Quartermaster, Sergeant Pat Neville.
Mortaring and machine gun fire continued into No. 1 and Support Platoon areas and Sergeant Tom Kelly decided it was time to make a reply. Aided by information passed previously by Wexfordman Charles Kearney, Belfastman Terry Barbour and Hamish Mathieson from Scotland, all workers with Union Minière, he sought to put the Katangans and mercenaries on the receiving end of an Irish mortar barrage. With the aid of a map he brought the 60mm mortars into play at the extreme limit of their range and coordinated their fire onto the golf club area. Three rounds later, the opposing Katangan 75mm was blown to smithereens. They struck the ammunition supply stacked behind the mortar and up the whole lot went: gun, ammo, and crew. This breathing space, welcome though it was, did not last long.
The infantry onslaught was ongoing throughout the day, one advance involving more than 500 men, but the Katangans continued to be repulsed by the Irish, who inflicted heavy casualties. Heat, fatigue, dust and thirst came to the fore, but before these could be addressed another difficulty arose that required a response. During one assault some snipers had managed to infiltrate into one of the unoccupied villas in the Support Platoon area of the Irish lines. Their firing was becoming a cause for concern but Sergeant John Monaghan had the solution: he employed an 84mm anti-tank gun to good effect and took out the villa, snipers and all. This seemed to settle matters for the day and the Katangans, using an existing phone line to the Purfina Garage, requested a ceasefire to collect their wounded. Commandant Quinlan agreed to their request.
With the approach of dusk, Company Sergeant Jack Prendergast crawled to the trenches occupied by the platoon commanders, informing them that a relief column from Élisabethville was on its way and would be with them by nightfall. The message spread rapidly around the company positions, greeted with relief by everyone for the great news that it was, and the resultant soar of morale was palpable. Having acquitted themselves well, they were going to be reinforced and rescued. As if to confirm their delight, the audible thumps and thuds of mortar fire and other weapons could be heard from the direction of Lufira Bridge. ‘Force Keane’, Irish troops with Swedish APC support led by Commandant Johnny Keane, was engaged in an offensive action to break through to the besieged A Company.
With the cessation of noise from the bridge, the members of A Company began to wonder how long it would take their rescuers to arrive in Jadotville. As the time passed when ‘Force Keane’ ought to have appeared, A Company continued to wait. A runner arrived to summon the platoon commanders to a Commanding Officers (COs) conference, to be held in a villa now used as the Company HQ. It was the first time they had seen each other since the commencement of the day’s extraordinary hostilities. Commandant Quinlan congratulated each of them on the actions of their respective platoons, but then came the bombshell: their would-be rescuers had returned to Élisabethville. Encountering heavy fire at Lufira Bridge, ‘Force Keane’ achieved no success in their attempt to overcome it. Stunned, the platoon commanders could not comprehend why ‘Force Keane’ had not maintained pressure on the bridge’s defenders throughout the night and attacked again at first light. Instead, incomprehensibly to the platoon commanders, ‘Force Keane’ had decided to return to Élisabethville, leaving them, as they saw it, to the mercy of a rapidly growing Katangan force led by mercenaries. By that time the estimated strength of the force opposing them was in the order of 2,000 troops.
After a day of extremes; shock, elation, self-revelation and now devastation, it was with a dreadful feeling that they returned to their trenches. Commandant Quinlan had asked them not to tell their platoons as it could affect morale. Darkness descended, and with it new problems. With no forward protection, such as barbed wire, trip flares or mines, and with scrub coming close to their positions it was difficult to see an enemy approach. They remained on the alert and rotated within individual trenches so the troops could get some rest, but in the cramped space it was difficult. Flares from Verey guns were fired occasionally to light the battlefield, though this was more for morale than effect, as they proved of limited use against the scrub surrounding the Company. During the night the Company cooks did manage to get what was to become known as ‘Jadotville Stew’ to the trenches, but water was becoming scarce as they were consuming large quantities. Another problem was to contain the reckless firing, as some of the troops became jittery at the slightest sound. Exhaustion began to set in and sleep was necessary but proved elusive.
At first light on 14 September, all Platoon positions came under sporadic machine gun and mortar fire and the minds of A Company once again began to concentrate sharply and focus their attention on whatever the day ahead would bring. Mortar bombs exploded around them as they hugged the cover of their trenches, thankful not to be caught exposed out in the open. Unfortunately, Sergeant Wally Hegarty, No. 2 Platoon, who was moving towards a villa for water when the barrage commenced, was caught without cover. The first two mortar impacts exploded nearby, blowing the roof off the villa, and the third hit him in the legs and buttocks as he desperately dived for cover. Sergeant Hegarty was taken to the casualty station, where he was attended to, and was back in action with his platoon the next day. Meanwhile the mortar fire intensified and Sergeant Kelly and his 60mm mortar crew were once again called into action. With Corporal Foley giving directions, and fall of shot corrections relayed through Lieutenant Carey, after a few ranging rounds Sergeant Kelly ordered rapid fire. There was a flash, a loud explosion, and a cessation of incoming mortar fire.
Taking a welcome break and a refreshing drink, while ‘digging in’ at Jadotville.
Courtesy of the Military Archives, Dublin
Around noon, A Company heard the noise of a jet aircraft coming from the direction of Jadotville and suddenly in the bright sunshine they could see a plane fly along the valley in front of their positions, wheel around, and fly over them again, this time more slowly. Some of the company waved, thinking it was a UN aircraft, but it accelerated and flew back towards Jadotville. An hour and a half later they saw the jet again as it flew along the valley, only this time it climbed into the dazzling sun. There was a shout of ‘get down’ as the plane suddenly swooped on the Purfina garage and strafed the building, blowing out the windows, and dropped two bombs on the courtyard of the garage causing large craters and loud explosions. The target was the petrol pumps and fuel tanks, which was another shock for the beleaguered Company as the last thing they expected was being bombed and strafed by a jet aircraft.
They felt completely vulnerable in their trenches. Dispersed and without good communications, the individual platoons had no idea if there were casualties or not. Only by shouting from trench to trench, platoon by platoon, did they learn that luckily no one was wounded. Commandant Quinlan, who was everywhere, placed the two armoured cars in such a manner as to criss-cross the fire of their Vickers machine guns, leaving Lieutenant Kevin Knightly in charge of their newly ordained anti-aircraft role. Still recovering from the shock of it all, an hour and a half later the Fouga Magister jet was back from its airbase in Kolwezi to bomb them again. The armoured cars put up a barrage of fire but the jet was gone. This time the bombs fell into the bush beside the road.
Darkness descended and fatigue set in, as did the effects of a second day of heat, dust, sunburn, and the shock of being bombed from the air by an enemy jet fighter. A successful infiltration by a number of Katangans saw them reach the villas between the platoons, whereupon they commenced sniping on the Irish. With Captain Liam Donnelly directing, Company Sergeant Prendergast and Sergeant John Monahan put a swift end to the threat with an 84mm anti-tank gun. During this exchange, however, a member of No. 3 Platoon, Private John Manning, was shot in the shoulder and evacuated to the casualty station, which now had three occupants.
Commandant Quinlan now realised that A Company was physically overextended on the ground and in order to ensure an organised shape was maintained, where command and control could be better exercised, he ordered secondary trenches be dug close to No. 2 Platoon’s area, which No. 1 and Weapons Platoons would occupy. Within three hours these trenches were constructed and under cover of darkness stealthily occupied. A Company’s
