# Mike Hoare's 5 Commando, Katanga



## Gunz (Sep 17, 2014)

He's still alive. 95 years old.


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## racing_kitty (Sep 17, 2014)

That's some serious longevity right there.  I was just wondering about him a few weeks ago.  I remember my dad telling me about him when I was a kid, after the first time I ever watched "The Wild Geese."  Not exactly a conventional bedtime story, to be sure.


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## 0699 (Sep 17, 2014)

I just finished re-reading _Congo Mercenary_ (again) a few months ago.


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## Gunz (Sep 18, 2014)

He's an interesting character, no doubt about it...not in the Billy Waugh caliber but a legend nonetheless. This is only a partial interview


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## pardus (Sep 18, 2014)

I read and was fascinated by this book when I was a teenager. http://www.amazon.com/The-new-mercenaries-Anthony-Mockler/dp/0283992964

The mercenary phenomenon in the 60's is an incredibly interesting subject. It was interesting being in Africa in the 90s and how the even newer mercenaries (Executive Outcomes etc...) were quite keen to distance themselves from the older guys. Due I'm sure to Mike Hoare's failed coup attempt in the Seychelles and the excesses of the likes of "COL" Callan in Angola in the 70's were in no small measure responsible for that.


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## Gunz (Sep 18, 2014)

The conflict itself is an interesting study. Belgium vs the UN, Katanga vs the Congo, Soviets vs U.S., mercenaries, CIA, KGB even Che Guevara getting thrown into the mix.

I bumped this up because I was thinking today of what Hoare was able to accomplish given the fact that he was basically recruiting mercenaries off the streets of South Africa and elsewhere and many, if not most, had no military experience whatsoever. He had his core cadre of former military professionals and combat vets, but a lot of the men who came to the Congo were raw, just looking for adventure.


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