Volunteering for Congo – July 1960

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Overview

Joe Mallon
Interviewed for MAOHP - 15/12/2017
Reference Code: IE_MA_MAC_006_MAOHP_010_E
Location(s): Duncannon Fort
Length: 2.37

In this clip, Company Sergeant Joe Mallon outlines how he was selected for the 32nd Battalion tour of the Congo in 1960. He recalls going on the first ever summer camp to Wexford to Duncannon Fort. After two days in the Summer Camp and that a Muster Parade was ordered. Lieutenant Dan Duffy then read out that United Nations had requested the Irish Government to send a battalion to the Congo informed the assemble that those who wanted to Volunteer for the tour to step forward. Joe outlines how quickly they ended up in the Congo from the moment they heard about it. The Muster Parade was on the Monday and by the Friday (27 July 1960), they were on the Globemaster plane towards the Congo. Duncannon fort was built on this site by Anglo-Normans in the 12th century. The present fort was built in 1587–88 under the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1 to defend Waterford from possible invasion by the Spanish Armada. In July 1960, Irish troops were sent to the Congo as part of the United Nations force. The Belgian Congo became an independent Republic on 30 June 1960. Soon after, the the Congolese government requested military assistance from the United Nations to maintain its territorial integrity. On 28 July 1960 Lt-Col Murt Buckley led the 32nd Irish Battalion (including Joe Mallon) to the newly independent central African country. From 1960 to 1964, 26 Irish soldiers lost their lives in the Congo.

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The-Military-Archives-IE_MA_MAC_006_MAOHP_001_A.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

The-Military-Archives-IE_MA_MAC_006_MAOHP_001_A.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Speaker1:
Well, the plane I was on, I had my platoon and we had Harry Crowley was with me, one of the staff captain, and the company headquarters and the machine gun section, because in those days, the Vickers, the medium machine gun sections were on the plane and we were flying in and on the way down, we were originally our company was to go to North Katanga, and because trouble had started on the Tuesday, we were diverted down to Elisabethville, flew from Leopoldville, down in our. Why we. Oh yeah, there was a panic. One of the problems is up to then we had been the first unit to get the whites, as they called them, khaki shirts and slacks. Kind of for good wear if you like, going to Mass on Sunday for guards of honour, or that the working dress then was jungle greens, as they called them, a dark green shirt and trousers. And we were panicking. Elizabeth heard there was trouble coming. I landed my plane, landed in, in in from the place from in Leopold Airport. And as we were getting off the plane, I saw two jets taking off together. Military, obviously. So there was a bit. Something a bit different. We didn't know leaving Dublin, that there was anything hugely of consequence. So we flew down and we had to stop at Camden Air Base to pick up two senior officers, an Indian, and I think I can't remember the other nationality.

Speaker1:
And then we went to fly in to the airport in Elisabethville, and we were flying there and getting really close. And then we began to notice wing, wing and the infantry soldier, when he comes under fire, the forwards are cover, crawl, observe and fire cover. Get down. Make yourself invisible to the guys who are call moved to a different position to where you weren't. So when you do observe, the next stage is to peep. But don't peep it when you where you went down, but you might be down where you are. You move somewhere else and then people and then return fire. Fellas hit the deck on them. I think myself included, probably got the helmets and shattered them. And we landed with. I think they were counted as something we landed in a spray of. Plane engine fuels. And I think there could have been aviation fuel spewing out and a cloud of that. And we dismounted without casualties and got out. And then people started saying, Christ, be careful, because I know a friend of mine is dead, since Kevin Knightly, who was in the previous battalion in the cavalry group, He was down in an area and he said he looked up and he saw this plane and he said, well, Mother Jesus wanted to come and he would have been flying at very low level. And the plane itself was huge. You wouldn't remember them. You didn't.

Speaker2:
The loadmasters. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker1:
Huge. And this they flew very slowly, so easily. So but we got down anyway and I talked to one of the, the crew, one of the military air transport. They were the transported military personnel and goods as required all over the world. I was talking I said, what are you going to do now? One engine was definitely out. Oh, gee. He says, I think we'll get out of here. We'd be better. The plane. All right. Oh, well, I think it's the better option. He says the best option is to get get the hell out of this bloody place.

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Volunteering for Congo – July 1960

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