Congo Mercenary

Congo Mercenary
Author: Mike Hoare
Publisher: Paladin Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2008-01-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781581606393

In July 1964, after four years of uneasy independence, the Democratic Republic of the Congo was engulfed by an armed rebellion that spread throughout the country like a bush fire. The rebel soldiers struck terror into the hearts of civilians and National Army soldiers alike. Faced with this situation, the Congolese government hired legendary mercenary leader Mike Hoare to quell the uprising and bring order to the country. In Congo Mercenary, Mike Hoare tells the true story of his resolute band of mercenaries during the Congo war. In fascinating detail, Hoare describes how the mercenaries were recruited and trained, and then recounts their adventures through four combat campaigns over an 18-month period during which they liberated Stanleyville, fought rebels in the hinterland, freed hundreds of European hostages and restored law and order to the Congo. Originally published in 1967, and now including a new foreword by Mike Hoare, Congo Mercenary is a well-written and historically important account of one of the most brutal rebellions in Africa, as well as an accurate and gritty depiction of the mercenary life.

'Mad Mike' Hoare

'Mad Mike' Hoare
Author: Chris Hoare (Journalist)
Publisher: Chris Hoare
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018
Genre: Adventure and adventurers
ISBN: 9780620798617

Colonel Mike Hoare led 300 'Wild Geese' across the Congo to crush a communist rebellion, rescue 2000 nuns and priests from barbarity, beat Che Guevara ... and become a legend. Of Irish blood, Mike was schooled in England and, during World War 2, was the 'best bloody soldier in the British Army'. He demobbed as major, qualified in London as a chartered accountant and emigrated to South Africa. Going rogue, he started living dangerously to get more out of life, including trans-Africa motorbike trips, bluewater sailing, exploring remote areas, and leading safaris in the Kalahari Desert. Here Mike got to know the CIA agent who was to change his life ... and who was to stop Nelson Mandela's. Later Mike was technical advisor to the film The Wild Geese, which starred Richard Burton playing the Mike Hoare character. In 1981 Mike led 50 'Frothblowers' in a bid to depose the socialist government of the Seychelles. Things went wrong and soon Mike was to spend three years in jail for hijacking a Boeing 707. In this, the story behind the story - rich in new material - Mike's son Chris separates the man from the myth in a way only a son can, and concludes his 'mad dad' was an officer and a gentleman with a bit of pirate thrown in.

The Seychelles Affair

The Seychelles Affair
Author: Mike Hoare
Publisher: Paladin Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2008-07-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781581606577

The "Seychelles Affair" is one of the most infamous episodes in the tangled history of mercenary warfare in Africa. The story of the ill-fated coup begins in 1978 when representatives of the exiled Seychelles president approached legendary mercenary commander Mike Hoare - who had successfully led the uprisings in the Congo in the early 1960s - to overthrow the Marxist regime then in power. Hoare's story of the attempted coup reads like a thriller, detailing all the drama of the backroom scheming, the tense action at the airport on Mahé, the forced landing of the Air India Boeing and the ensuing escape of Hoare's band of mercenaries. Equally fascinating is the author's description of his dealings with South African intelligence agencies, the subsequent prosecution by those who had helped them prepare for the coup, his attempts to organize a proper defense and obtain a fair trial for himself and his 30 men, and what it was like to spend 33 months in a South African prison. In the exclusive new foreword to this Paladin reprint, Colonel Hoare sheds new light on the events leading up to the failed coup, discusses the lingering ramifications of the failure on the nation of Seychelles and relates how his conviction affected his life after he got out of prison. Don't miss this opportunity to read Hoare's wonderfully wry and insightful account of how one little mistake can unravel even the best-laid plans.

