LIFE AS A MERCENARY
Sometimes we must choose sides. That is a matter of conscience. I feel comfortable with my choices.—Pieter Krueler
The steamer pulled into Cape Town during the second week of May 1939. Ley who was by that time married with two boys, aged ten and six, lived in Pretoria with part of his business in Windhoek “What was even more touching to me was that he named his sons Pieter and Paul, for my elder brother and me out of respect. He had heard that I was fighting in East Africa, Uganda, and even met one Askari who had been wounded and captured, who served with me during the Congo operation. He knew far more about me than I did him. He spent the rest of the war in a POW camp near Nairobi, which he claimed was much better than our experience in Bloemfontein.”554
Koos Ley worked as an exporter for ivory and other rare items for the European and American markets, and had become somewhat successful. After hearing of his best friend’s adventures during the Great War after they became separated, and his recent adventure in Spain, Ley asked him to come work for him.
I was very taken by the offer, but I had no idea what I was supposed to do. He explained the nature of the business, part of which was protecting the hunting and gathering parties, especially those groups transporting the ivory and other items to either Cape Town, Walfish Bay in Southwest Africa, or sometimes to Durban. I thought about it for about five seconds and agreed. He was quite taken by the fact that I never even asked what the salary was. I just told him that I would accept anything that kept me out of the mines.555
The stories that kept coming out of Europe regarding the events in Spain, Italy and Germany, as well as sporadic news of the war in Asia provided all the information Krueler needed to know that another world war was coming. “I knew it would happen. I did not know how, but there was no way any intelligent human being could not see the signs.”556
Krueler worked with Ley escorting their caravans to the various destinations, and he was in Windhoek for two months when he met the woman whom he knew he would spend the rest of his life with:
I was in a tax office, taking care of the required paperwork that had to be filed before going onto Walfish, where the ships would be loaded with animal hides, elephant ivory, and sometimes we were even hired by the De Beers Mining Company as armed escorts for the diamonds.
I also often escorted gold shipments to various places. We never had any incidents of robbery ever, and although we carried guns, we never had to use them against men. I did once have to kill this hyena that was following us and seemed to be looking for an opportunity to attack one of the horses. Soon there were five of them. Once I shot the one, the rest seemed to have received the message.
As I was saying, I was in the tax office when I saw this lovely woman. I just watched her, and quickly finished signing the forms. I followed to see where she was going, and saw that she was staying out of town at the home of one of the retired British officers. I later learned that she was born in Holland and had relatives in Orange Free State, but that her father had served with this British officer in Europe, and they were great friends. I can tell you that I performed the best reconnaissance of my life on gathering intelligence on her.557
Krueler spent the next three weeks arranging opportunities to meet Ingird van der Pert, who was thirty-five years old and had never been married. Her father had been a soldier, as were her two brothers, and all were deceased. Her uncle, whom she had never met, lived in the Orange Free State and she was going there later.
Krueler met her at the one sidewalk café in Windhoek outside the café hotel that had been built by the Germans years before. Krueler knew the building well, as he and Ley had stayed there while training with the Germans. Upon learning her background, he decided that it was best not to tell her about his past, given the animosity many of the European Dutch felt towards the Germans.
I was sitting with her having coffee on our third meeting, which was September 6, 1939. This was when one of my guards came up with a fresh newspaper. The headline stated that Germany had invaded Poland, and Britain and France had declared war. I knew it would happen, and I knew South Africa would once again be pulled into the conflict.558
Krueler offered to escort Ingird (whose mother’s family was Swedish, hence the name) to the Orange Free State along with his column, if she felt up to the ride. “I will never forget her comment; that she claimed to have been a competitive equestrian. Once I saw that she was indeed an excellent horseman, I knew she was the woman for me. She could ride as well as most Boers I ever knew.”559
Krueler and his ten-man detail, relieved of their cargo, were able to enjoy the range ride back to South Africa. Crossing the desert to the south until they reached the grassy veldt they hunted their game and camped under the stars. The rains had started but proved sporadic, so there were no torrential floods as experienced in the past. Ingird was amazed at the amount of wildlife and the naked Bushmen, milling around out of curiosity.
