![]() ![]() Somali men working as “guns for hire” ride past ruins in August 2011. AFP/GETTY IMAGES ![]() PMCs coming in from outside raise difficult questions about foreign motives and exploitation of African nations and their valuable resources. Their use fuels ongoing debates about accountability. They have been a steady presence in Africa for at least a generation, selling their services in high-profile conflicts all over the continent. These businesses, sometimes formed by veterans of national militaries, can provide anything from logistics and training to lethal force on the battlefield. Some more modern incarnations of the “soldier of fortune” are likely to be employed by what are called private military companies (PMCs). It was in that tiny island nation in October 1995 that French forces stormed the country to reverse his third coup there, marching the limping, gray-haired man out of the barracks outside the capital, Moroni. Starting in 1961, well-known French mercenary Bob Denard led uprisings in Angola, the former Belgian Congo, Benin, Zimbabwe (then called Rhodesia) and several times in the Comoros, according to The New York Times. A year later, Hoare and his men were tried in the hijacking. In an attempt to escape, the mercenaries commandeered an Air India plane back to South Africa, the BBC reported. An airport blunder by one man revealed a disassembled AK-47. In 1981, Hoare’s career ended in embarrassment when he and 46 of his recruits tried to overthrow the socialist government of President France Albert René in the Seychelles. His men became known as “The Wild Geese,” and a fictional movie was based on their exploits. ![]() He fought at the behest of Congolese Prime Minister Moïse Tshombe against the communist-backed Simba rebellion in 1964, according to a February 2020 BBC obituary. Michael “Mad Mike” Hoare, a British Army veteran of World War II, once was considered the world’s best-known mercenary. Such fighters also were hallmarks of colonial and Cold War eras. Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II is said to have used more than 10,000 mercenaries in the 13th century B.C. ![]() Mercenaries also have deep roots in African warfare. His exploits included fighting in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo and leading a failed coup in the Seychelles. Michael Hoare, shown in 1964, was known as “Mad Mike” and was among the best-known mercenaries to fight in Africa. Soldiers for hire have populated many of history’s well-known wars, from the Balearic Islands shepherds who fought for Carthage during the Punic Wars against Rome, to the German auxiliary soldiers known as Hessians who fought for the British in the American Revolution. Persia’s King Xerxes I is said to have employed Greek fighters in 484 B.C. Mercenaries are about as old as war itself. The modern mercenary is more likely to operate under a corporate banner, sometimes with government ties, striking deals with legitimate administrations to crush insurgencies and end civil wars. In Forsyth’s story, the small band of hired guns are veterans of other clandestine battles, operating through shadowy deals, selling their services to questionable benefactors. The novel, and the 1980 movie based upon it, tells a violent tale that paints a stereotypical picture of mercenaries: cynical, amoral, highly trained, heavily armed, single-minded and beholden to those who pay them. Size: 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall.In Frederick Forsyth’s 1974 novel, “The Dogs of War,” a band of mercenaries slips into a small, fictional African nation at the direction of a Western tycoon bent on deposing the nation’s dictator to exploit valuable platinum. Magazine, illustrations, 76pp., classifieds excised due to lawsuit considerations, otherwise would be 'fine'. The famous American paramilitary and mercenary magazine devoted to covering wars and hot spots around the world and assisting and reporting on the involvement of veterans and mercs into these conflicts, the training and operations of elite special operations forces, accounts from Vietnam veterans, surveying new weapons, discussing survival and survivalism, examining novel military tactics, anti-terrorist and counter-insurgency operations, much more, as well as filled with many military and paramilitary advertisements. 45 automatic, MAC Stinger, intrusion detection system, urban street survival much more. This issue with reports on Steele on knives, modern day bounty hunter Ralph Thorsen, interview with Sir Robert Thompson, terror in Beirut, an inside look at the PLO, war in Rhodesia, the Great Pot Plot, mercs of the American Revolution, snake bite, Star PD. ![]()
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