Nov. 24, 1964 - Belgian paratroopers, dropping from U.S. planes in a daring rescue mission, stormed into the rebel capital of Stanleyville, the Congo, today in the midst of a massacre of foreign hostages by Communist-led insurgents.
Thirty hostages were reported slaughtered and 40 wounded in an orgy of indiscriminate shooting before the paratroopers burst into the town and scattered the rebels.
Among the dead were two Americans — missionary Dr. Paul Carlson, 36, who had been twice reprieved from a death sentence, and Phyllis Rine, 25, a missionary from Cincinnati.
Freed hostages told horrifying stories of children being murdered, of rape and beatings. But the Belgian troops arrived in time to save hundreds, among them the staff of the U.S. consul.
The bloodbath began after the 800 paratroopers seized the airport and began a desperate race against time to the center of Stanleyville.
The rebels had herded about 250 hostages into a square in front of the monument to the assassinated leftist premier, Patrice Lumumba. Then, with the paratroopers only minutes away, the rebels opened fire from balconies, killing and wounding men, women, and children.
Screaming hostages tried to escape the rain of fire and were cut down. When the paratroopers poured into the square, it was littered with bodies.
The Belgians could not open up fully at the rebels because dazed hostages were between them.
A Belgian woman hostage said the massacre began after an order from one Col. Opepe. “The next thing they started firing. It was awful. It went on for so long. I remember them reloading three or four times,” she said.
The horror was repeated at the Victoria Hotel, where another 250 hostages were being held. At the sound of the U.S. planes arriving overhead with the paratroopers, these hostages were forced out of the hotel and into Stanleyville’s main street.
They were ordered to sit in the gutters under the threat of rebel guns. And then, when shooting was heard from the airport, the rebels began firing at their helpless captives. A few moments later, the killers fled as the paratroopers raced up in commandeered vehicles.
Shortly afterward, Congo government ground forces, led by white mercenaries, joined the paratroopers and took control of the town.
The rescuers began a hasty evacuation operation, flying out the freed hostages to Leopoldville in the U.S. planes that had brought in the paratroopers.
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