I think I impressed her with my languages, as we crossed various tribal regions, and I even met some old friends. I was showing off. I wanted to impress her. I have to say that I was very concerned about our age difference. I was fifty-four and she was thirty-five. The nineteen-year difference may seem great by today’s standards, but back then it was not that unusual. What was unusual was that a lovely, blonde-haired and blue-eyed, delicate thing as my Ingird could love an old war goat like me, but she did. She thought I was in my early forties when we first met. That was probably because I was very fair complexioned. You [referring to author Colin Heaton] thought I looked in my sixties, so there you go man.560
Pieter and Ingird were married in a small private ceremony, only attended by Koos and Melinda Ley and their sons in February 1940, when much of the world was at war. They were staying at the Ley home during October due to Ingird being pregnant and expecting in December, when a message came from Jan Smuts personally, delivered by a courier. Smuts had been elected prime minister in 1939, replacing the incumbent Hertzog, and with the entire British Empire and additional Commonwealth nations at war, Krueler was being called to duty, as was Koos Ley.
Well, this guy knocked upon the door and asked for Koos and I by name, and of course Koos was not there. He handed me two envelopes, and I thanked him. I opened mine and saw that it was from Smuts’s office, on his letterhead and signed. I was to report to him by the end of the week, as was Ley. I waited until Koos came back the next day and handed him his letter. He looked whiter than I did. We could not believe that we were being called into active military service.561
Krueler and Ley were not actually called back for combat service. Smuts wanted their expertise in training South African soldiers. When they arrived at Smuts’s office they were met by their old commander and friend Deneys Reitz, who like them started his military career as a teenager in the Boer War, later commanding First Royal Scots Fusiliers, one of the oldest regiments in the British Army during the Great War in East Africa.
Reitz welcomed us and told us what we were expected to do. South African soldiers were to be sent to North Africa and the Mediterranean region, so the government wanted men with extensive combat experience to train them. I immediately agreed and was given a temporary rank of major, which shocked me. Koos was made a captain, and we were to be the commanding and executive officers of a training command located in Khokong. I had to try and remember where it was, and I could not. Looking at a map I saw it was in the middle of the desert, in the middle of no goddamned where. You really had to try very hard to find any place further from civilization, I can tell you.
This was good for training soldiers in a semi-desert environment, but not very good for me to be hundreds of miles away from my wife, less than two months away from having our child. However, I understood the nature of the military obligation, and it was not as if I could say “no,” since Smuts could have had me shot for treason for fighting with the Germans.562
Krueler and Ley had until the end of the month to put their affairs in order. Krueler made his will, and left detailed instructions for Ingird, and he made Koos Ley the baby’s godfather; Koos did likewise for his two boys, making the Kruelers their godparents. Koos expected Ingird to stay with Melinda, as they had become the best of friends. “I must say that I had never had any reservations about packing my kit and moving on short notice. That changed when I was married and was going to be a father. Now I understood what the married men went through that I served with. That is something that stays in your mind.”563
On November 8, 1940, Krueler and Ley arrived at the desert training camp. Stepping out of the staff car, Krueler must have raised a few eyebrows. The NCOs in charge of the training camp were expecting a stiff, starched, proper officer, complete with swagger stick, with a like-minded captain in tow. Krueler explained their reaction to what they received:
Ley and I stepped out of the car, so we knew from that point forward the men had no idea who we were. The driver, a young corporal, stated to us, with complete respect, that we would definitely create a scene worth writing home about.
Rather than wear the standard uniform with jacket, given the heat, and the nature of the job, we simply dressed in khaki shorts, long sleeved olive drab shirts with the sleeves rolled up, bush hats and thick soled mountain boots, handmade by a boot maker Ley knew in Pretoria. The soles were almost two inches think, made from tires, and the boot itself was rhino skin lined with felt and lamb’s wool. Very comfortable. We walked up to the senior sergeant we saw, who upon seeing our attire, and not knowing who we were, began screaming at us, calling us an embarrassment. Ley started laughing, since neither of us were wearing any rank, which was temporary only. We never received formal commissions.
