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Myanmar strike: A look back at 5 successful military operations from history

Here is a list of five other military operations – from mythology to the real world.

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The Myanmar operation by the Indian Army targeting insurgents who killed 18 soldiers last week is being hailed by almost all and sundry. The military strike was brave, well-planned and successful. Here is a list of five other military operations – from mythology to the real world.
 
Trojan Horse: 

There couldn’t be a better planned operation, even though one may dismiss it as a legend. Mentioned in several works of literature including Aeneid by Virgil and Odyssey by Homer, the tale describes how the Greeks, frustrated by the unyielding city of Troy for almost a decade, built a mammoth wooden horse and hid a small elite team of soldiers in it. The Trojans believed that the invaders had fled, leaving behind a gift at their gates for the Goddess Athena and welcomed the horse inside with much fanfare. But later in the night, the soldiers (numbers vary from 30 to 50) got out and opened the gates for the Greek forces, who then finally took control of the city. The operation was well encapsulated in the 2004 movie Troy, in which Brad Pitt starred as Achilles.

Operation Jackpot:

This took place barely 40 years ago and is by far, the Indian Army’s most successful effort - carving out an entire nation. However, little is known about it, for obvious reasons - India couldn’t have publicised how the one lakh guerillas of the Mukti Bahini were trained to fight Pakistani soldiers in the then East Pakistan.

The 1947 partition of a British-ruled India created a unique sandwich - a large India between West and East Pakistan. Even though thousands of miles apart, the Muslim League claimed that religion was a common factor to rule both regions. The faultlines were visible from the early years as those in East Pakistan, who spoke Bengali, as opposed to Urdu and Punjabi in West Pakistan, felt they were being discriminated against. They also found that though their religion was the same, their culture differed vastly. The last straw was the refusal to acknowledge Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, who had secured more seats in the Pakistani assembly (his party had swept the 1970 polls in East Pakistan and therefore had a majority). His arrest in 1971 led to massive protests and a subsequent guerilla war by Mukti Bahini. As the Pakistani Army flushed out Mujib supporters and soldiers from East Pakistan, India decided to give a fitting reply.

Over the next nine months, India trained and aided Mukti Bahini supporters, who kept attacking bases and bastions held by the Razakars and Al-Badrs. A major operation called Monsoon Offensive was planned, where 2,000-5,000 guerilla soldiers were expected to hit Pakistani strongholds inside West Pakistan in a tactical fashion. However, the Pakistani Army held on to their positions, leading to frustrations in East Pakistan. Eventually, Pakistan lost its nerve and launched a strike against India, resulting in Indian intervention that led to the liberation of Bangladesh. Unlike many other operations, this was a long and sustained one and was quite successful.


The instrument of surrender was signed on 16 December 1971. dna Research & Archives

Benito Mussolini​’s rescue by Hitler’s elite forces

We've read about this in our history school books, but it has only a passing reference. Given that it was one of Hitler’s successes, it wasn’t celebrated much in other parts of the world. But Mussolini’s rescue by Hitler’s special forces was indeed quite spectacular, albeit a bit.

After ruling Italy with an iron fist for over two decades, Mussolini was arrested and was being moved around in Italy before being kept at Campa Impertore in the Alpine mountains. The place was secured by more than 200 guards and was at a high altitude. Marshal Pietro Badoglio was aware of the still large Nazi sentiment in Italy and anticipated that the Germans would attempt a rescue. 

Hitler, who was a very close friend of Mussolini, personally ordered the operation that achieved success without firing a single shot. A German paratrooper commando unit landed on the mountain using DFS 230 gliders, one of which crashed. One of the generals accompanying the German commandos simply asked the guards to stand down or be prepared to be executed for treason. Mussolini was then flown off to a military airport near Rome and then to Vienna. After spending a night there, Mussolini was brought to Berlin to a hero’s welcome.

So what’s so comical about it? The tale says that the extra weight of Mussolini (some theories suggest an extra passenger) almost resulted in the crash of the Trop Storch STOL aircraft, which was quite a tiny plane.


