Metal-Shaba AFR (id:#60806)

(March Madness 2010 Irregular Forces Pack ID: MM07)   [next]   [previous]

Metal-Shaba, Zaire 1978-05-20 (0 others)

Overview:

Shortly after midnight on 11 May 1978, 3,000 to 4,000 members of the FNLC slipped quietly into Zaire from Zambia. Organized into 11 "battalions," each with about 300 men, the force divided into 2 groups and pushed on in the darkness. One group of around 1,000 men headed toward the town of Mutshatsha to cut the railroad. The second had a more important mission: to seize the city of Kolwezi. Five thousand miles away on the island of Corsica, the phone rang in the headquarters of the 2d R.E.P. General Liron, commander of the 2éme Brigade Parachutiste, was calling for Lieutenant Colonel Phillipe Erulin, the 2d R.E.P.'s commander. Taking the phone, Erulin was surprised to hear that he had six hours to prepare his unit for deployment to Zaire. The French did not approach the problem as an evacuation operation. The 2d R.E.P., acting under Gras' orders, was going to Zaire to kill rebels in order to save Europeans. The 2d R.E.P. got into the most serious fight of the operation when Erulin ordered the 4th Company to scout out the rail station at a village north of MetalShaba.

Defender: FNLC (FNLC Irregulars)  

Errata (source)