Niemba Ambush – Imelda Conway Duffy

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Imelda Conway Duffy
Interviewed for MAOHP - 23/08/2016
Reference Code: IE_MA_MAC_006_MAOHP_019_D
Location(s): Congo
Length: 1.20

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MAOHP_008_10-Corporal-Seamus-McDermott-Siege-of-Jadotville-2.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

MAOHP_008_10-Corporal-Seamus-McDermott-Siege-of-Jadotville-2.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Corporal Seamus McDermott:
Then we overtook the patrol that was coming near the edge of dark, and we as soon as we arrived, we didn't even get reporting back. Some of them came to us and said, listen, scatter, we've been timing this spray. He goes to Kolwezi. He takes about an hour and a half or two hours, whatever length they at the time, and he's due back. He went to reload and refuel, but they had him timed because he was coming. He was spent the day bombing them. So anyway, I don't know how long it was, but shortly afterwards, the boy arrived. Sergeant Bourne was laying on one slope of an ant hill, and I'd say we were all scattered over quite a few ant hills around in the jungle, and we were all scattered around. And the next thing, this bomb dropped on the other side of the ant hill the Sergeant Bourne was on. He was.

Interviewer:
Obviously a big, big.

Corporal Seamus McDermott:
Huge thing, a huge thing. You'd need to see them to.

Interviewer:
They are the size of a house sometimes.

Corporal Seamus McDermott:
Sometimes there are huge things. And three Gurkha Indians were killed with that bomb. So anyway, that was an experience in its own right.So..

Interviewer:
But you we're close when this bomb landed. This. Yeah yeah.

Corporal Seamus McDermott:
Yeah yeah. We're all in that area, you know,

Interviewer:
And you are working together.

Corporal Seamus McDermott:
Oh, yeah. We're all the gawkers, the whole lot. We're all there. It was all on our side of the bridge. And anyway, when that settled, like, we, I think there was a, there was there was a lorry and a bus, I think, knocked out in that particular one. We lost a couple of vehicles with, with the bombing during the day. But anyway they. We reported then that we had the roads all blown up and we said we were there whenever darkness came to do the night's job, which was to go up on the bridge. And one of the officers, it mightn't be necessary. We're just after getting word back from Elisabethville that Common Quinlan has.

Interviewer:
Is in Jadotville.

Corporal Seamus McDermott:
Is in Jadotville has a agreed a ceasefire or a ceasefire has been arranged inside Jadotville. So we may not have to do this. So that was all right. A short time later, we were told, actually, there is a ceasefire in Jadotville and the people in Elisabethville are calling us back.

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Statement on Jadotville

Seamus McDermott

Jadotville

Swapping Platoons before battle

Sean Norton

Congo

The Irish Army and the Congo

Gerry McMahon

Cathal Brugha Barracks

The Sound of silence

Sean Norton

Cathal Brugha Barracks

Three men in a boat overtake Congo news

Imelda Conway Duffy

Congo

Trooper Pat Mullins

Art Magennis

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Under fire in the trenches

Seamus McDermott

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Volunteering for Congo

Seamus McDermott

Custume Barracks, Congo

Voluntereers wanted for Congo

Peter Feely

Congo

‘It was just an adventure I suppose’

Seamus McDermott

Custume Barracks, Congo

Arrival at Leopold Farm with ‘A’ Company 36th Battalion (December 1961)

Peter Feely

Elizabethville, Katanga, Congo

Death of Lieutenant Paddy O’Riordan

Peter Feely

Elizabethville, Katanga, Congo

Death of Paddy O’Riordan

Sean Norton

Congo

Flight into Elizabethville under fire with ‘A’ Company 36th Battalion (December 1961)

Peter Feely

Elizabethville, Katanga, Congo

Flight into Elizabethville under fire with ‘A’ Company 36th Battalion (December 1961)

The-Military-Archives-IE_MA_MAC_006_MAOHP_001_A.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

The-Military-Archives-IE_MA_MAC_006_MAOHP_001_A.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Colonal Peter Feely:
Well, the plane I was on, I had my platoon and we had Harry Crowley was with me, one of the staff captain, and the company headquarters and the machine gun section, because in those days, the Vickers, the medium machine gun sections were on the plane and we were flying in and on the way down, we were originally our company was to go to North Katanga, and because trouble had started on the Tuesday, we were diverted down to Elisabethville, flew from Leopoldville, down in our. Why we. Oh yeah, there was a panic. One of the problems is up to then we had been the first unit to get the whites, as they called them, khaki shirts and slacks. Kind of for good wear if you like, going to Mass on Sunday for guards of honour, or that the working dress then was jungle greens, as they called them, a dark green shirt and trousers. And we were panicking. Elizabeth heard there was trouble coming. I landed my plane, landed in, in in from the place from in Leopold Airport. And as we were getting off the plane, I saw two jets taking off together. Military, obviously. So there was a bit. Something a bit different. We didn't know leaving Dublin, that there was anything hugely of consequence. So we flew down and we had to stop at Camden Air Base to pick up two senior officers, an Indian, and I think I can't remember the other nationality.

Colonal Peter Feely:
And then we went to fly in to the airport in Elisabethville, and we were flying there and getting really close. And then we began to notice wing, wing and the infantry soldier, when he comes under fire, the forwards are cover, crawl, observe and fire cover. Get down. Make yourself invisible to the guys who are call moved to a different position to where you weren't. So when you do observe, the next stage is to peep. But don't peep it when you where you went down, but you might be down where you are. You move somewhere else and then people and then return fire. Fellas hit the deck on them. I think myself included, probably got the helmets and shattered them. And we landed with. I think they were counted as something we landed in a spray of. Plane engine fuels. And I think there could have been aviation fuel spewing out and a cloud of that. And we dismounted without casualties and got out. And then people started saying, Christ, be careful, because I know a friend of mine is dead, since Kevin Knightly, who was in the previous battalion in the cavalry group, He was down in an area and he said he looked up and he saw this plane and he said, well, Mother Jesus wanted to come and he would have been flying at very low level. And the plane itself was huge. You wouldn't remember them. You didn't.

Interviewer:
The loadmasters. Yeah. Yeah.

Colonal Peter Feely:
Huge. And this they flew very slowly, so easily. So but we got down anyway and I talked to one of the, the crew, one of the military air transport. They were the transported military personnel and goods as required all over the world. I was talking I said, what are you going to do now? One engine was definitely out. Oh, gee. He says, I think we'll get out of here. We'd be better. The plane. All right. Oh, well, I think it's the better option. He says the best option is to get get the hell out of this bloody place.

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