The Munich Summer Olympics was held in Munich(duh) in 1972.
It was highly anticipated as it was the very first Olympics that Germany hosted since the infamous Nazi Regime in Germany.
The first week of the Olympics went by like a breeze, everything went right. However, on 4th of September, it changed drastically. The Israeli team spent the evening to catch the Fiddler on the Roof, then headed back to the Olympic Village to rest. At around 4am, on the 5th of September, as the Israeli team slept, 8 members of Black September cascaded the fence that surrounded the village.
The terrorists went directly to what they came here for - the Israeli contingent. At approximately 4:30am, the terrorists infiltrated the buildings, rounding up the occupants in Apartment 1 and Apartment 3. Several of the Israelis attempted to retaliate and two died fighting. Some managed to escape and nine were taken hostage. By 5:10, the police were alerted and news flashed broadcasted it to the world. The terrorists dropped their demands; wanting 234 prisoners to be released from Israeli prisons and 2 from German prisons by 9am. Negotiators managed to negotiate and extend it so much till 5pm, hoping the terrorists would back down. However, things did not turn out as expected and Israel refused the release of the prisoners. A confrontation became inevitable.
At 5pm, the terrorists (finally) realised that it was impossible that their demands were to be met. They requested planes to fly the hostages, along with them, to Cairo, hoping that changing location would enable their demands to be met. German officials agreed but realised that the terrorists cannot be allowed to leave Germany. Desperate to end the whole debacle, Operation Sunshine was organized to storm the apartment building. However, they (stupidly) managed to allow the terrorists to discover the plan via television. The Germans planned another attack, to ambush the terrorists as they head to the airport. Once more, their plans were revealed. (=.=)
At 10:30pm, the terrorists and hostages were transported to the Fürstenfeldbruck airport by helicopter. The Germans decided that the confrontation was going to be there and then at the airport, laying snipers waiting to go for the kill. The terrorists, upon landing, knew they had fallen for a trap. The snipers opened fire and they retaliated. Two terrorists and one policeman was killed. A stalemate occurred. The Germans requested armored cars, waiting a good hour for them to arrive. When the cars finally arrived, the terrorists knew it was over. One terrorist jumped into a helicopter, killing the four hostages inside and threw in a grenade for good measure. Another jumped into the other helicopter, killing the remaining hostages. The snipers and armored cars killed three terrorists in this second confrontation. Three terrorists were taken into custody.
Less than two months after the whole incident, the accosted terrorists were release as two Black September members hijacked a plane, threatening to blow it up unless the three were released.
