Plot
Set during the Simba rebellion, during the Congo Crisis, the film begins with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr., the spearing executions of a group of captured mercenaries, and the pack rape of a French female journalist.
At Mercenary Central an angry Colonel Kimber rebukes the only survivor of the incident, German Captain De Brand. De Brand has left important documents in the Simba village that contains information on the activities and employers of the mercenaries. The documents must be retrieved within four days. De Brand says he can recover the papers and rescue the captured journalist with a small patrol. The Colonel agrees, but informs De Brand that his record of performance clearly shows he is incapable of leadership, and appoints African-American Captain Lauderwood to lead the patrol.
Kimber adds three men to the patrol: a German Field Commander, a black African named Martinez and an Irishman named O'Fearn. As the patrol is unfamiliar with a swamp and desert they have to cross, Lauderwood recruits Carrès, a French gunrunner, for the fee of $15,000. Carrès is familiar with the area as he has sold weapons to the Simbas. Carrès became a weapons salesman after witnessing the torture of his wife who was burned and beaten to death in front of him. He became further alienated when the French government did not want to antagonise the local situation by seeking their prosecution. Lauderwood also takes along Wooder, a female mercenary doctor.
Department for Protection and Security (DPS) or Département Protection et Sécurité is the security branch of the National Rally (RN) political party of France, which depends directly from the RN's president and is led by Eric Staelens as of 2007. As of 2007, it consists of 1,500 members.
Thomas Michael "Mad Mike" Hoare was an Irish military officer and mercenary who fought during the Simba rebellion and was involved in carrying out the 1981 Seychelles coup d'état attempt.
The Congo Crisis was a period of political upheaval and conflict between 1960 and 1965 in the Republic of the Congo. The crisis began almost immediately after the Congo became independent from Belgium and ended, unofficially, with the entire country under the rule of Joseph-Désiré Mobutu. Constituting a series of civil wars, the Congo Crisis was also a proxy conflict in the Cold War, in which the Soviet Union and the United States supported opposing factions. Around 100,000 people are believed to have been killed during the crisis.
Operation Dragon Rouge was a hostage rescue operation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo conducted by Belgium and the United States in 1964. The operation was led by the Belgian Paracommando Regiment to rescue hostages held by Simba rebels in the city of Stanleyville.
The Wild Geese is a 1978 war film starring an ensemble cast led by Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris and Hardy Krüger. The film, which was directed by Andrew V. McLaglen, was the result of a long-held ambition of producer Euan Lloyd to make an all-star adventure film in the vein of The Guns of Navarone or Where Eagles Dare. The plot concerns a group of European mercenaries fighting in Africa. The screenplay by Reginald Rose was based on Daniel Carney's unpublished novel The Thin White Line.
The Brotherhood of War is a series of novels written by W. E. B. Griffin, about the United States Army from the Second World War through the Vietnam War. The story centers on the careers of four U.S. Army officers who became lieutenants in the closing stages of World War II and the late 1940s. The series is notable for the amount of attention it does not devote to combat. Rather than skipping forward, it follows the main characters though their peacetime service as the army evolves in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, particularly in the development of Army Aviation and the Special Forces.
Like piracy, the mercenary ethos resonates with idealized adventure, mystery, and danger, and appears frequently in popular culture. Many are called adventurers, filibusters, soldiers of fortune, gunslingers, gunrunners, ronin, and knights errant.
Siegfried Friedrich Heinrich Müller, referred to as "Congo Müller" (Kongo-Müller), was a German-born mercenary who served as an officer with 5 Commando during the Congo Crisis. A former officer-candidate in Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht who continued to wear his Iron Cross, Müller acquired particular notoriety in West and East Germany in the mid-1960s amid extensive press coverage of his involvement in war crimes in the Congo and overt nostalgia for the Nazi era.
Arthur Brauss is a German actor, perhaps best known for his work in Sam Peckinpah's Cross of Iron.
Carla Calò was an Italian actress.
Stig Erik Otto von Bayer is a former Swedish Army officer, war veteran, peacemaker and writer. He was the longest serving UN soldier during the Congo Crisis.
Scorticateli vivi also known as Skin 'em Alive and The Wild Geese Attack Again is a 1978 Italian Macaroni combat film about a fictional group of mercenaries in Africa. The film was co-written, produced and directed by screenwriter Mario Siciliano that was inspired by the international success of The Wild Geese. The film features extensive reuse of action footage from Siciliano's 1969 mercenary film Seven Red Berets. The film stars South African journalist Bryan Torquil Rostron in his final film appearance. Despite the title, none of the characters are skinned alive in the film.
Rafał Gan-Ganowicz was a Polish soldier-in-exile, mercenary, journalist, member of the National Council of Poland, and political and social activist, dedicating his life to anti-communism.
The Battle of Kabalo was a battle fought at Kabalo by United Nations peacekeeping forces and Baluba militias from 7 April to 11 April 1961 against mercenaries and the gendarmerie of the State of Katanga, a secessionist state rebelling against the Republic of the Congo in central Africa. The Katangese forces attacked the town as part of a larger offensive meant to restore their authority in northern Katanga which was challenged by the Baluba. A United Nations Operation in the Congo peacekeeping contingent garrisoning Kabalo, acting under the authority of their mandate to prevent civil war in the country, resisted the initial attack and arrested 30 mercenaries in Katanga's employ. Armed Baluba repelled a Katangese ferry carrying troops as well as an armoured train. The next day the ferry returned but was sunk by UN forces. Fighting continued over the next few days between the Baluba and Katangese until the latter withdrew. The battle led to a deterioration of relations between the Katangese government and the United Nations Operation in the Congo.
Frédéric Vandewalle was a Belgian colonel and diplomat in the Belgian Congo and independent Congo. He was an influential figure right before and after Congo's independence from Belgium. He was one of the organisers of the Katangese secession and led Operation Ommegang against the Simba rebellion during the Congo Crisis. His precise role in the assassination of Patrice Lumumba is the subject of debate among historians.
The 5 Commando was a mercenary unit of the Congolese National Army formed in response to the Simba rebellion. They were trained to be commandos, and had their own air support unit. 5 Commando was active from 1964 to 1967.
Mister Bob is a 2011 French drama film directed and co-scripted by Thomas Vincent.
Operation White Giant was a military offensive conducted by the forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its allies to retake northeastern Orientale Province from insurgents during the Simba rebellion. The operation succeeded in its aims, cutting off the Simba rebels from supply by their allies in Uganda and Sudan.
Operation South was a military offensive conducted by the forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Kivu against insurgents during the Simba rebellion. It was carried out by the DR Congo's regular military, the Armée Nationale Congolaise (ANC), mercenaries, and various foreign soldiers employed by Belgium and the United States. The operation aimed at destroying the remaining Simba strongholds and ending the rebellion. Though the insurgents were supported by allied Communist Cubans under Che Guevara and Rwandan exile groups, the operation resulted in the conquest of most rebel-held areas and effectively shattered the Simba insurgents.
