Special Forces Missions That Did Not Go Exactly to Plan

The success of the US Special Forces led team to infiltrate and kill world terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden has been hailed a success – despite reservations from conspiracy theorists around the world.

Despite the public not knowing the full facts and truth behind the mission, one thing is certain amongst us all is that we understand that war has its fair share of casualties – with both military personnel and innocent civilians.

So, in light of this recent “success”, here is a list of ten top secret military special forces assaults that have taken place in the last four decades.

Some you will see have not gone according to plan – whilst others have, but at a cost to both military personnel involved or innocent civilians.

Operation Thunderbolt 

This secret operation took place in Uganda in 1976. Israeli commandos led this mission and they were deemed the elite of the Israeli army with approximately 100 commandos involved. This special unit flew 2,500 miles undetected to Entebbe airport. This airport is located just outside of Kampala, which is the Ugandan capital.

Their mission was to rescue 105 hostages that were Jewish on board a hijacked Air France jet. The non-Jewish passengers had been freed but the hijackers were reluctant to release Jewish passengers. The hijackers were members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Part of the hijacking group were two German revolutionaries. 

The team of Israeli commandos landed undetected at night and quickly stormed into the airport terminal. The commandos managed to secure nearly all the hostages and killed the hijackers. However, three hostages were victims of the firefight between commandos and the hijackers. One Israeli Commando – Commander Yonatan Netanyahu – was killed. He was the brother of the future Prime Minister of Israel, Binyamin Netanyahu.

The commandos also destroyed a full squadron of Ugandan Fighter Aircraft in order to stifle any chase of the escaping commandos and the freed hostages.

Operation Eagle Claw

The US embarked on a daring plan that would rescue 52 hostages that were held in the US embassy in Tehran. US Special forces would be involved and the idea was to land aircraft and helicopters in two remote desert locations. The following night a team of US Special forces would rescue the hostages and take them to a stadium situated nearby. From here the helicopters would quickly land in the stadium and take the freed men and women to safety.