In August 1960 Archie Raeside went from the Air Corps in Baldonnel to the Congo as the 32nd Battalion cine cameraman. Now, more than 40 years later, he has published a fine record of the activities of our first UN battalion*, with some coverage of the 33rd Battalion and of 9th Brigade HQ, writes E.D. Doyle.
He had an eye for small details as well as for great occasions - for the work of goat-herders and the battalion cobbler, as well as for the battalion pipe band and King Kigali of Uganda.
The UN requested another battalion soon after the first one. Lt-Col. Buckley's 32nd and Lt-Col Bunworth's 33rd Battalions were located 350 miles apart, in the provinces of Katanga and Kivu. This deployment was odd but not unprecedented.
The UN wanted a two-battalion brigade for the fairly quiet, spectacularly beautiful province of Kivu. A brigade commander and skeleton staff were also requested. They would live with one battalion and use its communications to command the other. This was essentially a holding arrangement while waiting to see developments in mineral-rich Katanga.
Moise Tshombe, the properly elected president of the province of Katanga, was claiming to be the president of an independent state of Katanga. He had powerful, covert, European backers, offset by the outraged enmity of most of Afro-Asia and of the Baluba people of North Katanga, where he was seen as a quisling. His refusal to allow UN troops into the province incensed the central government in Leopoldville (now Kinshasa) - a properly elected, though poorly functioning body.
Eventually, finding no recognition in the international community, Tshombe accepted UN troops. Sub-Command Eastern Provinces (SCOMEP) was formed for Kivu and Katanga, using the small 9th Brigade HQ commanded by Col Harry Byrne. The area was about the size of France and Spain together. Instead of two battalions, Col Byrne got seven, plus two Moroccan companies and an Indonesian company - almost a division, though some battalions were small and there was no large logistics "tail" or heavy weapon support.
As a scout leader, Archie Raeside had developed the habit of keeping a daily diary. He includes manuscript extracts in his book. They helped his recollections - and those of this writer. With energy and initiative he covered great distances by keeping in touch with aircraft and vehicle movements.
He visited the Kilubi Dam. One had forgotten it, remote and isolated in the 33rd Battalion area, but vital for a whole district. Our orders required us to protect the economic resources of the Congo for the future of its people. So this dam, and many others, was guarded. In contingency planning at SCOMEP HQ, Kilubi was often reviewed. How to reinforce it if attacked, how to relieve or evacuate its garrison in serious circumstances? A reserve had been earmarked and something could be done for most locations - but Kilubi?
Airman Raeside got to remote Kilubi Dam, with its long, narrow approach. His book has a good photograph of the outpost. Every visitor remarked on the alert, unflurried attitude of the troops at the road barriers, with no sign of tension or jumpiness. A little further and one saw the commander, the late Comdt Harry Gouldsborough, a Tipperary County hurler, calmly fishing in the dam. He had done what he could to improve the defences and his cool example was doing the rest. It was a practical illustration that coolness, like tension, spreads from a commander.
Col Byrne discussed the problem with Comdt Abdeslam, the Moroccan commander, who gave a quick and soldierly d'accord. He agreed to make his commando company available for the reserve, if needed. His commandos were formidable men of powerful physique, parachute-trained and quietly ready for any action.
Louis Armstrong, "Satchmo", visited the Congo in October 1960 and, of course, Raeside and his camera were busy. There was some doubt as to what Satchmo could mean in fairly remote places like Kamina Base. But there and elsewhere, the people quickly picked up his rhythms. Happy occasions; for a few hours people forgot their worries.
Raeside visited the Niemba area by helicopter, soon after the ambush. His pictures show the village and the ambush site well. The memorial Mass before the bodies left Africa, Mr Tshombe's presence and the loading of the planes are also recorded.
He gives nominal rolls of both battalions. The men in the rolls and pictures have grey hairs now and many are gone, to patrol no more. The original SCOMEP staff are all dead except for this reviewer. But Airman Raeside's pictures bring back younger days when soldiers began to serve great causes - of trying to save lives rather than destroy them. This, through all the distortions, is not far from the "dream in the herdsman's hut" and is bigger than ourselves or our own country. This book is a good Christmas gift for families of men who served.
Raeside's commentary is well written and appropriate. To be fair, the Belgian educational performance had greatly improved by 1960. Elementary, primary and secondary schools were working - a vast undertaking. The new Louvanium University in Leopoldville was running pilot courses. "In ten years time we shall astonish Africa with 10,000 graduates per year," they said. Too late; no one had ten years in 1960s Africa.
*The Congo - 1960: the first Irish United Nations Peacekeepers, by Archie Raeside, is published by Anderin Publishing Company, Portlaoise at €20.