Marine Team Save Hundreds Of Hostages In Counter-Terror Rescue | Special Forces S1 EP2 | Wonder

a nightmare scenario erupts in hollandaise epic 60 adults over on the children are taken hostage and threatened with death as the crisis escalates negotiations break down a special forces unit is deployed to end the stalemate they are the Netherlands elite anti-terrorism Force the Royal Dutch Marines in an era of global violence a new breed of warrior has emerged counter the threat superbly trained fearless a group of massive firemen who these men are elite few their teams are hand-picked their operations covert their missions deadly these are the untold stories of the Special Forces on May 23rd 1977 Dutch commuters took the morning train - groaning him it started out like any other work day but today was anything but ordinary one of over 60 passengers aboard the train was Annie Brower my flock just before Herron stopped - the time plots the train suddenly stopped and our look immediately I understood that something was terribly wrong nine heavily armed terrorists rushed down the aisles they appeared to be south the luckin members of a large ethnic community of holland they ordered the passengers to cover the windows with newspapers at the other end of the train the crew and several passengers were able to escape they immediately notified authorities of the hijacking as the police and military units rushed to the scene a government crisis team assembled at the Hague the Ministry of Justice spokesperson was toast father we were called that something with a train was happening in the northeast of Holland and that we are while requested to come immediately 15 miles from the Train warning classes had just started at an elementary school in bogans Milda a second group of terrorists attacked the school they took 105 children and therefore teachers as hostages the school's principal if Van Vliet was immediately singled out they pulled out the gun and it pistol and they pointed poked in my ear with it and said this is high ceiling this is a hostage it was indeed just terrible for Dutch police responding to the school it was an ominous scene the windows were covered with newspaper but they could hear the sound of children screaming inside when we discovered that we did not have only a train to deal with but the school with over hundred children it was a catastrophic us what on earth are you going to do when a hundred children are in danger police secure perimeters around both hostage sites and called for reinforcements the terrorists seal off the school The Hague deployed to close combat teams from the Royal best Marines they're Holland's elite counterterrorism force these highly trained commandos are on call 24 hours a day they can be anywhere in the country in under 90 minutes case comer was the deputy commander of the Royal Dutch marine sharpshooter unit doing vertical bill do the stuff cool we got a call from the military police doctor and capping us all the close-combat members were to go to a subpoena to the ruling arson but learning that we went as quickly as possible to be there when the unit was gathering one team deployed to the perimeter around the train we relied on the Marines immediately they came within I think within an hour even because they are ready for any form of assistance at any moment a second team surrounded the school the police made the first move they tried to establish a phone link to the terrorists first thing you do a police officer goes there and asks whether they want a field telephone whether they want to have the communication which they always want because they want to have the demands met the Moluccas had their own agenda the Marines held their fire they couldn't risk firing blindly into a school full of children the operation was coordinated from a command center near the Train reports from the school were ominous the terrorists weren't interested in talking and yelling the Marines watched and waited all the dingoo discipline is very important in our unit no one pulls the trigger without orders from the central firing command the negotiations were up to the politicians and the crisis center it's infallible at The Hague the commander of the Royal Dutch Marines briefed the crisis team on their emergency plan so much it's take the rules of engagement first then the Marines had to make was an emergency plan when the first victim would be executed the emergency plan would come an action and the Marines had to storm the Train and the school with of course all the risks for the hostages the Federation for the emergency plan was a worst-case scenario but without intelligence it was all they had the Marines needed time to prepare a safer more deliberate assault plan it was crucial for the government to draw the terrorists into lengthy negotiations as night fell there was still no word from the terrorists while the Marines studied blueprints of both locations the government worked on a profile the first thing you have to know is which terrorists are there what kind of people are they are they very violent are they intelligent or stupid who are we dealing with and that you discover only after a certain amount of time according to the train crew who escaped the terrorists were south moluccan in 1977 40,000 South Moluccas lived in the Netherlands as refugees of a former Dutch colony they were considered stateless persons they were unwelcome in their homeland but rejected Dutch citizenship 18 months earlier another group of Moluccan radicals took their cause to the world press by hijacking a train the ill-conceived plan turned bloody by the time it was all over three innocent people lay dead they executed the driver of the Train by firing through the door they didn't aim to kill him the second and the third they did aim to kill to put pressure on us and to impress us that their demands should be met the current crisis unfolded passenger george flopper feared for his life of course you think you are