After about two minutes of this, as we did not go to attention, he began asking us what made us think we were qualified to be in “his training camp.” I looked at Ley, who started by saying, “Well sergeant, let me see, we fought at Kimberley, Spion Kop, the Modder, Paardeberg, Tanga,” and pointing to me said, “and he led troops in the Congo. Hmm, have I forgotten anything?” I was trying not to laugh, and then Ley finished in his typical, unemotional style. “Oh, yes, this is Major Krueler, your commando training officer, and I am Captain Ley, the executive officer. So, if I may ask, just who the hell are you?”
The look on that man’s face was one for which I wish I had a photograph. I had never before or since seen a man so stunned, as he went to attention and saluted us. I told him that despite his years of training and experience, we would immediately dispense with military formalities. Saluting is for garrison and parades. Doing that in the field will get an officer killed and he understood. I came to find out that man had been with Meinertzhagen at Tanga. He knew exactly who and what we were. I am certain that the word traitor crossed his lips at some point, but if so, he kept that to himself.564
Krueler and Ley spent all of November overseeing the training of the men. Once they completed the eight weeks of desert training, they would then take mountain warfare training in the Drakensburg Range to the southeast, where the men learned the requirements of mountaineering and survival in that environment. Krueler and Ley wrote manuals, and trained the NCOs first, who would in turn go and train the enlisted recruits. Once the men had been trained in both desert and mountain warfare, a few would be selected for language training. Krueler chose men who spoke German, of which there were a few, and started a language school. As required he sent weekly reports to Smuts’s office.
Krueler had requested a leave for the week prior to Christmas; when Ingird was due to give birth. Jan Smuts, acting as his direct superior, approved the leave, and both Ley and Krueler headed back to Pretoria. Smuts had even sent a “best wishes” telegram before they departed. The journey would take at least three days, and Krueler wanted to make certain that he was there. They managed to get off the train on December 16 and borrowed a car from the military provost. They were at the Ley house within two hours and walked in.
I will never forget when we walked in. Melinda Ley came to us and said the doctor had been there since the day before, and there were complications. I was going in, but the doctor screamed that I was not to enter. I said “like hell” and went in anyway. Ingird looked terrible, and the doctor said he was going to have to perform a Caesarian section, as the baby was breached. I told him I would help. The process took less than ten minutes.
Unfortunately, the child, a boy, was already dead in the womb, asphyxiated by the umbilical cord according to the doctor. Ingird had passed out due to the ether she had been given at first, and the morphia injection just afterward. I looked at my child, lifeless, and Koos came in behind me with Melinda. I do not remember how long I sat there, but I remember them taking the baby away, and I took Ingird’s hand.
After many hours she woke up, and smiled. She seemed to be fine, just very tired. Yet, within minutes, she began screaming in pain, and the bed was being covered in blood. She was hemorrhaging and the doctor came back in. I held her hand as he tried to save her. Her cries became more quiet, until she could utter no sounds, just looking at me. I prayed that she would be fine. I knew that God would not take my family, my son and my wife. There was nothing I had done to deserve that kind of punishment. Ingird had certainly not earned such a punishment.
She died at about four that afternoon, as I held her hand. Koos and Melinda were there also. That was perhaps the third time in my life I cried. It was certainly the last. It was at that moment that I lost all faith in God. To this day, I will not enter a church, listen to a prayer, and when I see these religious fanatics coming around with their missionary methods, I just walk away. There is no God. After the war, when we learned about the Jews in Europe, that confirmed it. Then again, when I was in the Congo during the bullshit there in the 1960s, I also knew that these idiots, well meaning as they may be, would have been far better off carrying rifles rather than bibles. Fools.565
Krueler never remarried after Ingird’s death, and that single event was perhaps the one factor that created the mindset that would assist two countries in creating some of the most elite soldiers in the world. From that date, December 16, 1940, Pieter Krueler never again displayed anything resembling an emotion, until the death of his friend Koos Ley in 1973.
