Lightning striking Entebbe
The hijackers ordered the pilots to follow the Libyan Benghazi, and the leadership of the countries whose citizens were taken hostage began to urgently seek contact with the government of the Libyan Jamahiriya. But the terrorists used a “multi-path” - apparently, two others joined them in Benghazi, who said that it was dangerous to stay in Libya, and a plan should be followed in advance - to make a flight to Uganda after refueling, where to find refuge with dictator Idi Amin , which was done by 28 on June 1976 (the plane landed when there was only fuel remaining in its tanks for 15-20 minutes of flight).
At the airport Entebbe, at least four other terrorists joined the hijackers at 4 or 6, and they demanded the release of several dozen extremists from prisons in Israel, France, Switzerland, Germany and Kenya. In the event of non-compliance, the terrorists threatened 1 July to blow up the plane with all the hostages. The governments of several countries immediately began to try to negotiate with Amin, although it turned out that the Ugandan authorities are on the side of the hijackers, but not against the role of intermediaries. As a result, the terrorists decided to release all non-Jewish hostages, and 260 - 103 Jews (including 83 Israeli citizens) and 77 non-Jewish hostages remained from 20 (of which 12 people were crew members of Airbus, who decided to stay until the end , and several others who offered to let go of children and women instead of themselves or were considered terrorists as Jews).
Immediately after this decision, the airline "Air France" sent another plane, on which the people released by the hijackers were evacuated. It is worth noting that the governments of Israel and France first of all wanted to solve the problem through diplomatic negotiations, but almost immediately, in parallel, a plan of force release was developed. It was for these purposes that the aircraft, which arrived to evacuate the released persons, carried out aerial photography of the area and an inspection of the airport zone. But the path of negotiations was considered decisive at this stage, especially France and Israel tried to influence Idi Amin. In particular, his personal friend, IDF officer Baruch Bar-Lev tried to persuade the Ugandan dictator to influence the terrorists, however, although Amin promised to help, he did nothing.
The only important success that was achieved through negotiations was that the terrorists agreed to move the deadline for the explosion of the airliner with the hostages from 1 to July 4 and, finally, to place people at least in the airport building. This gave people at least minimal comfort and made it easier to assault. It was this that allowed the Israeli special services not only to prepare for the operation to forcefully release the hostages, but also to successfully carry it out.
In preparation for the operation, an analysis was made of the level of tactical capabilities of the Ugandan army and possible scenarios were calculated. After the plane hijacked by terrorists in Entebbe, agents of the Israeli special services Mossad were urgently sent to Kenya and Uganda, thanks to which they obtained information about the forces of the terrorists and the units of the Ugandan army in the Kampala region. These data were not very favorable - close relations were established between the international hijackers and the Ugandan military authorities, and approximately 20.000 soldiers and more than 260 vehicles were located in the Entebbe zone. However, this was a big, but not the main problem - the 50 of Ugandan Mig-17 and Mig-21, which could have stopped the operation before it began or did not allow it to complete successfully, posed a more serious danger.
The transfer of large forces aviation to neutralize this threat, firstly, it would be immediately noticed on the radar, and secondly, it would be perceived by the international community as another alleged Israeli aggression against another country. In this regard, a less risky plan was developed: a unit of Israeli combat swimmers had to be landed on Lake Victoria, get to the shore, go through the swamps and exterminate the terrorists and free the hostages, demanding that Amin after this free passage home.
However, for several reasons, it was decided to abandon this plan, since It became clear to the Israeli government that the Ugandan dictator is not determined to help and fully supports the hijackers. As a result, a much more risky, literally “on the verge of foul” plan was chosen with the landing of a strike group from a single C-130 “Hercules” transport right at Entebbe airport.
Despite the fact that the Israelis were able to scout the area around Entebbe well enough, the information about what is happening inside the airliner and inside the airport building was very scarce. Then it was decided to create a tactical layout of the terminal, on which various options for action were worked out, which was greatly helped by the fact that the airport building was built by an Israeli firm that provided its plans. Great help was also provided by the released hostages, who gave information on the number of terrorists, their personalities and the approximate deployment of Ugandan soldiers.
Another problem was a very long distance (~ 4000 km.), Which made it difficult for Israeli aviation to operate, and, in addition, in any case, coordination was needed from at least one of the African countries in the region to get an air corridor. As a result, the Government of Israel managed to obtain the consent of Kenya’s President Jomo Kenyaty, the neighbor of Uganda, to cross the airspace and a little later and to refuel.
As a result, a group of Israeli aircraft, which was based on Lokheed C-4 “Hercules” 130 transport, accompanied by several Mc-Donnel Douglas F-4 “Phantom” flew into her incredible raid. In addition to these aircraft, the group included two Boeing 707s, one of which was a flying headquarters and coordinated the entire operation, and the other was flying a hospital and landed at Nairobi airport. The aircraft passed along the Red Sea to the south at ultra-low altitudes to avoid Egyptian and Saudi radar, and late at night the first of the Hercules with a strike group landed on the runway at Entebbe airport.
