"Wild Geese," Dogs of War, Mercs, SOF,

[Arthur Fliegenheimer]

The inspiration for the 1978 "The Wild Geese" and 1967 "Dark of The Sun" (both highly recommended movies) Thomas Michael Hoare, aka Mad Mike, died this year. While no TSMGs appear in either of these films or was a weapon of choice for Mike, it was for other mercs.

 

"The War that Never Was"
by Duff Hart-Davis 2011

A far bigger scandal would have resulted had the Egyptians or anyone else learned that, from 1964, Johnson’s men were being supplied by air-drops of ammunition and arms from Israeli planes, as a result of a top-secret deal between the mercenaries and Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service.

 

Operation Leopard, as it was codenamed, took place at night with Israeli pilots skilfully flying 14 missions into the high mountains to drop their consignments.

 

Every gun that was dropped to the British soldiers had to have its serial number brazed out lest they fall into enemy hands. Had their source been discovered the ramifications would be explosive.

 

Former SAS Lt. Col. Jim Johnson, former Commanding Officer of 21 SAS Yemen 1960s

 

Bob Denard French Merc in Comoros 1975

 

Mercenary wannabe being assessed in the 1980's.

 

 

 

[thirtyround]

Both Movies mentioned are great flicks. "Dark of the Sun" (1967) except for its original movie release airing was heavily cut/edited for any other presentation afterwards especially for TV. If anyone knows where to obtain this movie completely uncut, please advise, I'm interested in obtaining that version.

[jim c 351]

I have the "Dogs of War" and the "Wild Geese on disk. Two of my favorite. I own an Uzi so I can relate to both movies.

Jim C

[rpbcps]

No Mean soldier... Peter McAleese, a good friend of mine, now retired, with whom I had the pleasure to work with for a few years in Africa.

 

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8095517/Ex-SAS-trooper-tried-kill-Pablo-Escobar-auctions-medals-hard-dust.html

 

 

Not many people can say they earned both the Rhodesian and Zimbabwe Independence medals.

 

https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/18304314.times-past-glasgow-soldiers-farewell-arms-dramatic-career//

 

His book 'Beyond no Mean soldier', currently for sale on Amazon, is well worth reading.

 

You would not think it reading the book, but he is a real gentleman, for a Jock from Glasgow

 

Stay safe

 

Richard

[StrangeRanger]

I didn't care much for The Wild Geese. The script seemed weak and the characters two-dimensional. Dogs of War was world's better on all counts. It's been literally decades since I've seen Dark of the Sun but I recall it as being an excellent. FWIW both Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino with that assessment. The books upon which the latter two films were based are also worth reading

[Waffen Und Bier]

Dogs of War always a favorite. Although not a war film, at the beginning of Outbreak, they show mercenaries in The Congo at least one using a Thompson. Then there's always everyone's favorite, Roland.

[rpbcps]

Peters weapon of choice in Rhodesia was not a Thompson but an RPK, as the operations they embarked on needed some heavy fire power.

For example one raid in Nov 1977 when 97 Rhodesian SAS and 88 Rhodesian Light Infantry troops dropped into Mozambique to carry out a raid on two guerrilla training camps, where the Rhodesian intelligence services had identified they would find between 9,000 and 11,000 guerrillas, as well as Cuban, Chinese and East German advisors.

Remarkably the Rhodesians took no casualties during the raid, and even rescued a Rhodesian Selous scout prisoner they were not expecting to be there, but the enemy body count was an estimated 2,000+.

He told me that story, amongst others, while we ate a curry one weekend, made by Peter, he loved his curries, but the story of the Chimoio raid is to be found in his book.

Now this is a book full of real war stories, from his time in the British Paras and SAS in the 1960’s and early 70’s, to Mercenary work in Angola, onto Rhodesia and then South Africa carrying out operations with the 44 Parabats against SWAPO in Angola. He was also involved in an operation in Columbia to take out Pablo Escobar which ended tragically for Peter, amongst other adventures.

Peter is a great story teller, and none of his plots are weak, far from it.

Have a good weekend

Richard

[Arthur Fliegenheimer]

I didn't care much for The Wild Geese. The script seemed weak and the characters two-dimensional.

 

Had Colonel Faulkner (Richard Burton) assigned Lt. Shawn Flynn (Roger Moore) to be the pilot of the C-130 Hercules instead of relying on pilots in the employ of Sir Edward Matherson, the obvious flaw in the plan would have been fixed at the outset, but then the sequence of the pilots obeying the "pass them bye" order would have eliminated the requisite double-cross plot point.