The Siege of Jadotville on Netflix
Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2016 11:17 pm
Happened to watch this a few weeks back. It was one of the added today movies and I wanted to watch a war movie. Learned myself something new in history.
1961 in the Congo. Katanga province, the place where we got the uranium from for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A leader was trying to break off from the Congo and keep all the money, katanga was the province with all the nice resources to sell. And the French were all for it, to the tune of sending 1,000 Legionaires as "Mercenaries" to help out.
The Irish volunteered some of their army as part of the peacekeepers, with an Irish General and an Irish politico called Doctor something as the boss of the peacekeeping forces. They had a big plan to carry out, much publicity. And in the middle of carrying it out, a single company of Irish soldiers at a place called Jadotville, armed with a couple of WWII Vickers MGs, and mostly WWII bolt action rifles with a few SMGS and FALs, and in the movie at least, one lousy 60 mortar, were besieged and attacked by a force of 3 to 5,000 men, tribesmen led by the French mercenaries and Belgian settlers, who had heavy MGs, multiple mortars, a 75mm gun, and an armed jet aircraft.
The fight lasted for 6 days. Of the attackers, at least 300 were killed and at least 1,000 wounded, figure half of those died. The Irish had plenty of wounded, but nobody died. Except maybe the 2 helo pilots that got shot down trying to pick up some wounded, the movie isn't real clear on that, but it sure looked like they died. That one helo and a single weak attempt tried to get over a bridge to get there that got stopped by a much larger force was the only help they got. Their general and his boss the doctor were too busy announcing their big plan had worked to tell the press about Jadotville. They covered up to the point that after a day or two they stopped talking to the company and started ignoring their calls for ammo and relief.
When the Irish were completely out of bullets they surrendered. They surrendered and about a month later were released and went home. Where, in the name of coverup they were told to shut up or be court martialed for cowardice for surrendering and it wasn't until the past ten years of so that the truth was known in Ireland.
These guys fought the Alamo. Only without the nice stone walls and the 29 cannon. The only walls they had were the fighting positions they dug when they got there. The enemy mortars were only a brief problem as the Irish proved to have way better aim with theirs. The wiki says "mortars", but in the movie they just had the one mortar. They pretty much killed the enemy in about the same amounts as happened in Texas if you figure half that 1,000 wounded also died, which this being the Congo, figure at least half must have done so. And they were members of an army that had never been to war, totally green troops and leaders. And they all went home afterward, some shot up, but they went home. The movie implied a lot more than 5 wounded, but wikipedia says just 5 were wounded. But they got no medals, the commanders who had abandoned them made sure to screw them over afterward.
All in all a pretty decent movie about a forgotten war.
1961 in the Congo. Katanga province, the place where we got the uranium from for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A leader was trying to break off from the Congo and keep all the money, katanga was the province with all the nice resources to sell. And the French were all for it, to the tune of sending 1,000 Legionaires as "Mercenaries" to help out.
The Irish volunteered some of their army as part of the peacekeepers, with an Irish General and an Irish politico called Doctor something as the boss of the peacekeeping forces. They had a big plan to carry out, much publicity. And in the middle of carrying it out, a single company of Irish soldiers at a place called Jadotville, armed with a couple of WWII Vickers MGs, and mostly WWII bolt action rifles with a few SMGS and FALs, and in the movie at least, one lousy 60 mortar, were besieged and attacked by a force of 3 to 5,000 men, tribesmen led by the French mercenaries and Belgian settlers, who had heavy MGs, multiple mortars, a 75mm gun, and an armed jet aircraft.
The fight lasted for 6 days. Of the attackers, at least 300 were killed and at least 1,000 wounded, figure half of those died. The Irish had plenty of wounded, but nobody died. Except maybe the 2 helo pilots that got shot down trying to pick up some wounded, the movie isn't real clear on that, but it sure looked like they died. That one helo and a single weak attempt tried to get over a bridge to get there that got stopped by a much larger force was the only help they got. Their general and his boss the doctor were too busy announcing their big plan had worked to tell the press about Jadotville. They covered up to the point that after a day or two they stopped talking to the company and started ignoring their calls for ammo and relief.
When the Irish were completely out of bullets they surrendered. They surrendered and about a month later were released and went home. Where, in the name of coverup they were told to shut up or be court martialed for cowardice for surrendering and it wasn't until the past ten years of so that the truth was known in Ireland.
These guys fought the Alamo. Only without the nice stone walls and the 29 cannon. The only walls they had were the fighting positions they dug when they got there. The enemy mortars were only a brief problem as the Irish proved to have way better aim with theirs. The wiki says "mortars", but in the movie they just had the one mortar. They pretty much killed the enemy in about the same amounts as happened in Texas if you figure half that 1,000 wounded also died, which this being the Congo, figure at least half must have done so. And they were members of an army that had never been to war, totally green troops and leaders. And they all went home afterward, some shot up, but they went home. The movie implied a lot more than 5 wounded, but wikipedia says just 5 were wounded. But they got no medals, the commanders who had abandoned them made sure to screw them over afterward.
All in all a pretty decent movie about a forgotten war.