Missing in Action: The 50 Year Search for Ireland's Lost Soldier

by Ralph Riegel, John O'Mahony

The interior of the old Ford armoured car stank of sweat, blood and acrid smoke. Pat's eyes desperately struggled to focus in the gloom of the biting cordite fog …On 15 September 1961, Trooper Patrick Mullins was posted missing after the bloody ambush of an Irish UN convoy in a suburb of Elisabethville in the Katanga province of the Congo. The circumstances of that fateful day have remained shrouded in confusion and contradiction for five decades – until now. Missing in Action reveals for the first time how an ill-equipped and heavily out-gunned Irish soldier fought with astonishing courage against heavily armed and ruthless Katangan gendarmes. Through interviews with the survivors and access to military intelligence sources, the truth about Trooper Mullins' heroic last stand and ultimate fate can now be told.

Genres: Ireland

257 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Ralph Riegel lives in Cork. He has worked as a journalist for several newspapers including The Cork Examiner, The Evening Echo, The Evening Herald and The Sunday Independent and is the southern correspondent for The Irish Independent. He is also a regular contributor to RTE, BBC and TV3 and to British newspapers including the (London) Independent and The Daily Telegraph.

Reviews

[Jarrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

5星。
看標題以為是類似Where They Lay的挖掘紀實，其實內容比較偏向解說剛果危機的背景脈絡，以及愛爾蘭聯軍第35營在卡坦加的行動記錄和莫梭行動後嚴重惡化的地方情勢。雖然這樣簡介感覺這本書好像很硬，但作者敘事清晰，還會適時引用老兵提供的第一手資料，因此讀起來一點都不枯燥，還很適合搭配Declan Power的Siege of Jadotville一起看，進一步了解A連隊被圍攻期間，卡坦加其它地方的愛爾蘭部隊發生什麼事。
個人認為最精彩的部分是作者用現有調查資料，去推演年僅18歲的裝甲兵Pat Mullins人生最後的軌跡，超級感人！

[Glen Gilpin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this book up in a bookshop in Portrush. Very informative about Irish troops in the Congo in the 60s. Plus a very interesting story and search for Patrick Mullins.