in danger because you know what happened one and a half year before and that's what we are afraid of when rains made another attempt to establish contact with the train they sent in a phone technician stripped to his underwear that way the terrorists can verify he was unarmed for the Marines any contact with the terrorists was an opportunity to gather intelligence [Music] the gunmen who accepted the phone was indeed south come on I've told my to Tacoma and if they do phone off the name Amanda control thrust and open he also handed over a letter for the Dutch government [Music] your Styles the terrorists demands were complex they want a Dutch diplomatic support for an independent state in the Mulligan Islands they also wanted 24 South Moluccas released from Dutch jails many of these terrorists had been convicted in the 1975 train hijack finally they wanted a generator to take them and the freed prisoners to a country of their choosing they gave the authorities until 2 p.m. the following day to meet their demands the government alerted the Marines if the terrorists demands were not met they would blow up the Train along with the school and 105 children the government had exactly 30 hours to respond [Music] as the commandos held their positions the government finally made phone contact with the terrorists the crisis team called in psychiatrists to act as negotiators dr. Hank Ivanka's first goal was to identify the leader of the group and keep him calm he found himself talking to a man called himself 747 after the trains route number he said simply 7 he always the same person we could hear it say always the same voice and then you'll try to communicate the things what do you need what do you it was very hot it was summertime do you need food do you need drink and first they said no no we want to leave this moment the government's first message to the terrorists was firm the children must be let free before that happens we won't react on any of your demands because it's outrageous what you have done and you have to free the children first of all the terrorist leader refused instead they wanted to have a telephone connection between the school and the train we gave it we bugged it of course it's better that we know what they are both up to then that we are getting surprises on one side or the other the phone tap confirmed that the terrorists on the Tron were in control the man who called himself seven four seven was leading the entire operation on Wednesday as the 2:00 p.m. deadline neared the children's parents became frantic I heard a chilling sound from inside the school the terrorists had got the idea that they could press the Minister of Justice by putting the children before the windows in the school and shouting singing we want to be free we want to get out Minister gave us our freedom it was a terrible thing to see [Music] the terrorists threaten to throw hand grenades into the crowd of children principal Vander Fleet was determined to protect his students I talked to my two teachers and we said to each other it's it's impossible to let that happen throwing a hand grenade in the midst of children so we made we made an appointment that whoever was closest to the Internet would jump on it frantic parents surround in the school [Music] the Marine stood ready to implement the emergency assault plan a blind attack on both locations when the moment approached of the first deadline we in the crisis center were completely still no one looked at no other we just held our hearts what would what's going to happen 169 lives were at stake all of Holland waited in terror for the shooting to begin [Music] the Royal Dutch Marines surrounded a primary school in bogans milda Holland inside the school is south moluccan terrorists and threatened to kill over 100 school children if their demands were not met a second group of terrorists threatened to kill 60 passengers aboard a nearby train the terrorists demands were extensive they wanted 24 fellow will offence released from Dutch prison they also wanted the Dutch government to support their homelands bid for independence from Indonesia finally they wanted a fuel jetliner to take them to a country of their choosing the government had until 2 p.m. as the deadline merde the Marines readied their weapons if a single hostage was harmed deputy commander case comer was ordered to attack both targets [Music] woeful Opunake bomb the operational plan is decided on the spot because no situation is ever the same we must determine which possibilities we have and from which positions the shooters have the best shot the plan is when all the tangos are terrorists are in view and the shooters have confirmed that they are aiming at the targets at that moment the command de fire is given and all the tangos are taken out not all - one all of them negotiator Hank Ivanka kept the terrorists talking as the seconds ticked by it's one of the most difficult things in negotiation to try to persuade people to not to react on the clock but but wait a little bit and then you gain some time and gaining time is very important as the clock struck two principal validly prepared for the worst the most dangerous moment for the children was Wednesday 1,400 hours the moment when the ultimatum was ended [Music] the two o'clock deadlines arrived the Marines prepared to storm the school there had been no time to gather intelligence the terrorists positions were unknown the lives of 105 children hung in the balance [Music] crisis team member toast father when the deadline expired not not a few moments but say god of an hour half now then we all side is it well well nothing happened negotiating had worked for now but if talks again broke down the Marines would be ready strategists began working on a plan to take down the terrorists without putting the hostages at risk for that they needed accurate intelligence from inside the school as well as the train later that day the terrorists allowed food to be brought in each