French Foreign Legion Paratroops by Martin Windrow

Author:Martin Windrow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: French Foreign Legion Paratroops
ISBN: 9781472803955
Publisher: Osprey Publishing

Lt. Col. Erulin photographed during the later stages of Operation ‘Léopard’, after changing from ‘Satin 300s’ into camouflage fatigues. Note that these are the ‘toutes armes’ pattern, and lack ‘airborne’ features at neck, pocket and cuff: cf. Plates F2 and G3, and the photos accompanying the Plates commentaries. This photo shows the webbing harness clearly; the quick-release belt buckle appeared in about 1957. The large ‘commando’ first aid pouch is taped to the left suspender. Note Erulin’s rank patch, with alternating gold and silver galons.

To prevent a wholesale massacre of hostages, speed was vital; and it is the speed and improvisation of Operation ‘Léopard’ which remain most impressive. By 8 pm on the 17th Erulin had somehow assembled the personnel of his regiment, who had been scattered on normal duties. At 1.30 am on the morning of the 18th the movement order arrived. By 8 am the bulk of the 2eREP were at Corsica’s Solenzara airport. During the 18th, 650 men of the tactical HQ, four rifle companies, and mortar and recce platoons flew 6,000 km to Kinshasa in French DC-8s. (The second echelon, with the regiment’s vehicles, would later fly direct to the Shaba provincial capital, Lubumbashi, on US C-5 and C-141 transports.) By 11.30 pm on the stifling night of the 18th, after two days and a night without sleep, Erulin and the first of his men were on the ground at Kinshasa, struggling to improvise a battalion combat jump at short notice and with inadequate facilities.

Four C-130s and one C-160 were available for the drop. With their weapons and equipment hastily rigged to the harness of unfamiliar American T-10 ‘chutes, and crammed 80 men to a C-130 meant for 66, 405 légionnaires took off at about 11.30 am on the 19th. Red-eyed with exhaustion, and carrying only the minimum of kit, they faced an enemy of unknown strength on an unreconnoitred DZ; and knew that they would have to cope with whatever they found for at least three days before expecting support of any kind. After another four hours in the air the reduced HQ and 1st, 2nd and 3rd Cos. tumbled out the doors over Kolwezi at mid-afternoon on 19 May – almost exactly 24 years after the unit’s last battalion combat drop over Dien Bien Phu. . . .

The drop on to ‘DZ Alpha’—an expanse of elephant grass and tall termite hills at the north-east corner of the Old Town—was scattered, but met little ground fire. While the 3rd Co. held the bridge leading from the New Town to the east, the 1st headed south towards the Jean XXIII school some 1,000 m. away; and the 2nd pushed west towards the hospital and Gécamines complex, about 2,500 m. from ‘Alpha’. Both companies had a confused, scrambling fight against dispersed groups of FNLC as they pushed through a maze of alleys, shanties and patches of scrub. Their determination to release the hostages before they could be massacred was fuelled by the dreadful sights which they came

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