An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir July/August 2014 www.dfmagazine.ie 34 | R ecently a friend and former colleague, Lt Col Ray Roche, contacted me in relation to an article in his home newspaper, the Wexford People, about Charles Kearney from Camolin, Co Wexford, who came to the aid of Irish uN soldiers fighting for their lives at Jadotville during the conflict in the Congo in the 1960s. He was captured and faced execution but survived and of- fered his services to the UN forces and remained in Katanga for four more years, clearing roads and reconstruct- ing bridges to Jadotville and Kolwezi that had been de- molished by Katangan and mercenary forces. A pho- tograph of myself and members of my platoon beside a UN helicopter at Jadotville was published in the article. I wrote to the editor stating that it was members of my platoon who were in the photo- graph, that I met Charles Kearney in Jadotville, and that the members of A Coy, 35 Inf Bn, regarded him as a hero who deserved recognition for his unselfish actions, giving us invaluable intelligence, while losing his job and almost his life as a consequence. I was a young lieutenant with A Coy (Pl Comd, 3 Platoon) on September 2nd 1961, when our OC, Comdt Pat Quinlan, ordered the company to move immediately from the airport at Elizabethville to Jadotville, some 60 miles away, on orders from the battalion commander. Our mission was to protect the inhabitants in the event of possible rioting breaking out. We were no sooner established in the town than we were surrounded by hundreds of Katangan troops led by merce- nary soldiers recruited by President Tshombe and his govern- ment. We were cut off from supplies and reinforcements as the Katangans held the bridge over the Lufira River some 50 miles from our base in Elizabethville and we were also denied entrance into Jadotville itself by a strong force of heavily armed troops. We were unaware that the hundreds of mer- cenaries we had removed from Katanga during Operation 'Rum Punch' some weeks previously had returned to Katanga through Northern Rhodesia (zambia) and were now pouring into Jadotville. Tension was heightened as the Katangans drove their fully armed troops through our area hourly, trying to provoke us into action. Comdt Quinlan requested instructions from Bat- talion HQ and was told not to worry and stay put. Tension increased dramatically as our supply truck was stopped at the Lufira Bridge, leaving us without supplies. That night we received a message from inside Jadot- ville from Charles Ke- arney from Wexford, a civilian working in the mines at Union Miniere, that we were in grave danger and that mercenar- ies were stirring up trouble in the native villages urging an attack on UN forces. Over the following days he gave Comdt Quinlan valuable intel- ligence as to when an attack might occur and the location By CAPT NOEL CAREy (RETD) Members of 3 Pln beside a UN helicopter in Jadotville, September 1961. Prisoners being interrogated at Camp Massard, Elizabethville, L/R: Capt Mick Purfield, Capt Terry McKeever, Charles Kearney and Capt Mark Carroll. From L/R: Pte Matt Quinlan and Sgt Walter Hegarty prepare a defensive trench in Jadotville, September 1961. Photo: Courtesy of John Gorman. Charles Kearney of Camolin, Co Wexford. Prisoners at Camp Massard with Katangan guards, L/R: Capt Mick Purfield, Capt Terry McKeever, Charles Kearney and extreme right Capt Mark Carroll, September 1961.

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