Smuts and Reitz sent their condolences, and Krueler simply threw himself body and soul into his work. He returned to the training command with Koos Ley, until Ley received orders taking him to Egypt in 1942. Krueler was finally given his well-deserved leave of absence, and spent the rest of the war in Cape Town working with, training, and becoming a coast watcher. The rest of the world’s greatest conflict passed him by, and he could not have cared less.
He received the news that Reitz had died in October 1944, and Ley came back to South Africa in 1945. Koos and Melinda had another child, a daughter they named Ingird in honor of their friend, who grew into a fine woman with a family of her own, and moved to New Zealand after marrying a naval officer.
The Ley’s eldest son Paul grew into a fine man and moved to Kenya, working in the coffee industry until his retirement. Pieter Ley worked for the De Beers diamond company and was relocated to Sierra Leone in the mid 1950s, finally retiring in Rhodesia after his father Koos’s death in 1973-Pieter had a family of his own but “I lost touch with them,” Krueler said. “I guess that is the nature of things, but I still have the photographs of their family, and they were my family in a way. I take great comfort in looking at them over the years.”566 Krueler had kept that fading, ragged photo in his shirt pocket at all times.
The post World War II years were a period of movement and sporadic work, carrying Krueler to Kenya, where he met with Richard Meinertzhagen many times, and even went on a safari hunt with him in Tanzania. They often discussed the war on the very terrain where they first met, and spoke of their mutual friends and acquaintances. While staying near Mount Kenya Krueler had the opportunity to meet Winston Churchill and the American actor William Holden.
I enjoyed speaking with Sir Winston, he was a most remarkable man, a valuable mind and his grasp of history was incredible. We spoke also about the Boer War, and he was shocked to learn that I had been at Spion Kop and Paardeberg, and I was surprised that he had been captured and escaped. I liked him actually, a real gentleman.
Bill Holden was a very interesting man; I liked his movies, although I did not see any of them until the 1960s, so I had no idea who he was. He actually found that amusing. He was a very dedicated conservationist, long before there were any, much like your President Theodore Roosevelt and Frederick Selous. All liked hunting, and Holden was good with a rifle, but he could see the future. He really worked with Churchill and even Jomo Kenyatta [despite their political differences] to create the game preserves.567
As the 1960s beckoned, the European colonial powers began to lose their grip on their African colonies. The French defeat in Indochina in 1954 and the rebellions in both French and Spanish Morocco, as well as the Mau Mau Rebellion in Kenya, had fueled the fires of nationalism among the millions of Africans living under foreign rule. Upon the death of Jan Smuts, the last of the original Boer leaders was gone.
Koos and Melinda visited fairly often until Koos’s death. “They loved coming to the country, and the boys loved hearing the tales of derring do that made their father and I heroes in their eyes. I took them on trips and showed the boys some of the old battlegrounds, explaining that there was nothing glorious about war, but it was sometimes necessary, and always tragic.”568
By the late 1950s through the 1960s Krueler had been farming on a piece of land in the Transvaal, where he had a small patch near his family’s old home, which he rebuilt to some degree. He maintained his solitude until one day he received a visitor from Johannesburg. A man representing the De Beers Company had tracked him down, and the company wanted to have him travel to various areas where they had mining interests.
The job was primarily establishing mine security, training security personnel, and writing security protocols in compliance with various national laws given the respective countries involved. Africa was entering into a new and dangerous period, becoming a proxy battleground between the Cold War powers. Natural resources were a prime consideration, and with the sole exception of the white governments of Rhodesia and South Africa, where economic and political stability were a factor, other colonial and postcolonial powers were in the early throes of revolt, insurrection, revolution and civil war.