Benito Mussolini
 
Operation Entebbe:

This was a 1976 operation by Israeli Defense Forces to rescue hostages taken by Palestinian terrorists, following the hijack of an Air France plane. The operation is hailed as one of the best on many counts - as many as 102 hostages were rescued by the 100-member strong team. Although they lost their commander in the operation, the team managed to kill all hijackers, 45 Ugandan soldiers and destroyed at least a dozen Soviet-built MiG17S and MiG21s in barely 90 minutes.

The plane, en route to Paris, was hijacked by two Palestinians of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-External Operations and two members of the German Revolutionary Cells and diverted to Benghazi in Libya. After refuelling at Benghazi and releasing one Israeli hostage of the 248 passengers and crew of 12, the plane was ordered to Entebbe Airport in Uganda where the ruler Idi Amin welcomed the hijackers and offered all ground support, even as he kept telling the hostages he was trying to release them through negotiations. Four more hijackers joined the original group before they released 148 hostages in two batches.

Even as Israel kept exploring political options as well as negotiations, a rescue mission was hatched over a week. The plan was daring- it involved two C-130 Hercules aircrafts and two Boeing jets taking a team of over 100 personnel, including a 29-member strong assault team led by Yonatan Netanyahu. They even carried a black Mercedes and several Land rovers, often used by Idi Amin, to make it look like Amin was visiting the airport.

The two aircrafts landed at the airport at around 11pm in the night and the Israel soldiers quickly ran towards the airport terminal where the hostages were being held by the hijackers (aided by Ugandan soldiers who were guarding the entry points and the control tower). The team swiftly neutralised one of the hijackers Wilfried Bose, as he fired at them and then killed the other three in another hall, lobbing hand grenades at them. One of the hostages was killed as he was mistaken as a hijacker and two more were killed in the crossfire.

The team then quickly loaded the rescued hostages on to the aircraft and ensured the destruction of the Ugandan military aircrafts so that they were not pursued. As the team refuelled the aircraft, they were fired at by Ugandan soldiers and Netanyahu was shot in the chest, making him the only casualty from the rescue team. Five more Israeli soldiers were wounded, but the IDF team had achieved which many thought was impossible.

Israel Army, file photo

Operation Neptune Spear

Osama bin Laden, the al Qaeda chief believed to have been the mastermind behind several terror acts, chief among them being 9/11, had been a thorn in America's flesh for a long time. Successive US regimes had sworn to capture or kill Osama, but were largely unsuccessful as he reportedly shunned any usage of modern communication equipment, in fear of being tracked down by US surveillance. It was also believed that Osama used the cave system in Afghanistan to escape drones. Fingers were also pointed at Pakistan's ISI and Laden sympathisers in the Pakistan Army for allegedly shielding the 'most wanted enemy'.

The official account says that the US intelligence managed to track a courier by Abu Ahmed al Kuwaiti who was very close to Laden. CIA operatives reportedly followed al-Kuwaiti to Abbottabad compound where Laden was staying with his youngest wife and family. After years of futile efforts, US authorities had found the needle in the haystack. Utmost care was taken to ensure that the operation to identify and kill Laden was not sabotaged by their trusted ally in the war on terror - Pakistan. A safe house was rented in Abbottabad, the town that also houses the Pakistan Military Academy. One of the many theories suggests that the CIA carried out a fake vaccination programme to obtain and verify DNA samples of Laden family (this is one of the reasons why Taliban later disallowed vaccination programmes in Swat valley).

A replica of the house was created and the team that would eventually execute the operation rehearsed how they would go about it. The team, that comprised approximately two dozen US Navy Seals, took off from Jalalabad air base in Afghanistan on the night of May 1, 2011. As the US authorities have been steadfastly guarded about details of the operation, accounts about almost everything vary. The official version goes that one of the Chinooks that was carrying the Seals crashed as its tail grazed the compound wall.

The Seals then quickly moved in and found Laden in one of the bedrooms, allegedly pushing a woman forward, with his hands on her shoulders. One account says he rushed for his AK47 rifle and therefore was instantly shot in the forehead. Robert O’Neill claimed he was the guy who shot Laden. Three other men (including the courier) and a woman were killed in the operation that is said to have lasted 38 minutes and Laden is said to have been killed inside the first 15 minutes.

Obama chose to address the nation to report the death. At 11.35 pm, Obama told the world that ‘the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda and a terrorist who was responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent men, women and children.’

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