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Opening in theaters on March 9th is 7 Days In Entebbe – a Focus Features film based on the actual events of Operation Thunderbolt – a hijacking/hostage crisis and subsequent counter-terror rescue mission in 1976. Lead by two German and two Palestinian terrorists, the hijacking took place on an Air France flight from Israel bound for Paris, which instead landed in Entebbe, Uganda. Israeli commandos killed seven hijackers and three hostages died during the rescue.
Not having seen the film, nor having an in-depth knowledge of the real events, I don’t know if 7 Days In Entebbe will be historically accurate. However, with all the players laid out for the film – German Nationals, IDF Special Forces, Mossad, and the Ugandan military, the film has the potential to be rich in a variety of firearms.
Lets take a look at some scenes from the trailer.
These look like Polish Milled Receiver AK47s (title image):
Some guns were easier to identify than others. For example:
The Walther P38 (originally written Walther P.38) is a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol that was developed by Walther arms as the service pistol of the Wehrmacht at the beginning of World War II. It was intended to replace the costly Luger P08, the production of which was scheduled to end in 1942.
Others were slightly more exotic but unique enough for a quick identification:
The Škorpion vz. 61 is a Czechoslovak 7.65 mm machine pistol developed in 1959 by Miroslav Rybář (1924–1970) and produced under the official designation Samopal vzor 61 (“submachine gun model 1961”) by the Česká zbrojovka arms factory in Uherský Brod from 1961 to 1979.
Without access to the full scenes, to identify some of the firearms I had to take a leap of faith, like these suppressed pistols:
The Beretta 70 is a magazine-fed, single-action semi-automatic pistol series designed and produced by Beretta of Italy, which replaced the earlier 7.65mm Beretta M1935 pistol. Some pistols in this series were also marketed as the Falcon, New Puma, New Sable, Jaguar, and Cougar (not to be confused with the later Beretta 8000, which was also marketed as Cougar). The gun is notable for its appearances in film and is also the first compact Beretta pistol to feature several improvements commonly found in Beretta pistols for the rest of the century.
This last pistol kept me researching for quite some time. Initially, I suspected it was a Colt 1904 hammerless, but historically that didn’t make much sense. Take a guess before you look at what I came up with.
The TT-30 (Russian: 7,62-мм самозарядный пистолет Токарева образца 1930 года, translit. , 7,62 mm Samozaryadny Pistolet Tokareva obraztsa 1930 goda, “7.62 mm Tokarev self-loading pistol model 1930”, TT stands for Tula-Tokarev) is a Russian semi-automatic pistol. It was developed in the early 1930s by Fedor Tokarev as a service pistol for the Soviet military to replace the Nagant M1895 revolver that had been in use since Tsarist times, though it ended up being used in conjunction with rather than replacing the M1895. It served until 1952 when it was replaced by the Makarov pistol.
7 Days In Entebbe – Focus Features
In 1976, two Palestinian and two German terrorists hijack Air France Flight 139 en route from Tel Aviv, Israel to Paris, France via Athens, Greece. They hold the passengers and crew hostage at Entebbe and demanded a ransom of $5 million USD for the airplane and the release of 53 Palestinian and Pro-Palestinian militants, 40 of whom were prisoners in Israel. When all diplomatic efforts fail, the Israeli government approves a counter-terrorist hostage rescue operation by IDF commandos in what has been referred to as the most daring and audacious rescue mission in history.
