Executions
At 11:55 P.M.
well over an hour after the start of the battle, at least four armored
cars finally arrived at Fiirstenfeldbruck and began maneuvering
into position at one minute after midnight. As the armored cars
moved closer to the helicopters (Manfred Schreiber now claims he
just wanted to leave them positioned near the terrorists "with the
intention of... starving them out psychologically") terrorists apparently
thought they were about to be machine-gunned. "It all happened very
fast," said Schreiber.
Inside the helicopter
parked on the eastern side of the apron, one of the terrorists began
firing at point-blank range at the four hostages. Springer, Halfin,
and Friedman died instantly, but somehow David Berger was only shot
in the leg. The terrorist then leapt out of the chopper, pulled
a pin from one of his grenades, and tossed it back inside. Issa
immediately reemerged from the shadows under the other helicopter
and opened fire again on the airfield buildings. Officers inside
dived for cover, but within seconds the snipers on the roof of the
control tower returned fire on Issa and his comrade, killing them
both almost simultaneously. It was too late. As both terrorists
fell to the tarmac, a huge explosion rocked the eastern helicopter.
The grenade ignited the fuel tank and the helicopter and captive
Israelis burned. As the flames licked across the tarmac, Adnan Al-Gashey
slipped out from under the western chopper, climbed inside, and
began machine-gunning the other five Israelis: Gutfreund, Shorr,
Slavin, Spitzer, and Shapira.
Ulrich Wegener says he can still hear their screams. Zamir remembered
sadly, "This was the end of the Israeli people in the helicopters." |
Introduction 
Assault
