FRENCH SPECIAL FORCES - GIGN

ABOUT

(Groupe d'intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale)

(National Gendarmerie Intervention Group)

Meaning -    soldiers who are allowed to arrest you

Motto -        "To enlist for life"

• Unlike many anti-terrorist units, GIGN is not only used for anti-terrorist operations but also in the arrest of dangerous criminals, countering barricaded suspects, quelling prison riots, VIP protection, and other high-risk police operations within France or former colonies.

• During the 35 years of GIGN’s existence, it has taken part in over 1,000 operations and rescued more than five-hundred hostages.

TRAINING

• Candidates undertake a one-week pre-selection screening followed, for those accepted, by a fourteen months training program which includes shooting, long-range marksmanship (it is often considered as one of the best shooting schools in the world), an airborne course and hand-to-hand combat training.

• Mental ability and self-control are important in addition to physical strength. Like for most special forces, the training is stressful with a high washout rate, especially in the initial phase – only 7–8% of volunteers make it through the training process.Weapons handlingCombat shooting and marksmanship training.

• Airborne courses, such as HALO or HAHO jumps, paragliding, and heliborne insertions.

• Combat/Underwater swimming, diving and assault of ships, hand-to-hand combat training.

• Undercover surveillance and stalking (support in investigating cases)Infiltration and escape techniques.

• Explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) and NRBC devices neutralisation sSurvival and warfare in tropical, arctic, mountain and desert environments, diplomacy skills, such as negotiating.

HOSTAGE RESCUE MISSION - LOYADA 

• The liberation of 30 French pupils from a school bus captured by the FLCS (Front de Libération de la Côte des Somalis, "Somali Coast Liberation Front") in Loyada, near Djibouti in 1976.

• GIGN group arrived in Loyada the group consisted of a group commander (lieutenant Prouteau) & 8 snipers, for the unit, the Loyada mission was the very first operation conducted outside France, snipers took a position in front of the palm grove.

• The bus was still parked in the same place, FLCS kidnappers were reinforced by 3 men from the Somali side than an order came to rescue the children.

• GIGN snipers shot a co-ordinated fire to kill all the kidnapper than Somali machine guns opened fire simultaneously, 2e REP legionnaires launched a frontal attack the legionnaires run forward under fire to eliminate the Somali machine guns.

• Two 2e REP groups seized the border, one group seized the bus &13e DBLE’s AMLs eliminated by fire the Somali machine guns –the mission was terminated.

• 7 Somali FLCS militants killed 1 Somali soldier killed (an official statement)1 girl was killed 5 children were wounded (2 of them seriously) the driver + female assistant were also wounded lieutenant was seriously wounded 1 boy was kidnapped to Somalia he was released a few days later.

OPERATION VICTOR

• In 1988 around thirty guys with machine guns in New Caledonia, a French-controlled island in the South Pacific, took some local cops hostage, loaded them into a cave, and then positioned a heavy belt-fed machine gun at the entrance of the cave.

• The GIGN deployed halfway across the globe in a matter of hours, rappelled in by helicopter in broad daylight, cleared out the machine gun with a flame thrower, shot up the place, freed the hostages.

• GIGN lost two guys but killed 19 terrorists and took 11 more into custody.

RAID ON AIR FRANCE 8969

• Their most high-profile raid came in 1994 when terrorists armed with AK-47s, hand grenades and dynamite hijacked a passenger plane in Algiers and threatened to crash it into the Eiffel Tower.

• The French were able to force the plane down in Marseille, where GIGN rolled up in a stair car and stormed the cockpit, engaging assault-rifle toting psychos at point blank range with 220 civilian lives hanging in the balance.

• All terrorists dead.  No civilian casualties.  No GIGN fatalities.

2008 SOMALI PIRATE ATTACK

• Capture of 6 Somali pirates and recovery of part of the ransom after ensuring that Le Ponant luxury yacht hostages were freed in the coast of Puntland in Somalia on the Gulf of Aden. In conjunction with French Commandos Marines (Naval commandos) in April 2008.
  

• 30 crewmembers were taken hostages, French commando marine and GIGN operating from the frigate Jean Bart and the cruiser Jeanne d'Arc moved in when the pirates attempted to flee in the desert. A sniper disabled the get-away vehicle, and the commandos were able to capture six men. 

GIGN -THE BEST

The GIGN was selected by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to teach the special forces of the other member states in hostage-rescue exercises aboard planes.

WEAPONS

Glock 19 9mm Parabellum

Heckler & Koch MP5

FN P90 Tactical 

Heckler & Koch G3 TGS

UNSUNG HERO OF INDIAN ARMY

This is the story of that unbelievably courageous soldier, Captain Neikezhakuo Kenguruse.

Name -        Captain Neikezhakuo Kenguruse

Born in -     Nerhema village (Distt.) Kohima.

Known As - Neibu by his family and friends, and Nimbu                       Sahab by the north Indian soldiers.