delivery gave the commandos a glimpse of the terrorists and their weapons now they needed to know how many gunmen they were up against and where they were posted in relation to the hostages a request for cleaning supplies suggested the terrorists were digging in government negotiators had bought the Marines enough time to conduct electronic surveillance the challenge was bugging the interiors Marines tried from the start to get listening devices in the Train the first possibility was to bring it in the devices with the food but boxes in which the food was brought in were thrown out again there was only one way the Marines could get surveillance equipment on the train they would have to plant it there themselves a marine electronics expert made it to the tracks he installed sensitive listening devices to the train's undercarriage these devices would transmit conversations inside the train cars directly to the command post [Music] state-of-the-art surveillance cameras were concealed in the treeline [Music] the infrared cameras could detect body heat from inside the train cars and translated into thermal images the Marines were now able to study the patterns of the terrorists as they moved inside a train but there was still no way to know what was going on inside the school [Music] on day four of the siege the terrorists released a single student her name was Astrid thinkin and she was seriously ill it come at in just detectors joke I have vomited so much that blood came from my nose and throat my teacher decided something had to be done sooner more students fell ill we clear the classroom made that sickbay but very soon there were so many sick children that we couldn't handle it anymore one of the gunmen agreed to talk to the doctor on the phone physician has time to describe the children's symptoms he especially asked if they had fever and when you have no symptoms with fever then it could be meningitis meningitis a highly contagious infection which can cause mental retardation and death without treatment the terrorists were on edge but they refused to release the children as their condition deteriorated the crisis team ordered the Marines to stand by to launch an assault on the school if the children were seriously ill they couldn't afford to wait combat teams of Royal Dutch Marines worked round the clock to contain a double hostage crisis two groups of South Moluccan terrorists held 60 hostages aboard a commuter train and 105 children inside a suburban elementary school on day four crisis team member toasts father learned that the school hostages mostly young children their children became at a certain moment sick one after the other and then more and more and that was a great tragedy for the terrorists they didn't understand they thought they might be contaminated as well the terrorists released a few of the children the most critical cases [Music] by day five they were overwhelmed they released the rest of the children [Music] medical exams showed no sign of meningitis in fact there was no medical explanation for their illness now nobody ever believed us that we did not put anything for the children in their food to make them ill we didn't the children recovered quickly argument there 2/3 of their statements the marines developed a detailed picture of the number of terrorists and their movements [Music] the information was crucial to rescuing the principal and the teachers the terrorists had been dealt a significant blow they could no longer use the children as bargaining chips now they offered the government a chilling reminder they were still deadly serious about their demands they wanted their comrades released from prison and they wanted safe passage to a jetliner they also wanted the Dutch government to support independence for the south Mulliken Islands the terrorists in the Train put one and later another one of the hostages outside the trade with rope around their neck and saying that they would be hanged if that their demands would not be met negotiators felt confident it was grandstanding they told the terrorists to be patient their demands were complex in the meantime the Marines cut off communications between the terrorists after the children were released the communication between the school and the Train was not interesting anymore so we cut the line the terrorists were frantic they could no longer coordinate between the school and the Train electronic listening devices revealed tempers aboard the train had boiled over a passenger tried to rush one of the terrorists [Applause] the outburst was troubling at least two terrorists were temperamental and willing to kill hostages they also named max Maya he was the leader of the Clinton on a man called himself seven four seven do ya [ __ ] the others obeyed his orders even when they disagreed yay o most importantly in Alex papal ayah understood that if his son had harmed a hostage the Marines would strike a Quinn Abbas here max was intelligent man he had learned from the first hostage case in which he had did not partake at all but he knew very well what he wanted and they wanted to go through with it he was a verb opponent from a command post near the Train Marines coordinated input from infrared cameras and listening devices this state-of-the-art technology allowed him to track the position of each terrorist codenamed tango in real-time deputy commander case comer it's a fourth entertain have you tamarkan in this case they were to group the same d-bus you the passengers and the tangos method ingles the passengers were in several compartments and the tangos were in different parts of the Train in the cabin for their observations and in the back and they had their fixed sleeping places it was an important find at night the terrorists and the hostages slept in separate compartments the Marines also learned that the terrorists had separated the hostages by gender all the female passengers slept in the second car from the front the male passengers were