Siege of Jadotville

TelePaul

Heya lads. Was wondering if anyone knows of any books or further souces of information concerning the Sige of Jadotville in the Congo? WOuld like to find out as much as I can about it.

eroo

The Siege at Jadotville: The Irish Army's Forgotten Battle
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Siege-Jadotville-Irish-Forgotten-Battle/dp/0954870719

Heroes of Jadotville: The Soldier's Story
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Heroes-Jadotville-Soldiers-Rose-Doyle/dp/1905494319/ref=pd_sim_b_img_2

The Irish Army in the Congo 1960-1964: The Far Battalions
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Irish-Army-Congo-1960-1964-Battalions/dp/0716533197/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b

TelePaul

eroo wrote: »

The Siege at Jadotville: The Irish Army's Forgotten Battle
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Siege-Jadotville-Irish-Forgotten-Battle/dp/0954870719

Heroes of Jadotville: The Soldier's Story
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Heroes-Jadotville-Soldiers-Rose-Doyle/dp/1905494319/ref=pd_sim_b_img_2

The Irish Army in the Congo 1960-1964: The Far Battalions
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Irish-Army-Congo-1960-1964-Battalions/dp/0716533197/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b

Cheers man! Have you by any chance read any of these?

eroo

No,but I have been told that they are great books.Had a quick flick through book no.3,looked absolutely brilliant.Also,if you dare,search wikipedia for it for a quick synopsis!

Latchy

I have read the Siege at jadotvile and still have the book in question .It is well worth the read if only to bring to light this forgotten episode in the irish defence forces history involving the irish un contingent in the congo.
The Niemba massacre has occupied the headlines for decades and while not in any way forgetting the sadness of the whole incident ,it did overshadow other events involving irish troops such as Jadotville.

I think i read somwere that there is to be movies made of both events somtime in the future

Latch -

5th /12th batt's PDF - 1975/81

cp251

Heroes of Jadotville is available in Easons at the moment.

View Profile

Yeah ive read The Siege At Jadotville too. Great book.

Very interesting to hear about the details of the battle.

There was even a fighter jet firing at the Irish lads.:eek:

Kaiser_Sma

Thats interesting, never new there was such irish involvement with the UN that far back.

TelePaul

View Profile wrote: »

Yeah ive read The Siege At Jadotville too. Great book.

Very interesting to hear about the details of the battle.

There was even a fighter jet firing at the Irish lads.:eek:

Jesus! That's crazy!

cp251

It was a Fouga Magister. For all it's charms, the Fouga was basically an armed jet trainer not a fighter. Plenty scary to see one diving on you though. I experienced it at Gormanstown once. Interesting.

You know if it was a unit of the British army at Jadotville. They would have all got medals and be enshrined in the pantheon of heroes. The Irish government treated them shamefully. The were heroes in the great tradition of the Irish soldier down the ages.

eroo

could not agree more cp251

Latchy

Kaiser_Sma wrote: »

Thats interesting, never new there was such irish involvement with the UN that far back.

They have being remembering the niemba masacre since 1962 .It was a big event and occasion the for the army and irish goverment cuz up till then no irish army soldiers had died on active service at home or abroad.Compared to the british army loss's abroad since then ,it does get such big coverage for the loss of the nine men .Events at Jadotsville have always being overshadowed by Niemba .

eroo

cuz up till then no irish army soldiers had died on active service at home or abroad

Do the troops killed in the Civil War not count...?

Latchy

eroo wrote: »

Do the troops killed in the Civil War not count...?

No cuz i was refering to the free state troops after the country officially became a republic in 1949 .

eroo

oh right,misunderstood ya,sorry!

Latchy

eroo wrote: »

oh right,misunderstood ya,sorry!

No probs my friend ...

Mick86

latchyco wrote: »

No cuz i was refering to the free state troops after the country officially became a republic in 1949 .

Well they were Free State Troops before the country became a Republic in 1949 but not after, when the Irish Free State ceased to exist. Also, two Irish soldiers died in the Congo prior to the Niemba Ambush.

Free State soldiers who died in the Civil War have been shamefully ignored.

Latchy

Mick86 wrote: »

Well they were Free State Troops before the country became a Republic in 1949 but not after, when the Irish Free State ceased to exist.

Yeah , i should have used ' irish defence force troops ' / post Civil war

Also, two Irish soldiers died in the Congo prior to the Niemba Ambush

from memory i know that one died of natural causes

Free State soldiers who died in the Civil War have been shamefully ignored.

The whole Civil war itself was shamefully ingnored until recent times .

eroo

Free State soldiers who died in the Civil War have been shamefully ignored

thats what happens when you have Fianna Fail in power so often!Because of FF,National Army troops,Gardai and leaders such as Michael Collins,Arthur Griffith and Kevin O'Higgins are completely ignored because they were pro-Treaty..
also funny how FF once they got into Govt had absolutely no success in gaining what they had split over,a 32-County Republic..but more importantly for FF..they abolished the Oath;)

Well,I could go on a rant,but let's not!

Must pick up ''Irish Army in The Congo'' once the sales start..

Mick86

latchyco wrote: »

from memory i know that one died of natural causes.

Cause of death is irrelevant. He was still on active service.

latchyco wrote: »

The whole Civil war itself was shamefully ingnored until recent times .

Not really, there are many monuments to IRA men who died in the Civil War, while there are no monuments to National Army soldiers. Some monuments commemorate IRA men killed in particular actions and ignore the casualties from the other side.

TelePaul

To revive this and set it back on topic, I'd been looking for one of those books for ages. I happened to stumble across Heroes of Jadotville in an airport shop. Was a pretty good read if a little meandering. It certainly describes the battle itself very well. I was actually very surprised at the level of expertise demonstrated by Cmdt. Quinlan considering the platoon's lack of experience. The cover-up was rough though.

