Sabotage at RAF Akrotiri

Sabotage at RAF Akrotiri
Part of Cyprus Emergency
Date 25–26 November 1957 Location RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus (Then British Cyprus) 34°35′25″N 32°59′16″E Result EOKA Victory
Belligerents
EOKA	British Empire British Armed Forces Royal Air Force No. 6 Squadron RAF No. 13 Squadron RAF No. 73 Squadron RAF Royal Air Force Police
Commanders and leaders
Panikos Sotiriou	Unknown
Strength
3	Unknown
Casualties and losses
None	5 aircraft and 1 hangar destroyed 4 English Electric Canberras destroyed 1 de Havilland Venom destroyed

The sabotage at RAF Akrotiri was an EOKA sabotage operation executed by EOKA members in the district of Limassol inside the RAF Akrotiri base between November 25 and 26 1957.

Preparations for the attack

EOKA leader George Grivas gave the operation order for a sabotage operation to take place inside RAF Akrotiri against the aircraft and hangars, wishing for people who also knew the inside of the base and other technicalities as well. As a result of this, Panikos Sotiriou found Andreas Vassiliou, who worked at the bases as an electrician and on the planes.

Attack

On November 25, at approximately 1pm, whilst the other workers were elsewhere and a British soldier was inspecting another aircraft, Andreas put a bomb on one of the Electric Canberras by the fuel tank, moving on, later placed another bomb on another canberra.

In the evening when he had left the bombs had failed to go off and came back the next day (26 November), albeit dangerous in case of explosion, and continued to work until 16:00 that day. At about 16:30, two very loud explosions were heard in the base and other explosions happening as a result of the original two, firefighters immediately responded to the fire but struggled to control it.

Aftermath

As a result of the operation, five aircraft in total were destroyed, four of them being the electric canberras and another being a De Havilland Venom, the hangar, also being destroyed.

Colonel Grivas expressed his satisfaction about the outcome of the operation and was considered the most catastrophic sabotage against all British forces worldwide at the time. Greek sources claiming the damage overall cost the British government £4.5 million (then) however British government sources claim it was £470.000.