being held in the third terrorist guards were stationed between cars and at both ends of the Train the combined technology gave the Marines an electronic eye inside the Train they were able to track the movements of each and every terrorist in the event of an assault they now knew where to shoot from that moment on the Marines were ready to get in in the best safest way for the hostages for that was it the aim the hostages welfare was our utmost interest not I'm sorry to say the end death welfare of the terrorists ten days into the siege the Marines were ready to stage a simultaneous assault on both the train and the school with over 60 lives still at stake failure was not an option [Music] [Applause] ten days into a dangerous double siege in the Netherlands the Royal Dutch Marines were ready to make their move at any time terrorists had taken over a commuter train a suburban school they held over 60 hostages at gunpoint [Music] if negotiations failed the Marines would move in using thermal imaging to identify their targets case comers sharpshooters would take out the terrorists [Music] well screw the design Saldana katrin's you could omit my mentor trained so well that they can fire five shots at a distance of 300 meters in today's target speed so if tangos have to be taken out at a distance of 100 to 150 meters they can do that to increase the effectiveness beyond a hundred percent we use two riflemen there's also the psychological effect that the riflemen can afterwards say that his colleague hit the tango as the Marines moved into position the Dutch government continued to press for a peaceful solution to avoid bloodshed the terrorists and the government agreed to accept two prominent members of the South Moluccan community as mediators Yasin assimil kill had been married to a South Moluccan hero ministry of justice spokesperson tous father mrs. Merkel was the widow of a freedom fighter in Moroccans who was killed there and therefore a kind of monument to the Moroccan society to all the Moroccan people the mediator and the mediators both had the instruction bring them to reason and tell them to end this situation as soon as possible and without casualties the mediators informed government officials that the terrorists were firm on one demand they wanted a jet and safe passage out of the country and the Dutch government countered that unless another country offered the terrorists asylum a jet was out of the question as a show of good faith the South moluccas released a pregnant passenger Andy Brauer the terrorists were doing just enough to avoid an assault relievers are long sheets rain we walked along the trails there were ambulances and police and immediately they asked me to tell them how things were in the Train now I understand but then I didn't like the fact that they asked me so many questions on my way to the hospital according to mrs. Brower the hostages had not been treated badly but the prolonged stress was taking a severe toll longer hair cut iron I had been there about 14 days and that's a long time to be in such a situation without having anything to do having to wait and see if there will be any negotiations whether we will be freed or the train will be stormed the days were very long sleeping was difficult especially on those seats that were not designed for being slept on as the crisis headed into its third week Dutch officials wondered how much longer the passengers could hold out [Music] the boredom and high stress were a dangerous combination the longer it went on the more likely a hostage or terrorist might snap and ignite a crisis after two weeks that more than two weeks doctors came to tell us that you can't have a situation like that go on forever that would roam the the the hug the hostages health so we knew that very well on day 19 the South Moroccan mediators were called in one last time they had to persuade their countrymen to give up backfired the last time the intermediate us went to the Train we heard later and experienced later on that mrs. Merkel had brought with her and note that bein in an African country was willing to receive the terrorists it said well there is a way to get into Benin in in half legal way we didn't know about that but after their visit marks papal ayah the leader of the terrorists got terribly aggressive and didn't want to speak about anything anymore the terrorists rallied at the prospect of safe passage to another country yes they suddenly referred it to their original demands including a fuel jet liner with asylum in reach max peple aya became belligerent with negotiators negotiator hanga having ha realized that a peaceful resolution was now unlikely you can't you could taste it you could feel it and he became very in a moment very threatening and when that fell down he said well okay Christmas and that was a six-month later peple aya had clearly made up his mind freedom or death okay bluntly told the psychiatrist that if his demands were not met he would kill all the hostages she papi if the authorities believed it was better for the Marines to act on their own plan than to react to a situation created by the terrorists gonna - you both know they would attack both sites simultaneously the commandos packed wooden frames with plastic explosives to breach the doors of the train an armored vehicle would be used to force their way into the school on the morning of the assault the crisis center was businesslike but tense it was a terrible situation no one spoke anymore no one practically braced anymore for we didn't know what to happen and we knew there would be we do very well that there would be a number of casualties the only question was how many [Music] good mechanic in Hawley the negotiations were over for the Royal Dutch Marines it was time to take action [Music] on the morning of June 11th 1977 a team of Royal Dutch Marines launched precision raids on two hostage sites after three weeks toast Faber and the crisis team were finished negotiating with