Age -           25 Years

ABOUT HIS FAMILY 

• The fiercely independent Naga spirit was a family legacy for Capt. Kenguruse. His great great grandfather, Perheile, had been one of the most respected warriors of the village.

• Neibu’s father, Neiselie Kenguruse, was a grade peon in the government. Deeply religious and anti-war, he initially didn’t want his son to join the army but Neibu convinced him that the honour of serving in the armed forces far outweighed the risks that the job entailed.

EDUCATION

• After graduating from the Kohima Science college, Neibu served as a teacher at a Government High School in Kohima before being commissioned into the Indian Army on December 12, 1998.

THE KARGIL WAR -OPERATION VIJAY

• In 1999, when the Kargil war started, Capt. Kenguruse was a junior commander in the Rajputana Rifles battalion. For his determination and prowess, he was made the lead commander of the Ghatak Platoon of his battalion. Only the most physically fit and motivated soldiers make it into the dreaded Ghatak platoon that makes up the first wave of Indian Army’s counter forces.

MISSION - MACHINE GUN

• On the fateful night of June 28, 1999, Capt. Kenguruse’s platoon was given the responsibility of taking out a strategic machine gun post held by the enemy on a cliff face, the Black Rock. Heavy gunfire from this position had been hindering the battalion’s progress in the sector for days.

• As the commando platoon scaled the cliff, they came under intense mortar and automatic fire from above. As a result, the team faced heavy casualties with Capt. Kenguruse being shot in the abdomen. Undeterred by the injury, he urged his men to carry on with the assault. On reaching the final cliff face, the platoon was halted by a sheer vertical rock wall that separated them from the enemy post.

BAREFOOT IN CHILLING TEMPERATURE 

• To ensure that his platoon was able to climb this sheer cliff, he secured a rope for his men but his boots kept slipping on the icy slopes that hung at an obtuse angle.

• It would have been easy for him to retreat and get medical help but the profusely bleeding Capt. Kenguruse. At a height of 16,000 feet and in the bitingly cold temperature of -10 degrees Celsius, removed his boots. Using his bare feet to get a grip, he somehow climbed up the freezing cliff while carrying an RPG rocket launcher with him.

• Once on top, Capt. Kenguruse fired the rocket launcher at the seven Pakistani bunkers that stood before him. They replied with a hail of gunfire but he kept firing till he had decimated the bunkers.

• Two enemy soldiers from a nearby bunker rushed towards him, and he tackled them with his commando knife in hand-to-hand combat. He single-handedly downed two more infiltrators with his rifle before a volley of bullets blew him off the cliff.

• But his daring act had done enough to ensure that his troops would go on to capture the position.

FAMOUS QUOTES - FOR HIM, BY HIM

'' Yeh aapki jeet hai, Nimbu Sahab. Yeh aap ki jeet hai.”

 “Dad, I may not be able to return home to be a part of our family again. Even if I don’t make it, do not grieve for me because I have already decided to give my best for the nation.”

“He displayed conspicuous gallantry, indomitable resolve, grit and determination beyond the call of duty and made the supreme sacrifice in the face of the enemy, in true traditions of the Indian Army.”

HE LEFT NAGALAND UNITED

• Three decades of the insurgency was forgotten as Nagaland united with rest of the country in grief.

• Captain Kenguruse’s death had as much an impact on his life. When his body arrived in Dimapur, 

• Thousands lined the road to his village, where he was buried with full military honours.

INDIA & HOWITZER'S

VIDEO OF HOWITZER IN ACTION - BY INDIAN ARMY

REQUIREMENT

• The Field Artillery Rationalization Plan drawn up in 1999, it talks about acquiring 2,800 guns by 2027. 

• The plan talks about 155 mm guns of all types—that is 1,580 towed guns, 814 truck-mounted guns, 100 tracked self-propelled guns,180 wheeled self-propelled guns and 145 ultra light howitzers.

• It will cost one lakh crores rupees. 

HOW INDIAN ARMY FULLFILING IT

• To apply for the contract of the 1,580 towed guns, French company Nexter has teamed up with local partner Larsen & Toubro. Israel’s Elbit Systems has partnered with Bharat Forge.

• In the case of the 814 truck-mounted guns, Nexter and L&T have bid, along with Ashok Leyland. TATA has South African gun-maker “The Denel” as its partner.

• The immediate addition to the artillery gun numbers could come from two separate tenders. First is a “tracked self-propelled” gun mounted on a tank-track type chassis. India plans to buy 100 pieces of this. The MoD is negotiating with the L&T-Samsung combine. The evaluation process is over and the price bids were opened in December 2015.

• The second will be the indigenous Dhanush gun, based on Bofors design and transfer of technology. The MoD yesterday laid down a stiff timeline for the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), its maker, to be ready with six “production-level prototypes” for trials and bulk orders will follow. The Army want to acquire 114 pieces of this.

• 145 ultra light howitzers being ordered from the USA