Mike Hoare (1919–2020)

Interesting stories of the people Mike Hoare worked with during his days running 5 Commando mercenary operations in the Congo. Some really moving stories here -- a Marine LT who attached himself to Hoare's outfit as a way to find a missionary woman doctor who had gone missing, individuals making extreme sacrifices far beyond any pay they'd received -- as well as some more lighthearted stories like racing arab dhows on a huge lake.

This is a good supplement to Congo Mercenary but doesn't really make sense as a standalone book.… (plus d'informations)

Mike Hoare describes his (failed) counter-coup effort in the Seychelles, then an extensive period in South African prisons. The Seychelles affair isn't as widely known other failed coups (like Equatorial Guinea...), but was basically an anti-Marxist action. An Air India jet landed during the coup and was used to escape, and the South African government chose to prosecute Hoare and his compatriots as air hijackers.

The book teaches the very straightforward lesson: don't try to do a coup on the cheap.… (plus d'informations)

Interesting book by Mike Hoare (famous mercenary from Angola, Congo, and a failed program in Seychelles) about his time aboard an old Baltic trader converted to sail, exploring the Med with his wife and sons. Overall, a pretty good book about sailing an old boat, life lessons, and insights into the character of Mike Hoare, but maybe not interesting to anyone uninterested in sailing or Hoare. The first chapter or two were pretty rough going, but the book gets a lot more interesting once the boat is at sail.… (plus d'informations)