 Once signed up , each man was instructed to travel to Switzerland , where appropriate <unk> were swiftly procured from the South African Embassy . In early November 1977 , the French recruits flew from Zurich to Johannesburg on a South African Airways liner , then to Salisbury by Air Rhodesia . Already in Rhodesia waiting for the men were their leaders : Major Roland de l <unk> , an ex @-@ officer of the French Army 's crack 11th Shock Parachute Regiment , and a former officer of the <unk> President Omar <unk> 's guard ; and Major Mario La Viola , once a non @-@ commissioned officer in the Foreign Legion 's 2nd Parachute Regiment . <unk> them were the <unk> Captain <unk> , who became the first black officer in the regular Rhodesian Army as the unit 's second @-@ in @-@ command , and " Colonel " Bob Denard , an infamous French soldier of fortune nicknamed le <unk> de guerre — " the dog of war " . 