Cato

Just finshed the heroes of Jadotville myself i found the first half of the book to be a little muddled in terms of the fighting giong on alot of vague descriptions and mixing up, or repating of events confuesed things a little, it seems to jump back and forth alot, i was hoping for a logical timeline of events...

Overall a good read to find out just exactly what happend which the book does in a sort of half arsed way, secound half was good it explain Quinlans frustation with UN beurocratic mess fairly well and what was happening politicaly in both camps reasons why events ocured leading up to the seige.

makes me wonder wether the UN has changed much? i see the dutch are still in court about their incident in serbia/bosinia, they are claiming there was no airsuport provided by UN and that they were stranded, sounds familiar...

Local-womanizer

Cato wrote: »

Just finshed the heroes of Jadotville myself i found the first half of the book to be a little muddled in terms of the fighting giong on alot of vague descriptions and mixing up, or repating of events confuesed things a little, it seems to jump back and forth alot, i was hoping for a logical timeline of events...

Overall a good read to find out just exactly what happend which the book does in a sort of half arsed way, secound half was good it explain Quinlans frustation with UN beurocratic mess fairly well and what was happening politicaly in both camps reasons why events ocured leading up to the seige.

makes me wonder wether the UN has changed much? i see the dutch are still in court about their incident in serbia/bosinia, they are claiming there was no airsuport provided by UN and that they were stranded, sounds familiar...

Its quite sickening how the Irish were treated in the Jadotville situation.I thought it was a good read because I was wile intrested in the topic but in terms of the writing it is a bit over the place,but dont let that put you off.

Latchy

The UN's reputation is at it's lowest now with the accusations of rape by indian peackeepers of africans ,the very people they were sent in to protect . The organisation and it's role as peacekeepers around the world will soon have to be redefined .

Morpheus

http://www.magnumphotos.com/Archive/C.aspx?VP3=ViewBox_VPage&PSID=2K1H9U5I24K&CT=Email&PN=1&IT=ThumbImage01_VForm&HBT=0


check out the lads running from the exploding ammo dump!!!

anyone know anymore about these photos?

the photos suggest they were taken in Elizabethville? what happened the ammo dump!!?

OS119

Cato wrote: »

makes me wonder wether the UN has changed much? i see the dutch are still in court about their incident in serbia/bosinia, they are claiming there was no airsuport provided by UN and that they were stranded, sounds familiar...

the UN hasn't changed at all. the fundamental problem was/is that the civilian UN staff got involved in the day-to-day implementation of peacekeeping/peace-enforcement - and nobody joins the UN so they can order air or artillery strikes.

as a general rule they will do everything possible to avoid making such an order - administrative delay, 'consulting', initially claiming the request is an over-reaction, then claiming they don't have the right assets to make the strike, then that they don't have the mandate, then switching their phone off until the moment passes.

the 'new' model is much better - for all concerned. the UN acts as the 'mandating authority', sub-contracts the PK/PE task to a military organisation like NATO/EU/AU, and dishes out the civil affairs work to UN bodies like UNHCR, and appoints a 'Governor-General' to oversee and co-ordinate the work of the two 'arms'. the big difference is that the 'Governor-General' isn't the arbitor of whether strikes go ahead or not, that role is kept within the PK/PE force and its parent organisation.

Jo King

Mick86 wrote: »

Well they were Free State Troops before the country became a Republic in 1949 but not after, when the Irish Free State ceased to exist. Also, two Irish soldiers died in the Congo prior to the Niemba Ambush.

Free State soldiers who died in the Civil War have been shamefully ignored.

The Irish Free State ceased to exist in 1938 when the new Constitution came into force. The state was usually known as Éire between 1938 and 1949.

Grudaire

I actually did a leaving cert history project on the Siege at Jadotville!

The books that are mentioned are the only real books on the subject as far as I remember, If you'd be remotely interested I can dig it out and shove it up online..

Other sources I used were:

• Military Archives - Cathal Brugha Barracks
• Newspapers from the time - National library

I was very amused with the bizarre reports that were given at home, some declaring that many of the Irish had died! I also visited the Irish UN Veteran's Association. There's plenty of info out there if you want it.

Frogeye

hi Lads

read some of those books and they are good. certainly the lads were wrongly ignored and demionised. Think the other UN units should have been the ones demionised for not supporting the Irish lads more.

A little off topic... just a little... anyone know where I can get more info on " the tunnel" and the Irish involvement? I got a first hand account of it the other night and am interested in it now.

As a further aside, i came across a hand written diary of one senior NCO who served in the congo a few months back. He was the S.Major with one of the batts. Only got to look at it for a few minutes. Very interesting and still in good condition. Heard there is talks of getting it published. Can't recall the mans name..... I know he is still alive and in his 90's me thinks. A very unique insight. There is a re union of congo vets in Baldonnel in July. They would have some stories to tell...... enhanced over the years no doubt!!!!!


Frogeye

minidazzler

Cliste wrote: »

I actually did a leaving cert history project on the Siege at Jadotville!

The books that are mentioned are the only real books on the subject as far as I remember, If you'd be remotely interested I can dig it out and shove it up online..

Other sources I used were:

• Military Archives - Cathal Brugha Barracks
• Newspapers from the time - National library

I was very amused with the bizarre reports that were given at home, some declaring that many of the Irish had died! I also visited the Irish UN Veteran's Association. There's plenty of info out there if you want it.

Throw it up, I'd like to read it!

Grudaire

Here's the link to it

I hate reading stuff I wrote, it seemed better when I was writing it!

I was looking for the articles I copied from the national library, and I know I have them somewhere... If I find them, I'll put them up as well.