As dawn broke, a thick mist rolled across the pastureland around the Dutch hamlet of De Punt, enveloping the motionless yellow train. Inside, nine jittery Moluccan hijackers and 51 exhausted hostages were beginning their 20th day of cold fear together, a grisly endurance record of its kind. At a primary school in the nearby village of Bovensmilde, four other Moluccan terrorists kept four schoolteachers prisoner. Deployed around both the train and the school was an estimated 2,000-man army of crack Dutch commando marines, a special squad of sharpshooters, and armored military-police units.
It was not to be another tense day of stalemate. Apparently convinced that the terrorists were prepared to hold out indefinitely despite the exhausting psychological toll on their unwilling prisoners, the Dutch government decided to end the hostages' agony. In the most dramatic rescue operation since Entebbe, a Dutch military team mounted a commando-style dawn assault on both train and school. Six of the 13 Moluccan terrorists and two of the hostages were killed. One terrorist, two marines and nine of the prisoners were wounded. It was a heavy toll, but at least the long ordeal had ended.
The marines jumped off at 5 a.m., firing submachine guns as they raced toward the train, scattering panicked cattle in nearby pastures. Six Starfighter jets of the Royal Netherlands Air Force, with afterburners roaring, streaked out of the sky and dropped smoke bombs to give the troops cover. The air attack was meant to confuse and intimidate the terrorists; clearly, no strafing or bombing was possible while the hostages were inside the train. TIME'S Peter Kronenberg, who witnessed the operation, reported that "the howling of the planes was terrifying. They came back five times and then there was only the shooting—then silence, then the sound of terrified people inside the train shouting, yelling—unbelievable."
Plastic Charges. As they charged, the marines concentrated much of their fire on the first-class front of the train, where the Moluccans had established their command post. Demolition experts with plastic charges blasted down the doors, and the marines ducked inside, shooting as they went. As the assault began, 13 armored cars in nearby Bovensmilde started racing toward the school building. One of them burst through the main doors while three others took up positions around the building.
At the school, the troops used satchel charges to widen the gap made by the armored car, causing thunderous explosions that awoke sleeping villagers and brought them running into the street. Soldiers shouted, "Give up! Give up! You are surrounded!" Some of the onlookers clasped their hands in front of their eyes, afraid to look at the scene of battle. Cried one woman: "Dear God, they're all dead!" One by one, the soldiers led the four captured Moluccans from the building and forced them to lie down for a body search. At 6 o'clock the villagers saw teachers waving from an ambulance bus. Realizing that the four schoolteacher hostages were safe, the villagers suddenly began throwing paper streamers in joyous relief.