Marc Goosens
Marc Goosens (died 12 November 1968) was a Belgian mercenary who fought in the Yemeni Civil War and served in the army of Biafra during the Nigerian Civil War. He was killed by Nigerian forces in Onitsha during Operation Hiroshima. Life Goosens served as an officer in the Belgian Army and served as a military advisor to the Congolese government during the Congo Crisis. During the civil war in Yemen, he and other Congo veterans trained royalist rebels. He participated in the Nigerian Civil War under the command of fellow mercenary Rolf Steiner, and he was one of the dozen foreign mercenaries who committed themselves to Biafra, a secessionist country that declared independence from Nigeria. During the unsuccessful attempt led by Welsh mercenary Taffy Williams to retake Onitsha from Nigerian forces, Goosens died after being shot in the liver. Under the title ''Biafra: Final Mission, Paris Match'', a dramatic photo series published by Gilles Caron on November 30, 1968 showed Biafran ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to the southwest, and the North Sea to the northwest. It covers an area of and has a population of more than 11.5 million, making it the 22nd most densely populated country in the world and the 6th most densely populated country in Europe, with a density of . Belgium is part of an area known as the Low Countries, historically a somewhat larger region than the Benelux group of states, as it also included parts of northern France. The capital and largest city is Brussels; other major cities are Antwerp, Ghent, Charleroi, Liège, Bruges, Namur, and Leuven. Belgium is a sovereign state and a federal constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system. Its institutional organization is complex and is structured on both regional ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Frederick Forsyth
Frederick McCarthy Forsyth (born 25 August 1938) is an English novelist and journalist. He is best known for thrillers such as ''The Day of the Jackal'', ''The Odessa File'', '' The Fourth Protocol'', '' The Dogs of War'', ''The Devil's Alternative'', '' The Fist of God'', ''Icon'', '' The Veteran'', '' Avenger'', ''The Afghan'', '' The Cobra'' and '' The Kill List''. Forsyth's works frequently appear on best-sellers lists and more than a dozen of his titles have been adapted to film. By 2006, he had sold more than 70 million books in more than 30 languages. Early life The son of a furrier, Forsyth was born in Ashford, Kent. He was educated at Tonbridge School and later attended the University of Granada in Spain. Career Military and journalism Before becoming a journalist, Forsyth completed his National Service in the Royal Air Force as a pilot, for which he flew the de Havilland Vampire. He joined Reuters in 1961 and in 1965 the BBC, for which he served as an assist ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Belgian Expatriates In Nigeria
{{Disambiguation ...
Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct language formerly spoken in Gallia Belgica *Belgian Dutch or Flemish, a variant of Dutch *Belgian French, a variant of French *Belgian horse (other), various breeds of horse *Belgian waffle, in culinary contexts * SS ''Belgian'', a cargo ship in service with F Leyland & Co Ltd from 1919 to 1934 *''The Belgian'', a 1917 American silent film See also * *Belgica (other) *Belgic (other) Belgic may refer to: * an adjective referring to the Belgae, an ancient confederation of tribes * a rarer adjective referring to the Low Countries or to Belgium * , several ships with the name * Belgic ware, a type of pottery * Belgic Confession, a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Military Personnel Killed In The Nigerian Civil War
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct military uniform. It may consist of one or more military branches such as an army, navy, air force, space force, marines, or coast guard. The main task of the military is usually defined as defence of the state and its interests against external armed threats. In broad usage, the terms ''armed forces'' and ''military'' are often treated as synonymous, although in technical usage a distinction is sometimes made in which a country's armed forces may include both its military and other paramilitary forces. There are various forms of irregular military forces, not belonging to a recognized state; though they share many attributes with regular military forces, they are less often referred to as simply ''military''. A nation's military may f ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Belgian Mercenaries
{{Disambiguation ...
Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct language formerly spoken in Gallia Belgica *Belgian Dutch or Flemish, a variant of Dutch *Belgian French, a variant of French *Belgian horse (other), various breeds of horse *Belgian waffle, in culinary contexts * SS ''Belgian'', a cargo ship in service with F Leyland & Co Ltd from 1919 to 1934 *''The Belgian'', a 1917 American silent film See also * *Belgica (other) *Belgic (other) Belgic may refer to: * an adjective referring to the Belgae, an ancient confederation of tribes * a rarer adjective referring to the Low Countries or to Belgium * , several ships with the name * Belgic ware, a type of pottery * Belgic Confession, a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Belgian Soldiers
Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German * Ancient Belgian language, an extinct language formerly spoken in Gallia Belgica * Belgian Dutch or Flemish, a variant of Dutch *Belgian French, a variant of French * Belgian horse (other), various breeds of horse * Belgian waffle, in culinary contexts * SS ''Belgian'', a cargo ship in service with F Leyland & Co Ltd from 1919 to 1934 *''The Belgian ''The Belgian'' is a 1917 American silent film directed by Sidney Olcott and produced by Sidney Olcott Players with Valentine Grant and Walker Whiteside in the leading roles. It is not known whether the film currently survives. Plot As descr ...'', a 1917 American silent film See also * * Belgica (other) * Belgic (other) {{Disambiguation ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Dogs Of War (novel)
''The Dogs of War'' (1974) is a war novel by British writer Frederick Forsyth, featuring a small group of European mercenary soldiers hired by a British industrialist to depose the government of the fictional African country of Zangaro. The story details a geologist's mineral discovery, and the preparations for the attack: soldier recruitment, training, reconnaissance, and the logistics of the ''coup d'état'' (buying weapons, transport, payment). Like most of Forsyth's work, the novel is more about the protagonists' occupational tradecraft than their characters. The source of the title, ''The Dogs of War'', is Act III, scene 1, line 270 of ''Julius Caesar'' (1599), by William Shakespeare: ''Cry, 'Havoc!', and let slip the dogs of war''. The mercenary protagonists, like the protagonist in the author's earlier novel ''The Day of the Jackal'' (1971), are ruthless, violent anti-heroes. Initially introduced as simple killers-for-hire, they are gradually shown to adhere to a relativ ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Novel
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself from the la, novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ''novellus'', diminutive of ''novus'', meaning "new". Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, John Cowper Powys, preferred the term "romance" to describe their novels. According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, in Chivalric romance, and in the tradition of the Italian renaissance novella.Margaret Anne Doody''The True Story of the Novel'' New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, rept. 1997, p. 1. Retrieved 25 April 2014. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, especially the histori ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Taffy Williams
David Hugh "Taffy" Williams (28 September 1933 – 7 May 1996) was a Welsh-born South African mercenary who fought for the State of Katanga during the Congo Crisis (1960–1963) and the Republic of Biafra during the Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970). Biafran War Noted for his bravery under fire he served two tours of duty with the Biafran Army, rising to the rank of major, and was the last white mercenary to leave the country as secession ended. Williams found his Biafran troops to be completely different from those whom he commanded in Katanga. "I've seen a lot of Africans at war," he was quoted as saying. "But there's nobody to touch these people. Give me 10,000 Biafrans for six months, and we'll build an army that would be invincible on this continent. I've seen men die in this war who would have won the Victoria Cross in another context".Forsyth, 113. An irascible man, he was known for constantly screaming at his men and threatening to kill them if they did not obey hi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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North Yemen Civil War
The North Yemen Civil War ( ar, ثورة 26 سبتمبر, Thawra 26 Sabtambar, 26 September Revolution) was fought in North Yemen from 1962 to 1970 between partisans of the Mutawakkilite Kingdom and supporters of the Yemen Arab Republic. The war began with a ''coup d'état'' carried out in 1962 by revolutionary republicans led by the army under the command of Abdullah as-Sallal, who dethroned the newly crowned Imam Muhammad al-Badr and declared Yemen a republic under his presidency. The Imam escaped to the Saudi Arabian border where he rallied popular support from northern Shia tribes to retake power, escalating rapidly to a full-scale civil war. On the royalist side, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Israel supplied military aid, and Britain gave covert support, while the republicans were supported by Egypt (then formally known as the United Arab Republic) and were supplied warplanes from the Soviet Union.Sandler, Stanley. ''Ground Warfare: The International Encyclopedia''. Vol.1 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Rolf Steiner
Rolf Steiner (born 3 January 1933) is a German retired mercenary. He began his military career as a French Foreign Legion paratrooper and saw combat in Vietnam, Egypt, and Algeria. Steiner rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel commanding the 4th Commando Brigade in the Biafran Army during the Nigerian Civil War, and later fought with the Anyanya rebels in southern Sudan. Early life Rolf Steiner was the son of a Protestant father and Catholic mother. As a youth in Nazi Germany, Steiner was according to his 1976 memoirs a member of the Nazi ''Deutsches Jungvolk'' (German Young Folk), and he looked forward to joining the ''Hitlerjugend'' (Hitler Youth). However, World War Two ended before he could join the Hitler Youth. Steiner later claimed to have fought as a ''Jungvolk'' volunteer in the ''Volkssturm'' (militia) in the last days of World War Two, but no evidence exists to support this claim outside of his own memoirs. A 1968 article in ''Time'' stated: "In the final days o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |