Movie: Siege of Jadotville: Lot's of vintage mil weaponry on display

Frulk

Frulk

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Currently on NetFlix. Watched it last night. True story about the Irish United Nations peacekeepers in the Congo in 1960. Lots (and I mean LOTS) of mil weaponry on display I'm sure some of our vintage mil arms buffs on THR will really appreciate. I especially liked the Vickers.

I'll take something my father used to say about the 82nd AA and apply it here.

The Irish, always outnumbered, often outgunned...never outmanned!

Worth watching in my estimation.

Siege of Jadotville - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
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Very good flick - and a great example of how the military gets treated as pawns of the politicians. Although they never got all the recognition they deserved, at least there was some acknowledgement in the end.
 
The trailer is on Youtube. The movie is on Netflix and locations look pretty authentic: Dublin Ireland🇮🇪 and rural South Africa (vs. "the Belgian Congo 🇧🇪"). Sure beats Hollywood fakery.

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Navy87Guy said:
Very good flick - and a great example of how the military gets treated as pawns of the politicians. Although they never got all the recognition they deserved, at least there was some acknowledgement in the end.
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Ireland tried to forget about the whole Congo thing for fifty years, because they were ashamed of the fact they were willing participants in the whole nasty mess, where the UN would decide who would gets to be a country and who would not through military force. This small episode is being celebrated now because the UN would like to sweep the shame of the Congo operation in general under the rug, in order to play the sole arbitrator to who gets to be a country in Africa again.

You should read up on the Belgian Congo, specifically Operation Mortor (“Smash” in Hindi, as the ranking military officer in the ONUC was Indian), the UN military support of Joseph Mobutu, the brutal suppression of the Katanga separation attempt (mostly by Swedish, Irish and Indian troops), and the subsequent disaster that was/is the Republic of Congo. In a nutshell the Province of Katanga did not want to be part of the greater "Republic of the Congo", as their major source of money was the mines that produced very lucrative ore (uranium, industrial diamonds and copper) that could be sold to the west. However, the UN representative on the scene, Coner O'Brien (an Irishman) decided that this was not going to happen and ordered the UN forces under his control to invade Katanga and crush the separation attempt.

Was the Katagan leader (Moïse Tshombe) a nice guy? No. Was Kantanga's separation encouraged by French and Belgian mining intrests? Probably. Where ther European mercenaries in Katanga at the time of the UN invasion? No, they had all been expelled in two UN sweeps through the country prior to the actual invasion.

Incidently, A Company was returned to their parent unit after one month (after a cease-fire was negotiated), and did particpate in the continued fighting in Katanga until their six-month tour of duty was up.

Ireland, the United Nations and the Congo

UN "Peacekeeping" in the Congo 1960-64

Seceession and Separatist Conficts in Post Colonial Africa
Frulk said:
Currently on NetFlix. Watched it last night. True story about the Irish NATO peacekeepers in the Congo in 1960. Lots (and I mean LOTS) of mil weaponry on display I'm sure some of our vintage mil arms buffs on THR will really appreciate. I especially liked the Vickers.

I'll take something my father used to say about the 82nd AA and apply it here.

The Irish, always outnumbered, often outgunned...never outmanned!

Worth watching in my estimation.

Siege of Jadotville - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
Click to expand...

UN, not NATO. Ireland is not part of the North American Treaty Organization.
 
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lysanderxiii​

Yup. Thanks for pointing that out. I know the difference between UN and NATO. Was thinking one thing and typing another. Going to fix the original post right now.
 
Frulk said:
Currently on NetFlix. Watched it last night. True story about the Irish United Nations peacekeepers in the Congo in 1960. Lots (and I mean LOTS) of mil weaponry on display I'm sure some of our vintage mil arms buffs on THR will really appreciate. I especially liked the Vickers.

I'll take something my father used to say about the 82nd AA and apply it here.

The Irish, always outnumbered, often outgunned...never outmanned!

Worth watching in my estimation.

Siege of Jadotville - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
Click to expand...
I thought this was really a pretty good movie. Worth the watch.
 
Hopefully the photo shown isn't the add for the movie.
Ouch!, just checked you-tube and saw the netflix trailer photo too.

The guy is clearing carrying a Type 2 FAL in 1961?
But hey, that's Hollywood for you.

JT
 
Robert said:
Those are SLRs, not FALs 😉

But the one in the photo might actually be an FAL...it's got a Belgian flash hider...
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It sure looks like a FAL to me with those sights and the angled milled out recess type 2 receiver.
The trailer I watched showed FALs (that gave me a chance to freeze on) used by the defending forces, but you are correct Robert,
they should have had UK SLRs if they had self loaders at all!
Lots of Swedish Ks as well, but not a single Sterling either.

JT
 
JT-AR-MG42 said:
Hopefully the photo shown isn't the add for the movie.
Ouch!, just checked you-tube and saw the netflix trailer photo too.

The guy is clearing carrying a Type 2 FAL in 1961?
But hey, that's Hollywood for you.

JT
Click to expand...

It still gives me the fuzzies even if it isn't hysterically correct.
:p
 
Twisted Chemist said:
Yes, I agree. However, the ending is very close to reality. Soldiers fight battles for politicians who promptly betray them to CTA.
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Yeah, it was a failure by the U N but those boys got the recognition they deserved even though a lot of them were dead by the time that happened.
 
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