Bangkok--10 Nov--Image Impact
Title: Battleplan: Raiding Operations
Channel: HISTORY on TrueVisions A23 and D48
Date & Time: Tuesday,November 10, 2009 at 8.00 p.m.
A raid is an offensive military operation that aims to achieve a specific objective and then get out. It is a Battleplan which can be used against human or military targets. Military targets can be to gather high-value intelligence or destroy crucial fortifications. Human targets can involve rescue, kidnapping or assassination. Raiding uses elite special forces and can have a strategic or tactical effect out of all proportion to the numbers involved.
This programme considers the factors that a commander must consider when deciding to use this Battleplan, and then looks at two classic case studies:
Vietnam, November 1970. The helicopter-borne raid to spring US prisoners-of-war from the Son Tay POW camp. Brilliantly-executed, it only failed because the POWs had been moved shortly before.
Italy, September 1943. The daring rescue of deposed Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from a mountain-top prison by German Special Forces led by Otto Skorzeny.