The Road to Kalamata

Book excerpt: The famous adventurer and mercenary recounts his exploits during the Congo Crisis in this Cold War military memoir. At the close of 1960, the newly formed Independent State of Katanga in central Africa recruited Thomas “Mad Mike” Hoare and his 4 Commando team of mercenary soldiers to suppress a rebellion by Baluba warriors known to torture the enemy soldiers they captured. In The Road to Kalamata, Hoare tells the story of 4 Commando and its evolution from a loose assembly of individuals into a highly organized professional fighting unit. Hoare’s memoir presents a compelling portrait of the men who sell their military skills for money. They are, in his words, “a breed of men which has almost vanished from the face of the earth." Originally published in 1989, this edition of The Road to Kalamata features a new foreword by the 20th century's most famous mercenary and one of its most eloquent storytellers.