the terrorists the Marines they drove right through the walls today total shock of the teachers and the total shock of the terrorists intelligence gathered from surveillance and witness statements allowed the commandos to breach the building safely we knew where they were sleeping so they didn't drive right into the hostages weeks of preparation had paid off they knew exactly where to find a terrorists principal van der flood was relieved they surrendered without resistance they immediately started crying don't you don't you big ever forgive me give up and well the obvious obviously weren't hadn't the intention of having themself shot so they didn't fire one single shot the terrorists were apprehended without incident the school was now secure [Music] the teachers were finally safe [Music] Oh [Music] the raid on the train was more complicated there were more hostages involved and the terrorists were on edge the commandos approached the train from a mile away just before dawn sharpshooters took up their positions beside the tracks case comer and the Marines had to avoid casualties they devised a unique strategy to immobilize the hostages during the assault whoo holy the oldest team how do you keep people from moving in the train when you attack the idea was to use planes to create a lot of noise to stun both the passengers and the tangos at 448 a.m. Dutch fighter jets flew over the Train at an altitude of barely 100 feet sham actinin they dove toward the train when they pulled up they switched on their afterburners this caused the extra noise and flames from the exhaust the roar of the afterburners was definitely George flopper and the rest of the hostages dopher cover as predicted when it was leaned I was under my bench I could see only a little bit I only saw fire flames I I didn't know at that moment that it were jet fighters but it was very much noise but you also hear hear the shooting an armored personnel carrier moved into position as machine gunners riddled the first car with armor-piercing bullets six of the nine terrorists died instantly sharpshooters concentrated their fire unit we trained departments to pin down the surviving terrorists as long as the hostages remained on the floor they were safe that opal meant cool of a or should I bring up and they'll database of that moment we directed firepower at certain compartments a rifleman which both ends of the compartments and the machine-gun teams would fire at this section in between AZ come on stop stop stop Alice witnesses stop energy then the order to stop was given the Marines went to the train attach the explosives to the doors and entered the Train in a classic assault three teams of commandos stormed the Train one for each of the three cars they entered the different compartments and each group of Marines had to take care of its own compartment I did it well the last terrorist the youngest one it was as far as I remember was so scared he tried to get out but well you can't escape the Marines oh stop as the commandos enter the woman's car they were shaken by the set of a dead hostage she had been accidentally killed in the firefight the problem was we didn't know that one of the hostages a young girl had went went to sleep on one of the balconies of the train while normally everybody slept in the apartments [Music] [Music] buddy needs kinda training after about 10 minutes the train was taken in the sign and all were safe was given it is solute that is solute at that moment I felt a great sense of accomplishment but wondered how many Marines had been killed fortunately none of them were 20 days of confinement left many of the hostages confused exhausted and weak some passengers had to be removed on stretchers with the evacuation of the school and now the Train the Marines had helped to save 167 lives two hostages had tragically died to our great regret also a second hostage was killed because he stood up and came into the line of fire two Marine Commandos [Music] six of the nine terrorists on the train were killed including the leader max pebble Iowa 25 years later the operation is still considered the successful completion of a mission impossible Saiga Regina fate the here you're duelin natok like we couldn't see the targets and yet we eliminated a large number of the tangos most importantly almost all passengers left the Train alive so operationally speaking it was a good successful action the surviving terrorists serve nine year sentences and have long since been released from Dutch prisons the double hostage siege was a turning point in counterterrorism all cheer they and a Nate Austin baby a cow when you work in the close combat sharpshooter unit elation you know that you may be ordered to kill people oh that is very unpleasant dr. politique wish list doctor 25 years later I still feel the deployment of our unit was a correct decision there was no other way the psychological effect simple you get your orders and you carry them out taking out the tangos indeed hope it comes out today the close combat unit of the Royal Dutch Marines continues counterterrorism operations in the Netherlands and within NATO the 1977 double siege is still their most famous mission from surveillance to strategy and execution the marine operation became a textbook example of how to handle a hostage crisis it continues to be studied by counterterrorism units worldwide [Music] [Music]

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Keywords: Wonder, wonder channel, green berets, special forces, green beret, special operations, the green berets, us special forces, us army, navy seals, special ops, army green berets, us army special forces, green berets in action, special ops training, special ops episode 1, wonder, wonder survival docs, wonder extreme survival, wonder special forces, wonder special forces s1 ep2, special forces s1 ep2, special forces series 1 episode 2, terror rescue

Id: h_kbKltuRXg

Length: 50min 17sec (3017 seconds)

Published: Tue May 05 2020