Africa

The Seige of Jadotville

The Seige of Jadotville

 

A movie review by Don Thomas.

The movie is based on the true story of A Company, 25th Infantry battalion of the Irish Defense Forces. It takes place in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sept. 1961. A Company is part of a larger UN Peace keeping force sent to the Congo during its Civil War and is Ireland's first international military deployment.
A Company under the command of Commandant Pat Quinlan is deployed to the small mining town of Jadotville as a protection force for the local settlers. As soon as they arrived Commandant Quinlan has the men dig defensive positions and site the few support weapons that he has which consisted of a couple of water cooled Vickers machine guns and 60mm mortars.

The Haversack and its Contents

The Haversack and its Contents

 

The Haversack is an important and often overlooked part of the soldiers gear.  In the British Army, it is also known as a bread bag and was used to carry the soldiers food rations.

Haversacks have been used for a long time, but by the 1700's the British Army started to standardize the sizes so that each soldier could carry the prescribed amount of food that was issued, and no less.