quote:

Go to your local public library with the title, author, ISDN, and publisher and inquire about inter library loans.

Good call...I'll give that a try.

quote:

Originally posted by bettysnephew:
Were Roland and Van Owen from Warren Zevon's song based on real people?

Not explicitly, but Zevon was inspired by the stories of his friend (and the co-writer of the song) David Lindell, who had fought as a mercenary in Africa.

Thank you Rogue! Most songs seem to have a bit of truth in them in order to have continuity.

Amazing history.



The number of merc's wearing the Iron Cross was wild.

A different time, a different place.

quote:

Originally posted by mbinky:
The number of merc's wearing the Iron Cross was wild.

Some of that was likely just using the Iron Cross as an affectation/decoration, like bikers do with the iron cross today.

But there were likely a number of mercs who had previous served in the Wehrmacht during WW2, some of whom very well may have earned the Iron Cross, like the aforementioned "Congo Muller". 1960-1965 was only 15-25 years after WW2, so there would be plenty of former Wehrmacht soldiers still in their 30s and 40s during the period of the Congo War.

Similarly, there was a large number of former Wehrmacht soldiers who joined the French Foreign Legion in the years after WW2, going on to serve as quasi-mercenaries for France during their 1950s/1960s wars in Indochina and Algeria. It's estimated that up to perhaps 35% of Foreign Legion soldiers in the 1950s were former Wehrmacht. (Germans officially never constituted more than 25% of the Foreign Legion, but it was more than just Germans who fought for the Wehrmacht during WW2, plus many legionnaires enter under assumed names and false nationalities from other nations that share a language, so additional former Wehrmacht soldiers likely enlisted as Swiss/Austrians/Scandinavians/Belgians/etc.)