The Road to Kalamata

The Road to Kalamata
Author: Mike Hoare
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Total Pages: 207
Release: 1989-10-15
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1473817706

The famous adventurer and mercenary recounts his exploits during the Congo Crisis in this Cold War military memoir. At the close of 1960, the newly formed Independent State of Katanga in central Africa recruited Thomas “Mad Mike” Hoare and his 4 Commando team of mercenary soldiers to suppress a rebellion by Baluba warriors known to torture the enemy soldiers they captured. In The Road to Kalamata, Hoare tells the story of 4 Commando and its evolution from a loose assembly of individuals into a highly organized professional fighting unit. Hoare’s memoir presents a compelling portrait of the men who sell their military skills for money. They are, in his words, “a breed of men which has almost vanished from the face of the earth." Originally published in 1989, this edition of The Road to Kalamata features a new foreword by the 20th century's most famous mercenary and one of its most eloquent storytellers.

Mad Dog Killers

Mad Dog Killers
Author: Ivan Smith
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781907677786

During that long, hot summer of 1964, Ivan Smith, a mercenary volunteer in the Armée Nationale Congolais, came to witness and understand fear, the law of the jungle and the lust for killing that permeates Africa. A member of 'Mad Mike' Hoare's 5 Commando Group he and his companions were nominally soldiers but there was little in the way of campaigns, tactics and discipline. Of conventional warfare there was none. Loyalty to country or unit did not exist and the fear of death was the only commander. Many more mercenaries died from an accidental discharge, in a drunken shoot-out or from a bullet in the back than were ever killed in action by Simba rebels. Nearly half a century later, Ivan Smith re-lives the nightmare that was the Congo.

Mercenaries

Mercenaries
Author: Col. Michael Lee Lanning
Publisher: Presidio Press
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2007-12-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 0307416046

SOLDIERS OF $$ Privateers, contract killers, corporate warriors. Contract soldiers go by many names, but they all have one thing in common: They fight for money and plunder rather than liberty, God, or country. Now acclaimed author and war vet Michael Lee Lanning traces the compelling history of these fighting machines–from the “Sea Peoples” who fought for the pharaohs’ greater glory to today’s soldiers for hire from private military companies (PMCs) in Iraq and Afghanistan. What emerges is a fascinating account of the men who fight other people’s wars–the Greeks who built an empire for Alexander the Great, the Nubians who accompanied Hannibal across the Alps, the Irish who became the first to go global in their search for work. Soldiers of fortune have always had the power to change the course of war, and Lanning examines their pivotal roles in individual battles and in the rise and fall of empires. As the employment of contract soldiers spreads in Iraq and America’s War on Terrorism–the U.S. paid $30 billion to PMCs in 2003 alone–Mercenaries offers a valuable inside look at a system that appears embedded in our nation’s future. Includes eight pages of photographs

Congo Warriors

Congo Warriors
Author: Mike Hoare
Publisher: Paladin Press
Total Pages: 204
Release: 2008-04-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781581606478

Colonel Mike Hoare commanded a unit of mercenary soldiers during the armed uprising in the Congo in 1964 and 1965, which he described in detail in his previous book, Congo Mercenary. In this follow-up account of those war-torn days spent fighting the Simba rebels, Colonel Hoare focuses on the courage and ambitions, the lives and deaths of those men under his command. In an exclusive new foreword and epilogue for this Paladin reprint, which the author has described as his favorite of all the books he has written, Colonel Hoare provides an unparalleled understanding of mercenary action in Africa, the involvement of the CIA in such activities and new insight into the minds and hearts of mercenary soldiers. Congo Warriors is not to be missed by anyone interested in combat, mercenaries, warriors or Africa.

