"THIS IS GENOCIDE CALLING..."

______The Nigerian Civil War broke out in 1967 when the Ibo people of Nigeria decided to set up their own country of Biafra under the leadership of Lieutenant-Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu. While post-colonial conflict was not unknown in Africa, the role Aircraft played in this particular war was.
______The Biafrans started out with a handful of WWII-vintage American propellor-driven aircraft, including a dozen T6 trainers armed in the ground-attack role, two B-26s and a B-25. They also had eight French-made helicopters. Many of the aircraft were flown by mercenaries, ex-pilots from different European air forces, as well as pilots with little in the way of military training but with a sense of adventure that led them to this line of work.
______Another aspect of the air war over Biafra was the blockade-runners. Cargo aircraft flown by mercs brought in food, ammunition and weapons after a Nigerian blockade quickly made the air route the only way in and out of Biafra. Pilots had to risk both the Nigerian and the Biafran air defenses to bring in their cargo. The planes were usually old airliners, and one Lockheed Super Constellation was known as "The Old Gray Ghost" because it had no markings at all. Over 5,000 runs were made during the war.
______The Nigerian Air Force was well-equipped with Soviet-made aircraft, including jets. But the federal government didn't have many aircraft or trained pilots so "volunteers" from several countries were hired to fly. These included East Germans, Egyptians, and South Africans.
______Some of the pilots gained notoriety, showing indifference as to whether their bombs fell on military targets or civilian hospitals. One Il-28 bomber was called "Intruder" by the Biafrans, as it flew well-above the antiaircraft fire put up by the defenders and dropped its bombs unaimed from an altitude of 10,000 feet. Another aircraft, for reasons that are unclear, was called "Yellow Bar." But the most dreaded mercenary pilot called himself "Genocide."
______Genocide was a South African flying one of the Il-28s. He would call out by radio to the Biafrans "Hello. Hello. This is Genocide calling" before releasing his deadly load. Eventually, the entire force of Il-28, DC-3 and DC-4 mercenary bombers was nicknamed Genocide Squadron by the rebels.
______Biafra lost more and more territory to the Nigerian federal ground forces, which had a larger population from which to draw soldiers as well as access to the international arms markets. Biafra's aircraft were lost one by one and could not be replaced. Famine broke out and air blockade runners found it more and more difficult to get to the airfields that remained in rebel hands. The end came in 1970 when the Biafrans finally surrendered.

WHAT WERE OFFICER BATTALIONS IN THE RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR?