On May 19, the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2e REP) of the French Foreign Legion will remind the 35th anniversary of the Battle of Kolwezi. On May 19, 1978, the 2e REP was dropped on Kolwezi, a city in Katanga Province in the south of Zaire (today’s the Democratic Republic of the Congo) to rescuing more than 2,000 European hostages held by rebels.

This operation made the 2e REP the most famous military unit around the world. For the 2e REP, it was its first combat airdrop after the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in Indochina in 1954.

See more information about the Battle of Kolwezi.