Operation Leopard - Steel Panthers: Main Battle Tank

Operation Leopard* * * Date: 20 May, 1978* * Location: Kolwezi, Democratic Republic of the Congo* * Type: French Advance vs FNLC Rebel Delay* * Design: C. Berry* * On 13 May 1978, rebels supported by Angola, invaded the Democratic Republic of the Congo and occupied the mining city of Kolwezi. The FNLC rebels immediately rounded up the European residents in town and began to execute them. The government of Zaire asked the U.S., France, Morocco and Belgium to restore order.* * In response to the impending massacre the French government committed the 2eme Regiment Etranger de Parachutistes, an elite paratroop unit of the French Foreign Legion, to an airbone assault of Kolwezi. Legionaries of Operation Leopard took off in U.S. C-130 aircraft on 17 May from Solenzara in Corsica, and arrived in Kinshasa after a 10-hour flight. On 19 May, they were flown to Kolwezi, 1500 km away. At 14:30, a 450-man first wave jumped from a 250-metre altitude into the old hippodrome of the city.* * A violent firefight ensued in the streets, while French snipers started picking out threatening rebels, killing 10 of them at 300 metres with the newly introduced FR F1 rifle. European hostages and those who had been able to hide started to come under the control and protection of the French. Using infantry tactics, the R.E.P. quickly neutralised all rebel groups in the city.* * The next morning, 20 May, the Regiment's 4e Compagnie was dropped east of the city. That afternoon the company was ordered to seize the rail station and mining settlement of Metal-Shaba, northwest of Kolwezi. The approching paratroopers encountered stiff resistance from both objectives.* * Employing the mortars and machine guns of the Regiment's Support Company, the legionnaires carried the rail station and were clearing the village when a FNLC column of infantry-laden trucks escorted by two light tanks was spotted approching from the west. With the 4e Compagnie scrambling to take up defensive positions, the Support Company was called on again and fire was directed upon the approaching column. The Legionaires engaged with their 88mm LRAC rockets and soon the rebel column was destroyed, ending any organized resistance in the Kolwezi area of operations.* * * Sources:* Shaba II:The French and Belgian Intervention in Zaire in 1978; Lieutenant Colonel Thomas P. Odom, USA; U.S. Army Command and General Staff College Fort Leavenworth, Kansas* * Legio Patria Nostra: The History of the French Foreign Legion Since 1962; Charles H. Koehler III, Maj. USA; U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, 2005*