Mike Hoare
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Thomas Michael Hoare (b. 1920–) (Mad Mike) is a mercenary leader known for military battles in Africa and the Indian Ocean.
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[edit] Early life and military career
Hoare was born in Dublin, Ireland. He served in North Africa as an armour officer in the British military during World War II, and achieved the rank of Captain. After the war, he emigrated to Durban, South Africa, where he ran safaris and became a soldier-for-hire in various African countries.
[edit] Congo crisis
During the Congo Crisis Mike Hoare organised and led two separate mercenary groups:
- 1960-1961. Major Mike Hoare's first mercenary action was in Katanga, a province trying to breakaway from the newly independent Congo. The unit was called "4 Commando". During this time he married Phyllis Simms, an airline stewardess.
- 1964. Congolese Prime Minister Moïse Tshombe hired "Colonel" Mike Hoare to lead a military unit called "5 Commando" made up of about 300 men most of whom were from South Africa. The unit's mission was fight a breakaway rebel group called Simba. Later Hoare and his mercenaries worked in concert with Belgian paratroopers, Cuban exile pilots, and others who attempted to save 1,600 civilians (mostly Europeans and missionaries) in Stanleyville from the Simba rebels in Operation Dragon Rouge. (Operation Dragon Rouge 1 . This operation saved many lives [1].
[edit] Hoare's book about Congolese fighting
In his book "Congo Mercenary", Hoare described his time as a soldier in Congo. Hoare described many incidents such as the following: a mercenary under his command was said by other soldiers to have raped and killed a young girl. In the book he says he was a member of military tribunal who tried. The other two men on the tribunal recommended that the man be executed or receive 35 lashes with a cat o' nine tails as punishment. The sentence by Hoare which was carried out was for the offenders's big toes to be severed, as he had enjoyed playing professional football. Hoare says he personally shot off the man's toes with an automatic pistol.
[edit] Nigerian Civil War
During the Nigerian Civil War, (1967 – 1970), Mike Hoare fought as a soldier-for-hire on the Biafran side. [1]
[edit] The Seychelles affair
In 1978, Seychelles exiles in apartheid South Africa, acting on behalf of ex-president James Mancham, began discussions with officials concerning a coup attempt to be launched in Seychelles.
Associates of Mancham contacted Hoare, who was living in South Africa as a civilian, to fight alongside 53 other including members of the South African special forces (Recces), several former Rhodesian soldiers and ex-Congo mercenaries[2]. Hoare agreed to fight for Mancham[citation needed].
When attempting the coup, Hoare and many of the others were disguised as tourists: rugby players and members of a beer-drinking group called the Ancient Order of Frothblowers[3]. They arrived in a Royal Swazi jet on Mahé, carrying their own weapons. Nine mercenaries (members of Hoare's advance guard) were already on the island on the evening of Wednesday, November 25, 1981.
The coup attempt was halted when an alert customs official spotted an AK-47 assault rifle in the luggage of one of the mercenaries.
The invaders fought a brief gun-battle at the airport. During the fight one mercenary was killed as well as an army officer and a police sergeant was wounded. The casualties were 2nd lieutenant David Antat and Johan Fritz of Westcliff, South Africa. Five soldiers, a female accomplice and Martin Dolinchek (alias Anton Lubic) were left behind. 45 of the soldiers escaped aboard an Air India jet (Air India Boeing aircraft Flight 224) which happened to be on the tarmac and which they hijacked. The mercenaries took some hostages, who were later freed unharmed.
The Seychelles government arrested the seven (6 men and 1 woman) who remained on the Seychelles and tried the men (June-July 1982). The charges against the woman were dropped. Four of the six were sentenced to death (Aubrey Brooks, Carey, England and Puren), Dolinchek was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment and Sims to 10. The South African government opened negotiations for the return of the 6 arrested men. The SA government paid President René a ransom of $3 million after negotiating with President René. All of the arrested soldiers were eventually returned to South Africa in 1983.
In January 1982 an International Commission, appointed by the UN Security Council, made an inquiry into the coup attempt. The UN report concluded South African defence agencies had been involved in the attempted takeover, including supplying weapons and ammunition[4].
Hoare and the other soldiers were tried on their return to South Africa, but not for having attempted to organize a coup in a foreign country; rather, they were tried for specific offenses under the Civil Aviation Offenses Act of 1972.
Hoare conducted his own defence towards the end of the trial. Justice Neville James told the court Hoare, 63, was "an unscrupulous man with a highly cavalier attitude to the truth".
Hoare was sentenced to ten years in prison. Peter Duffy, Mike Webb, Tullio Moneta and Pieter Doorewaard were sentenced to 5 years, Ken Dalgliesh to 1 year, and Charles Goatley to 2 1/2 years. Hoare was released in 1985.
[edit] The Wild Geese
In the mid-1970s, Hoare was hired as technical adviser for the film The Wild Geese, the fictional story of a group of mercenary soldiers hired to rescue a deposed African president. Ironically, Colonel Alan Faulkner (played by Richard Burton) was patterned on Hoare himself. At least one of the actors in the film had been an actual mercenary under Hoare's command.
[edit] Works by Mike Hoare
Congo Mercenary, London: Hale (1967), ISBN 0-7090-4375-9
Congo Warriors, London: Hale (1991), ISBN 0-7090-4369-4
The Road to Kalamata : a Congo mercenary's personal memoir, Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books (1989), ISBN 0-669-20716-0
The Seychelles affair, Bantam, ISBN 0-593-01122-8
Three Years with Sylvia, London: Hale, ISBN 0-7091-6194-8
[edit] Notes
- ^ 1965-12-19, "Changing Guard", Time
- ^ 1982-08-09, "Cooked Goose", Time
- ^ 1982-08-09, "Cooked Goose", Time
- ^ http://www.news24.com/Content_Display/TRC_Report/2chap2.htm
[edit] External links
- Mike Hoare Research Page If you are a scholar with an academic interest in Colonel Hoare and his career, you can send a message to this site.
