LITMIR.BIZ

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it was miraculous it had not caught fire whilst airborne, considering the heat of the engines and the flammability of the high octane vapour. There to meet them were those whose own tour of duty had been eventful but was now nearing its end: the men of the 35th Battalion. They were on the apron’s tarmac, in the airport’s buildings, but mostly in slit-trenches, crawl trenches, weapon pits and command posts, defending its perimeter. The aircraft’s American crew, taking in this sight and already shaken by their exposure to incoming fire on final approach, commented on the experience that landing in Élisabethville ‘wasn’t just war, it was suicide’.

      Of immediate concern to the aircraft’s loadmaster was the real possibility of the soles of the Irish soldiers’ hobnail boots causing sparks to fly on contact with the tarmac as they formed rank from the rear of the plane and igniting the fuel now gushing from the wings and vaporising in the heat. They were extremely fortunate not to have been engulfed in a flying fireball on landing, as the requirement to apply the brakes to slow the aircraft often causes sparks. On this occasion none arose and there were instead no casualties among the aircraft’s forty-six Irish occupants. The planes took off again during the day, the first on its surviving three engines. The American crew was disinclined to linger in the Congo. For the 120 or so newly arrived members of the 36th Battalion, their first impression was stark, yet this was only a small taste of things to come.

      ‘Sit Rep’ (Situation Report) – Freedom of Movement

      ‘A’ Company counted the precise number of bullet holes in the USAF Globemaster’s airframe, forty-eight in all. Still disbelieving their eventful arrival and bonded in the moment of a share of their good fortune, they quickly understood the US aircrew’s collective desire not to remain on the airport’s apron to affect repairs. Leaving Africa if at all possible seemed a far more wise, welcome and attractive avenue to any other alternative suggested. Giving them some boxes of pack rations the Irish bade the air crew good luck and farewell, then steeled themselves for the new reality that faced them. They had hit the ground running and were uncertain where it was leading them. What was certain was the main route out of the airport was considered insecure, as sniping continued around the city. Movement to and from the airport for the UN was through ‘Route Charlie’ (Avenue de Aracarios), a less dangerous alternative.

      First reports of new developments in Congo came on 3 and 4 December 1961, two days before their departure from Ireland, as Katangese Gendarmerie, led by mercenaries, became very active in Élisabethville and on roads leading into the city. As a result, all UN and Irish troops were confined to their respective camps. At this stage the intention had been for the 36th Battalion to concentrate in Albertville and the Nyunzu and Niemba areas, but due to the deteriorating circumstances it became necessary to consider a change in plans and to have the 36th take over from the 35th in Élisabethville. The following day, the Katangese Gendarmerie placed a roadblock on one of the city’s main boulevards, blocking access to the airport.

      Hardly a random act its significance was to throw down the gauntlet to the UN, in effect saying if you do not control your freedom of movement we are going to do it for you. After some negotiation the Gendarmerie agreed the roadblock would be removed, but it was not and in addition firing commenced in the city. Irish troops around their camp known as ‘Leopold Farm’, were forced to withdraw to positions closer to the camp. A firm decision was taken in light of these new and grave circumstances to redirect the 36th Battalion to effect relief in situ in Élisabethville. The Katangese Gendarmerie, together with their white mercenary leaders, were determined to ratchet up the pressure on the UN forces. If A Company, newly arrived from Ireland, were in any doubt about the gravity of the situation they were in after the drama of their arrival, it was to become all too obvious over the coming days.

