the last three years of the war. But with the expection of the Selous Scouts raid on Nyadzonya the previous year, none aproached "Dingo's" sucess. Later raids would prove to be less effective due to the terrorists reducing the size of their encampments to minimize losses and (it is rumored) subversive elements in Rhodesia tipping the enemy off to planned raids.
All in all "Dingo" was a highly successful operation and textbook example of that sort of raid. It acheived a scale of success and a wildly lop sided kill ratio that most armies engaging in counter-insurgency warfare can only dream of.
*Raising a pint in salute*
Here is to a job well done, ouens!
TR
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