[The Wild Geese] Three years With 'Sylvia', and inserted T.L.S. from Colonel 'Mad' Mike Hoare, to Lt-Col. Colin 'Mad Mitch' Mitchell

by HOARE, Mike (1919-2020), MITCHELL, Colin Campbell (1925-1996)

$1,013 · Offered by Biblio

First edition · Signed

[Euan Lloyd Productions] London: Robert Hale, 1977. [Travel / Adventure] FIRST EDITION. Octavo, pp.188. Illustrated with photographic plates. Publisher's blue cloth in dust-wrapper priced £4.50. With typed letter signed, accompanying this gifted copy of the book, 37-lines on 'Wild Geese' headed stationery, on location in Transvaal, 25th Oct. '77. Book is near fine, with folded news-clipping concerning the Hoare's Seychelles mercenaries affair (for which he was imprisoned). Letter folded thrice; fine. In 1964-1965 Colonel Mike Hoare led 300 'Wild Geese' across the Congo to crush a communist rebellion, rescue 2000 nuns and priests from barbarity and beat Che Guevara. Hired by Congalese Prime Minister Moïse Tshombe, he commanded two separate mercenary groups during the crisis, firstly in the Katanga revolt, then in the Simba rebellion. He then emigrated to South Africa and undertook trans-African motorcyle rides, bluewater sailing (in his yacht 'Sylvia', about which this book was written), desert, mountain and jungle expeditions, and led safaris in the Kalahari. In the mid-70s Hoare was hired as technical adviser for the movie 'The Wild Geese', about a group of mercenary soldiers hired to rescue a deposed African president who resembled Tshombe, while the central African nation of the story resembled the Congo. Richard Burton played the Mike Hoare character ("Colonel Allen Faulkner"). The recipient is Colin Campbell Mitchell who, during the Aden Emergency, led forces in what bec

• Publisher: [Euan Lloyd Productions] London: Robert Hale, 1977
• Edition: First Edition
• Binding: unknown

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