      An Uneasy Peace

      The abundance of backbone displayed by the Irish at Jadotville was in stark contrast to the dearth of political wisdom that placed them there. Unease existed that the predicament may have been caused by Belgian manipulations in the UN forum, machinations to adversely affect the ONUC’s need to address the security of isolated white settlements in Katanga. The tactical deployment of an organisation’s military assets ought to serve its political strategic aims in the first instance, and not be unscrupulously manoeuvred by others to their advantage. Troubling also was the UN forces’ inappropriately resourced military capabilities to match the assigned tasks. The mission’s overall objectives had often seemed uncertain, confused and ill-defined, while the dithering of the political decision-making adversely impeded the speed of the necessary military planning. Even more unsettling were the unexplained enigmatic circumstances surrounding the mystery of the tragic Dag Hammarskjöld plane crash. On 18 September, Hammarskjöld was en route to negotiate a cease fire when his Douglas DC-6 airliner crashed near Ndola, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) with no survivors. Accidental, maybe; suspicious, certainly; speculation, endless.

      Of enormous and immediate concern in theatre was that by the beginning of December relations between the UN and Katanga government had greatly deteriorated. Katangan Gendarmerie had established a number of roadblocks in the south of the city of Élisabethville, denying the UN freedom of movement in that direction. Subsequent to a series of unsuccessful negotiations, this stalled imposition of an imposed solution in the guise of operations Rampunch and Morthor, and the death of Dag Hammarskjöld in the plane crash, led Dr Conor Cruise O’Brien to voluntarily release himself from his UN assignment in Katanga and he departed the Congo. On 5 December, with A Company busily boarding the three USAF Globemasters at Dublin Airport to commence the 36th Battalion rotation from Ireland, there were reports in the newspapers of an impromptu press conference held in Cruise O’Brien’s New York hotel room the previous evening, where he accused the British of covert support for President Tshombe with the aim of getting his regime recognised.

      Meanwhile in Élisabethville, also on 5 December, the issue of the removal of the roadblocks was spontaneously combusting. Three days previously a roadblock was set up by Katangan Gendarmerie in the Tunnel, the railway that was the main link in and out of Élisabethville, and a number of UN personnel were ‘arrested’. Two Irish officers were fired upon near the roadblock but escaped uninjured. The following day a Swedish UN car was also fired upon, killing the driver and wounding three others. Twenty-four hours later another roadblock was erected at the roundabout on Avenue Saio-Stanley, a particularly sensitive spot lying on the route from UN headquarters to the airport, and a strong Swedish patrol failed to have this obstacle removed.

      An outright attack was launched on the Gendarmerie-held roundabout by a company of Indian Gurkhas and a mixed unit of one Irish platoon under Lieutenant Tom Quinlan, with two Ford armoured cars, two sections of Gurkhas and one Swedish APC, all under the command of an Indian, Captain Salaria. This force was ambushed near the old airstrip while en route, about one mile from the roundabout, but after a skirmish succeeded in joining up with the Indian Gurkha company and together reclaimed and freed the Avenue Saio-Stanley roundabout from Gendarmerie possession. The overall cost of this military exercise was one UN soldier and twenty-eight Gendarmerie killed.

      Sniping into the Irish HQ, Leopold Farm, began on the same day (5 December), with sporadic mortar fire in the vicinity. Within twenty-four hours, with A Company, 36th Battalion in the air en route to Congo, the bullets were flying in Élisabethville. UN jet fighters also appeared in the sky for the first time and while they did not fire their presence had a striking effect on the morale of the UN forces, particularly the Irish. Bitter memories of the September fighting during Operation Morthor and the handicaps imposed by a single unopposed Katanga Fouga Magister fighter over Jadotville, Lufira and Élisabethville were now assuaged. Now there was an answer to the Katangan strafing and bombing. As a result the few Katangan planes remaining confined themselves to night flying and their bombing was happily inaccurate.

      The Irish strength in Élisabethville was now very low. Most of A Company (seventy-two of all ranks) had been rotated out since 29 November, the 35th Battalion’s B Company was in Nyunsu and C Company was in Niemba, northern Katanga province. This left only ‘HQ’ Company, the armoured car group, and a platoon from A Company, 35th Battalion. While 5 December had originally been the date appointed for the final rotation of the 35th Battalion, and all preliminary packing, documentation and arrangements had been completed, plans had to be altered as a result of the situation erupting around them. In the event,

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