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, final rotation did not start until 18 December. At 1405 hours the following day, 7 December, the 36th Battalion began to arrive.
Greeted by a hail of incoming fire, nearly knocking their lead aircraft from the skies on final approach to landing at Élisabethville airport, Lieutenant-Colonel Michael Hogan, Officer Commanding 36th Battalion, elements of his battalion staff and two platoons of A Company entered Leopold Farm (the Irish camp) and were greeted with a very noisy fire fight immediately outside the post. Fire had been directed at the Irish camp since early morning, when at 0730 hours five mortar bombs dropped into the camp, and fire continued throughout the morning. An Irish UN patrol, tasked with the objective of locating the source of the firing, was unsuccessful and the Katangese pushed forward and were engaged by camp defence. They were beaten off just as the 36th Battalion arrived in camp. While having a meal in the mess, the roof of Leopold Farmhouse was hit by a 37mm shell and Lieutenant-Colonel Hogan’s plate was covered in ceiling plaster and debris. Firing by Katangese snipers, machine guns and mortars continued sporadically throughout the afternoon and also through the night. Indian 4.2 inch mortars, located at the Swedish camp, fired throughout the night; some 300 rounds onto the Tunnel and the Katangese Gendarmerie Camp Massart. The Irish were in the direct line of this fire and sleep was out of the question, especially for the newly arrived, uninitiated members of the 36th Battalion, whose first night in Katanga was spent in rain-filled trenches around the camp’s perimeter. The Gendarmerie harassment of the Irish continued the next morning, with sniping, mortar and machine gun fire. A fighting patrol was again dispatched and this time a number of snipers were cleared from nearby villas and a group of Gendarmerie, estimated at company strength, was routed. However, a mortar bomb scored a direct hit on an outhouse building in Leopold Farm killing Corporal Michael Fallon and wounding five other members of the 36th Battalion. An uneasy peace shattered, the second Battle of Katanga had begun and unknown to the men of the newly arrived A Company they were all too soon to take centre stage.
Point ‘E’ – The Liege Crossroads
Their patient determination to kill paid off and the Katangan Gendarmerie ambush set on Stanley Avenue was sprung to good effect. The impact of the anti-tank rounds’ direct hit rocked the Swedish UN armoured personnel carrier (APC) on its chassis, the seriously wounded gunner later dying of his injuries. Having been called to a conference of Unit Commanders and Staff Officers at UN Command HQ, Dogra Castle, the APC was transporting officers commanding the Swedish, Indian and two newly arrived Ethiopian battalions and their respective battalion commanders, both Irish battalion commanders (the handover still in progress), and selected staff officers of the various UN battalions. Its occupants were badly shaken, but as the APC was not disabled it limped on to UN Command HQ, only for them to come under heavy mortar fire mid-afternoon. In all approximately 106 rounds fell on the area, though the conference continued in the cellar. For the return journey, four APCs were provided to avoid this rich target presenting itself again in one vehicle and in the event this convoy was also ambushed by a company of Gendarmerie. This time, however, there were no casualties and the four APCs drove smartly through.
With ongoing sniper and mortar fire into the Irish and Swedish camps, the briefing had laid out that the requirement of the UN forces, but particularly the Irish and Swedish, was to push out and enlarge their respective battalion perimeters and so their camp defences. A combined operation was planned to expand UN control of the Élisabethville area in a direction towards the city
