The 156 Irish UN peacekeepers who fought 3000+ Belgian, French, and Rhodesian led Katangan mercenaries. They did not face even a single casualty, and they only went on to surrender after running out of ammunition. Respect to these heroes.
The 156 Irish UN peacekeepers who fought 3000+ Belgian, French, and Rhodesian led Katangan mercenaries. They did not face even a single casualty, and they only went on to surrender after running out of ammunition. Respect to these heroes.
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If you haven’t seen the movie on Netflix I highly recommend
Since I forgot to mention in the title if you want to know more about ‘em you can look up the siege of Jadotville.
There’s also a movie-documentary of the same name on Netflix. It’s a pretty grand film and I recommend watching it.
Speaking as former military, this story is actually fairly well known amongst the American and various European militaries, but I had not heard of it until I was told of it by a German paratrooper on holidays in Potsdam.
The aftermath is another classic example of the appalling treatment the Irish Army has always received, even up to this day.
Unbelievable achievement and a credit to the Irish defence forces shame they had to wait so long for recognition.
[Elton Britt – Uranium Fever](https://youtu.be/acMqxcdxE0E)
We should be proud of all those guys. Heroes.
Legends!!! 💪
There was a memorial for this set up in a park recently in Athlone for the 75th anniversary.
I loved the film about this. One of the few decent performances by Jamie Dornan.
The only IDF I wanna hear about.
Not doxing myself but I know for a fact my uncle was there and maybe in the picture but I’d have to ask him, front and centre definitely looks like him but he has a bit less hair now. He never talks about his time in the army and he retired in the early 2000s. He just talks about not being able to talk about it. Like there was regulations about who you could tell because that info could be used to target your family. He is a quiet dude but just secretly the most dangerous man in any room. He had a picture of himself in full gear dangling from the big red building in the Curragh on a wire which impressed me a lot when I was younger.
I’m guessing the Congo was rich in oil or minerals, hence the UN wanting to bring soldiers over. Incredible achievement to not suffer even a single casualty, a lot of those Irish lads were probably very young.
Just saw a post in here the other day and everyone was saying ireland doesn’t do anything, lmfao.
The Irish had 5 casualties
Edit: do you people even know what a casualty is?
The real “300” .. Gerard butler on the left
Uncle was a CQM in the Irish army, he knew a few of these lads later in life.
They’re all trained marksmen. If you notice in the movie, there’s a lot of different weapons being used from the Irish side, they were all trained to be the best they could with those weapons and they had great affect from a trench position.
Thats what I was told anyway
This post strikes home for me. My great grandfather was part of the Irish defence forces. I think he was deployed to the Congo. Well done to the lads here.
I think it does go to show how good Irish soldiers are, some Irish elite units are regarded as the best
My father in law was in the Congo, he was part of the relief force sent in to help. He’s told me stories of his time there, very fascinating. The army at the time were so far behind other nations, he said it was an eye opener.
It’s interesting to note that their attackers were Katangese gendarmerie who were equipped and trained by Belgium and both sides were using the same infantry rifle i.e. the FN-FAL. The disparity in the casualty figures, 5 Irish soldiers injured as opposed to 1300 Katanganese killed or wounded can most likely be explained by the quality of training, leadership and esprit de corps.