Cold War Navy SEAL

Cold War Navy SEAL
Author: James M. Hawes
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2018-04-03
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1510734198

For the first time, a Navy SEAL tells the story of the US's clandestine operations in North Vietnam and the Congo during the Cold War. Sometime in 1965, James Hawes landed in the Congo with cash stuffed in his socks, morphine in his bag, and a basic understanding of his mission: recruit a mercenary navy and suppress the Soviet- and Chinese-backed rebels engaged in guerilla movements against a pro-Western government. He knew the United States must preserve deniability, so he would be abandoned in any life-threatening situation; he did not know that Che Guevara attempting to export his revolution a few miles away. Cold War Navy SEAL gives unprecedented insight into a clandestine chapter in US history through the experiences of Hawes, a distinguished Navy frogman and later a CIA contractor. His journey began as an officer in the newly-formed SEAL Team 2, which then led him to Vietnam in 1964 to train hit-and-run boat teams who ran clandestine raids into North Vietnam. Those raids directly instigated the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. The CIA tapped Hawes to deploy to the Congo, where he would be tasked with creating and leading a paramilitary navy on Lake Tanganyika to disrupt guerilla action in the country. According to the US government, he did not, and could not, exist; he was on his own, 1400 miles from his closest allies, with only periodic letters via air-drop as communication. Hawes recalls recruiting and managing some of the most dangerous mercenaries in Africa, battling rebels with a crew of anti-Castro Cuban exiles, and learning what the rest of the intelligence world was dying to know: the location of Che Guevara. In vivid detail that rivals any action movie, Hawes describes how he and his team discovered Guevara leading the communist rebels on the other side and eventually forced him from the country, accomplishing a seemingly impossible mission. Complete with never-before-seen photographs and interviews with fellow operatives in the Congo, Cold War Navy SEAL is an unblinking look at a portion of Cold War history never before told.

The Man who Killed Apartheid: The Life of Dimitri Tsafendas

The Man who Killed Apartheid: The Life of Dimitri Tsafendas
Author: Harris Dousemetzis
Publisher: Vernon Press
Total Pages: 520
Release: 2023-01-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 1648895808

On 6 September 1966, inside the House of Assembly in Cape Town, Dimitri Tsafendas fatally stabbed Hendrik Verwoerd, South Africa’s Prime Minister and so-called “architect of apartheid.” Tsafendas was immediately arrested, and before the authorities had even questioned him, they declared him a madman without any political motive for the killing. In the Cape Supreme Court, Tsafendas was found unfit to stand trial on the grounds that he suffered from schizophrenia and that he had no political motive for killing Verwoerd. Tsafendas spent the next 28 years in prison, making him the longest-serving prisoner in South African history. For most of his incarceration, he was subjected to cruel and inhumane treatment by the prison authorities. This new updated edition contains all the developments regarding the Tsafendas case after the publication of the book's first edition.

Four-War Boer

Four-War Boer
Author: Colin D. Heaton
Publisher: Casemate
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2014-01-19
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1612001769

This “fascinating” biography of a South African-born warrior provides a window into a full century of military conflicts(Adam Makos, New York Times–bestselling author of A Higher Call). Four-War Boer traces Pieter Krueler’s highly colorful life from the Second Boer War, where he first served as a fourteen-year-old scout, to his service in World War I with the German army in East Africa to the Spanish Civil War to World War II, this time with the Allies, and on into the latter part of the twentieth century, when he served as a mercenary during the 1960s Congo Crisis. Later, in his eighties, he became a civilian trainer for the original Selous Scouts of Rhodesia and, later still, a trainer for South African commandos. The book follows Krueler through a remarkable career that included, among other adventures, leading native African soldiers on extremely dangerous missions in the Belgian Congo; volunteering as a mercenary during the Spanish Civil War, during which he worked with the Pyrenees Basque movement; serving as a coast watcher to keep South Africa safe from German incursion; and fighting alongside Michael Hoare during the 1960s Congo Crisis. A chapter is devoted to the formation of Rhodesia’s highly elite Selous Scouts, along with highlights of several previously classified missions. This material includes a wealth of new information, and breaks the secrecy surrounding Rhodesian and South African special operations, as unveiled through the experience of a man who was a founding father of counterinsurgency in Africa. Based on six years of historical research through hard-to-find secondary and published primary sources, as well as extensive interviews with Krueler himself, and interviews with German officers and others who knew and worked with him, this biography is filled with extensive first-person testimony that gives it the immediacy of a memoir.