Alastair Wicks

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Alastair Wicks , sometimes also Alistair Wicks or Alastair Wickes (* before 1939, † April 1978 ), was a Rhodesian mercenary .

Life

Alastair Wicks attended the elite Harrow School in London and traveled to Eastern Europe before studying law at Oxford . In the Second World War , Wicks, who had pilot training, was, among other things, an air traffic control officer . After the war he emigrated to Rhodesia .

Wick's first mercenary deployment began in the spring of 1961 during the break- away of Katanga Province from the DR Congo . He and Mike Hoare each took over a platoon from the Compagnie Internationale mercenary troops that fought for the secessionists. The two trains with 120 mercenaries from Rhodesia and South Africa were still in training when UN troops captured the remaining mercenaries. Hoare formed the 4th command from both platoons, Wicks became his deputy. After returning from Katanga, he worked in the administration of the airline Rhodesian Air Services .

After the outbreak of the Simba Rebellion , Wicks and Hoare arrived in Léopoldville in July 1964 . Hoare received an order from Moïse Tschombé to recruit a large number of mercenaries to put down the uprising. Wicks became Hoare's deputy with the rank of major and immediately traveled to Johannesburg and Rhodesian Salisbury to recruit mercenaries from there.

Hoare and Wicks built on the former Belgian military base of Kamina , the fifth command on a unit in battalion strength from exclusively white mercenaries. One of Wicks' main tasks was to coordinate with the Belgian military mission, to which the 5th Command was subordinate. Since the Belgians treated the mercenaries with suspicion, Wicks, with his good manners and excellent knowledge of French, was very well suited to the task. In addition, Wicks was a liaison officer to the Congolese Air Force, which also consisted of mercenaries and with whom the 5th Command worked closely.

Like Hoare, Wicks extended his contract twice and took part in all the campaigns of the 5th Command that led to the smashing of the Simba rebellion, which had temporarily ruled most of the Congo. On December 12, 1965, Wicks left the Congo, a few days after Mike Hoare, and returned to Rhodesia. The new dictator Mobutu thus got rid of those mercenary leaders who had been connected to the ousted Prime Minister Moïse Tschombé since the time in Katanga .

After the outbreak of the Biafra War in July 1967, Wicks tried to recruit officers for Biafra in the Officer's Association in London, presumably on behalf of British industrialists. His former officer comrade John Peters , who had led the 5th command after Hoare's departure and was now recruiting mercenaries for Biafra's war opponent Nigeria , warned Wicks by telephone: "I don't want my boys to fight yours." In addition, Wicks was at the weapons airlift for Biafra involved. He also flew the transport machines himself. In late 1967, Wicks was arrested in Togo when he was stopping on a plane loaded with banknotes from the Biafras central bank. The notes were to be changed into hard currency on behalf of the government of Biafra. Alastair Wicks spent more than three months in prison and retired from the mercenary business after his release.

literature

  • Ruth Margaret Delaforce: A Mafia for the State. Mercenary Soldiers and Private Security Contractors 1946–2009 , Thesis, Griffith University 2010, pp. 138–165, here :, accessed December 13
  • Hans Germani : White mercenaries in the black country , Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin 1966
  • Mike Hoare: Congo mercenary , London: Hale (1987), ISBN 0-7090-4375-9
  • Mike Hoare: Congo Warriors , London: Hale (1991), ISBN 0-7090-4369-4
  • Anthony Mockler: The new mercenaries . Corgi Books, London 1986, ISBN 0-552-12558-X
  • Christopher Othen: Katanga 1960–63. Mercenaries, Spies and the African Nation that waged War on the World , The History Press, Brimscombe Port Stroud, 2015, ISBN 978-0-7509-6288-9
  • Anthony Rogers: Someone Else's War. Mercenaries from 1960 to the Present , Harper Collins, London 1998, ISBN 0-00-472077-6 , pp. 11-31

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ BIAFRA / MERCENARY: Our struggle . In: Der Spiegel . No. 49 , 1968 ( online - Dec. 2, 1968 ).
  2. ↑ http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19680102&id=Jt4jAAAAIBAJ&sjid=_ycEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7502,339293
  3. ↑ http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/printer_351.shtml
  4. ↑ http://www.mercenary-wars.net/congo/list-of-congo-soldiers.html
  5. ↑ Mike Hoare: The Road to Kalamata: A Congo Mercenary's Personal Memoir , Lexington Books, Lexington, Mass. 1989, ISBN 0-669-20716-0 , p. 46.
  6. ^ Congo Mercenary , Hale, London 1987, ISBN 0-7090-4375-9 , p. 87.
  7. ^ Anthony Mockler: The New Mercenaries . Corgi Books, London 1986, ISBN 0-552-12558-X , p. 71.
  8. ↑ Mike Hoare: The Road to Kalamata: A Congo Mercenary's Personal Memoir , Lexington Books, Lexington, Mass. 1989, ISBN 0-669-20716-0 .
  9. ↑ Christopher Othen: Katanga 1960–63. Mercenaries, Spies and the African Nation that waged War on the World , The History Press, Brimscombe Port Stroud, 2015, ISBN 978-0-7509-6288-9 , pp. 110ff
  10. ↑ http://www.mercenary-wars.net/congo/list-of-congo-soldiers.html
  11. ^ Anthony Mockler: The New Mercenaries . Corgi Books, London 1986, ISBN 0-552-12558-X , p. 87
  12. ↑ Mike Hoare: The Road to Kalamata: A Congo Mercenary's Personal Memoir , Lexington Books, Lexington, Mass. 1989, ISBN 0-669-20716-0 , p. 87.
  13. ↑ Thomas P. Odom: Dragon Operations: Hostage Rescues in the Congo, 1964-1965 , Combat Studies Institute, US Army Command and General Staff College (Leavenworth Papers No.14), Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 1988, p. 30 ( Online , accessed December 13, 2014).
  14. ^ Mike Hoare: Congo Warriors , Hale, London 1991, ISBN 0-7090-4369-4 , p. 46.
  15. ^ Mike Hoare: Congo Warriors , Hale, London 1991, ISBN 0-7090-4369-4 , p. 170.
  16. ↑ http://www.mercenary-wars.net/congo/list-of-congo-soldiers.html
  17. ^ Anthony Mockler: The New Mercenaries . Corgi Books, London 1986, ISBN 0-552-12558-X , p. 115.
  18. ↑ http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19680102&id=Jt4jAAAAIBAJ&sjid=_ycEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7502,339293
  19. ↑ http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/articles-comments/69385-uncivil-aviation-africa.html
  20. ↑ http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/printer_351.shtml
  21. ^ Anthony Mockler: The New Mercenaries . Corgi Books, London 1986, ISBN 0-552-12558-X , p. 164 ff.
personal data
SURNAME Wicks, Alastair
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wicks, Alistair; Wickes, Alastair
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Rhodesian mercenary
DATE OF BIRTH before 1939
DATE OF DEATH April 1978