Mike Hoare ('Mad Mike')

Biography

An Irish-born, British-raised former army officer and accountant, 'Mad Mike' Hoare became the most famous mercenary of the Congo wars. He first fought for the Katangese secession, then, in 1964, was hired by Tshombe's central government to raise and lead '5 Commando,' a unit of white mercenaries — many South African and Rhodesian — that spearheaded the campaign to crush the Simba rebellion, retaking towns and racing to relieve the hostages at Stanleyville. Hoare's mercenaries — the 'affreux,' or 'terrible ones' — were effective and brutal, and their role fixed the image of the white 'dog of war' in the postcolonial African imagination. Hoare later attempted a farcical coup in the Seychelles in 1981, was imprisoned, and lived to the age of 100, an unrepentant relic of the era of the freelance soldier.

Key Battles