The ground services of Uganda took the landed board for the liner, which really should have arrived soon, but a little later. In the darkness of the night, a black Mercedes, accompanied by Land Rovers, rolled out of the womb and rushed to the airport building. On the cars that were supposed to imitate the arrival of a high official or Amin himself (who had just flown out of the country), there was an attacking group of Israeli commandos from 29. It was based on fighters from Sayret Matkal, the Israeli counterpart of the British SAS, led by Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Netanyahu.
Following the first transporter, three more Hercules landed successfully, from which support and reserve groups were parachuted, which consisted of approximately 60 fighters selected from a special company of the Golani brigade and from the 35 airborne brigade Tsakhanim. The purpose of the strike group was to break into the airport building and eliminate terrorists. The objectives of the support and reserve groups were to create an external perimeter to protect the amphibious sides, prevent attempts to help terrorists by the Ugandan army, and, if necessary, assist the strike group and refuel the landed aircraft (if Kenya refuses to provide the airport on its territory).
In general, we can say that the operation was a success - despite the fact that the tuple was stopped by a search post, from the moment of the first shots from the silent weapons less than 2 minutes had passed until the liquidation of the hostage-taking terrorists. As important components of success, it is worth noting that all the hostages were located in the main hall of the airport, adjacent to the airstrip, and also that this hall was not mined. Moreover, only one terrorist was directly among the hostages - the Marxist extremist Wilfried Beuze, who also did not shoot the people around him, but joined the battle with the special forces. The other three terrorists were in the next room and also could not harm the hostages.
As a result, during the battle, according to various sources, from 4 to 7 of 8 or 10 terrorists who were involved in the capture were killed. Unfortunately, during the liberation by crossfire, two hostages were killed, and another hostage was shot by a special forces officer, as remained standing after the order “Fall to the floor!” (or being in a state of shock, or not understanding the meaning of what was said, because the order was pronounced in Hebrew and English, and he was a French Jew who knew neither one nor the other language ).
After that, the soldiers of the special forces began to take hostages and lead them to transport aircraft. At this time, Ugandan soldiers realized what was happening and opened fire, calling for reinforcements. As a result of this shootout, the strike group leader was killed, while the Ugandans lost people from 20 to 45 and were forced to retreat. In addition to the above victims, 5 hostages and a 4 special forces soldier were wounded (one of whom became a paralyzed disabled person). At the same time, to neutralize the threat from the Ugandan air force, Israel’s special forces destroyed from 11 to 30 the combat aircraft that were at the airbase (which was a significant share of all the aircraft that were in possession of Idi Amin).
The total hostage rescue operation took a little less than 2 hours: the first Hercules flew to Nairobi 53 minutes after the fighters landed, and the last Israeli plane took off from Entebbe airport 1 an hour 42 minutes. On-site refueling was not required, since The president of Kenya did, after all, agree not only on the air corridor, but also on the use of Nairobi airport, which undoubtedly contributed to the success of the plan.
The last victim from the captured flight of Tel Aviv - Paris was XORUM-year-old Dora Bloch, who was killed at the hands of Amin's guards, placed before the operation in the hospital due to a critical condition. According to some reports, several nurses and doctors who tried to stop the killers were also shot. However, the greatest casualties from Operation Lightning were incurred by representatives of the peoples of Kenya, who lived in Uganda (which Amin accused of helping Israel). The exact number of these victims is still unknown, but at least we are talking about hundreds of Kenyans who were killed, both at the hands of Ugandan soldiers and at the hands of hostile tribes, who received “blank cards” for pogroms and murders from the Ugandan dictator.
In Israel, the original plan for the operation was called "Thunderbolt" ("Kadur hara'am"), in English - "Thunderbolt" ("Lightning"); subsequently, in honor of the deceased commander of the special forces, the actions in Entebbe became known as "Operation Yonatan" ("Mivtsa Yonatan"). It should also be added that after the incident, African, Arab and socialist countries convened a special UN session on the violation of Ugandan sovereignty, but most countries in the world considered Israel's actions "forced and completely tolerant." The very same operation "Thunderclap" has long become a model of incredible success, based on accurate calculation and faith in victory.
Well, in the end, as a curiosity, one can say that the French crew of the Airbus, who remained voluntarily with the hostages, immediately after returning to France, was reprimanded by the management of Air France and was suspended from flying. However, soon all of them were declared national heroes, awarded "Orders of Courage" ("Ordre National du Merite"), and the aircraft commander Michel Bako also became a Knight of the Order of the Legion of Honor, and, of course, all crew members were restored to work .
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