Merc History

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Merc History

Postby deadshoe » Fri Apr 24, 2009 6:19 am

Im looking for info on mercenary activity in the Congo during the 60s. Any recomendations? I've ordered Mike Hoares books but am not really sure where else to go to get any kind of detail.

Also, whats a good book about Biafra?
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Re: Merc History

Postby Penta » Fri Apr 24, 2009 7:33 am

deadshoe wrote:Also, whats a good book about Biafra?


Probably not what you're looking for, but there's a very fine novel about the Biafra war"

http://www.amazon.com/Half-Yellow-Chima ... 311&sr=1-1
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Re: Merc History

Postby flipflop » Fri Apr 24, 2009 1:30 pm

deadshoe wrote: I've ordered Mike Hoares books?


That'll do it - especially "Congo Mercenary" and "The Road to Kalamata"

All you need really, enjoy

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Re: Merc History

Postby operator33 » Sun Apr 26, 2009 6:58 pm

vae victis!!
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Re: Merc History

Postby deadshoe » Mon Apr 27, 2009 11:09 am

flipflop wrote:
deadshoe wrote: I've ordered Mike Hoares books?


That'll do it - especially "Congo Mercenary" and "The Road to Kalamata"

All you need really, enjoy

Cheers


Thanks alot.

Hoares books cover up until 65 I think. I am also looking for info on the merc revolt of 67. Any ideas?
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Re: Merc History

Postby Fenrisco » Tue Apr 28, 2009 3:04 am

A SA friend of mine knew Mike Hoare back when he was tasked with operating the Pietermaritzburg prison terrain gas pump.

My friend was a kid at the time and apparently Mad Mike was always a good prospect for a lollipop or sweetie when they filled up the car.
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Re: Merc History

Postby Tonne » Sun Jun 07, 2009 11:16 am

Three or four months ago there was a Soldier of Fortune issue with a lot of stuff about mercs and the role of the US in Congo and Rhodesia during the sixties. Don't have it anymore though, sorry.
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Re: Merc History

Postby RYP » Sat Jun 13, 2009 11:22 am

I tracked "Mad Mike" down to Durban last year. Sadly he is not able to give interviews (he was 97) and I respect that. I met Denard before he lost it and its always interesting to see how these men are judged through the lens of history and how much of their history was carefully constructed.

The Congo in the 60's was quite interesting and Mike was just one small part of it. There is a great movie yet to be made about what happens when you give a country who controls 60% of the world's uranium its freedom and four groups who claim to be the leader.

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/un ... _congo.htm

Good web site:
http://www.geocities.com/madmikehoare/

* Congo Mercenary, London: Hale (1967), ISBN 0-7090-4375-9; Boulder, CO: Paladin Press (reissue 2008, with new foreword), ISBN 978-1-58160-639-3
* Congo Warriors, London: Hale (1991), ISBN 0-7090-4369-4
* The Road to Kalamata : a Congo mercenary's personal memoir, Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books (1989), ISBN 0-669-20716-0; Boulder, CO: Paladin Press (reissue 2008, with new foreword), ISBN 978-1-58160-641-6
* The Seychelles Affair, Bantam, ISBN 0-593-01122-8
* Three Years with Sylvia, London: Hale, ISBN 0-7091-6194-8
* Mokoro — A Cry For Help! Durban North: Partners In Publishing (2007), ISBN 978-0-620-39365-2

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Re: Merc History

Postby erwin » Sat Jun 13, 2009 9:32 pm

i also have an old book , soldier of fortune , the twentieth century mercenary by peter macdonald .
congo is also covered .

Image

another book is mercenarie , an african security dilemma by abdel-fatau musah and j .kayode fayemi

in the movie ( documentary ) africa addio you can see a mercenary raid in the congo filmed

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa_Addio
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Re: Merc History

Postby RYP » Sun Jun 14, 2009 4:26 am

Unless the writer was on the ground, most of those compilation books are crap

Biafra was my first area of interest and Freddy Forsyth and Don McCullin captured the characters and events very well

Image

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http://www.fotoperiodismo.org/source/ht ... ullen4.htm

Steiner wrote an interesting but biased book and Count Rosen and number of others like Fred Cuny (who was later killed in Chechnya began their careers there)

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Re: Merc History

Postby Shujaa » Tue Sep 15, 2009 2:10 am

I can highly recommend Anthony Mockler's 'The New Mercenaries'. It's title is misleading as it isn't about the boys from Blackwater or Sandline Intl. It's about the old guard of Hoare, Schramme and Denard.

Mockler, and Oxford prof. and the authority on dogs of war is a good and interesting writer and goes into the Congo with great depth I haven't found anywhere.

He also goes into detail about Denard's antics in the Comoros, Hoare's cockup in the Seychelles, Equatorial Guinea's attempted coup by Alexander Gay and Schramme's boys in Stanley.

It's some great swashbuckling, but accurate and realistic stuff, with the neutrality and artfulness of an Oxford Prof. and the action of a combat journo.
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Re: Merc History

Postby flipflop » Tue Sep 15, 2009 4:24 am

Read "The Whores of War" if you have any lingering romantic ideas about real mercenaries - not PSCs in Iraq/Afghanistan, who are NOT mercenaries - what happened to the mixed bag of sociopaths, alcoholics and misfits in Angola in the 1970s put paid to the romantic idea of white mercenaries fighting savage, untrained blacks. The whites were the savage, untrained bunch in this case.

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Re: Merc History

Postby Shujaa » Tue Sep 15, 2009 7:30 am

PSCs perform tasks that are akin to that of mercs. It's merely a new line of 'wank-words' that try to improve the image of a pretty brutal profession.
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Re: Merc History

Postby coldharvest » Tue Sep 15, 2009 7:47 am

Shujaa wrote:PSCs perform tasks that are akin to that of mercs. It's merely a new line of 'wank-words' that try to improve the image of a pretty brutal profession.

A Butcher is not a Doctor no matter how many skills they share.
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Re: Merc History

Postby Shujaa » Tue Sep 15, 2009 9:12 am

coldharvest wrote:
Shujaa wrote:PSCs perform tasks that are akin to that of mercs. It's merely a new line of 'wank-words' that try to improve the image of a pretty brutal profession.

A Butcher is not a Doctor no matter how many skills they share.


Exactly my point.
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