I thought this might be a good chance to make some money, and do something worthwhile. I went to Johannesburg in May 1960, and then to the Congo by late June. I was to meet with their office representative in Stanleyville, regarding mine security for the industrial diamond industry, and when I arrived I was not informed that the country was having problems.569
With Belgium announcing the independence of the Congo in 1960, the independent Congo Republic was declared on June 30, 1960. The Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba and the President Joseph Kasavubu had a tenuous relationship. In the first week of July, the Congolese Army mutinied against its remaining white officers, and soon attacks took place against Europeans in general. Over a hundred thousand Belgians lived there, primarily in or near the capital of Leopoldville, with another thirty thousand or so Europeans living in the Stanleyville and Kinshasa regions.
The rebellion and subsequent violence forced Belgium to deploy paratroopers to protect its citizens in the Congo, and as the Congolese government had not invited the troops in, the intervention was ruled illegal under international law. The United Nations had not yet established a resolution authorizing such action, as the Congo was in fact an independent state.
I was in Katanga when I first heard of atrocities being committed. This fellow Moise Tshombe wanted to establish this breakaway republic, separate from the rest of the country. Well, given the fact that Katanga produced copper, 60 percent of the world’s uranium and 80 percent of the world’s industrial diamonds, that was not going to happen. Tshombe had a lot of European support. In fact, I was instructed to work with him, and I met with him in the field. If he were to lead a rebellion, and win, De Beers wanted to be in on the profits. He was a true capitalist, and understood that proper resource management and proper control over the mineral wealth was the only way to protect the national interests and make the country prosper. Besides, it was not my war. I just wanted to get the hell out.570
Due to the increasing violence, Lumumba appealed to the United Nations for help, and the Security Council subsequently created an army of ten thousand troops to restore law and order. It was given two primary tasks: restore and maintain law and order, and prevent other nations from getting involved with the crisis. Once the situation was stabilized, the U.N. force would assist in building the nation’s economy. In performing these missions U.N. soldiers were only allowed to use force in self-defense, and they were not allowed to take sides between the government in Leopoldville and the rebel government of Tshombe in Elizabethville.
Lumumba expected the United Nations to use e military force to remove Tshombe in Katanga. However, U.N. Secretary General Dag Hammerskjöld refused his request. Lumumba then accused the United Nations of siding with the rich European companies that mined the region and requested assistance from the Soviet Union.
According to Krueler:
When Lumumba did that he totally fucked up the entire country, I can tell you. That other idiot Kalonji also sought assistance from the Communists, both the Soviets and Chinese, who were always hovering over the carcass of a third world shit hole for their power trips, and gave them weapons and advisors. The problem was that somewhere in his wildest dreams Lumumba thought he was a military genius. I found myself in a unique situation, and I began training and leading Tshombe’s forces in guerilla style warfare. Then later on we had some contacts through [Colonel] Michael Hoare, with whom I had been faintly acquainted as he led 5 Commando, and we remained friends somewhat over the years. He took his men toward Stanleyville. My guys, all locals numbering about four hundred, held the main roads, and nothing was coming in or out without our say so.571
The new Congo President Joseph Kasavubu dismissed Lumumba and appointed “the latter to be determined insane.” Colonel Joseph Mobutu (later Sese-Seko), former chief of the army, was given the position of prime minister. According to Krueler: “That was a very stupid thing to do in the long run. That was similar to the logic of placing a feeble-minded child as director of traffic on a busy street. That decision would haunt the people of that country for decades, and sadly, the Americans and Europeans allowed him to keep that dictatorial power and ruin his nation.”572
Lumumba fled Leopoldville and established his own rebel government in Stanleyville in the east of the country. Through all of this the U.N. forces were unable to handle the problem, as unless they were attacked they could not engage, and all sides knew of this weakness. The Congo had been divided by various warlords. By 1961 there were four contenders for control of the country: Mobuto’s right wing government based in Leopoldville; Lumumba’s government and Communist supporters based in Stanleyville; Tshombe’s ad-hoc “government” in Elizabethville, Katanga, and a breakaway government in Kasai province led by the self-appointed Kng Albert Kalonji, a delusional character who claimed some connection to King Solomon. Lumumba and Kalonji were both supplied by the Soviets, and the country was building up to a vicious civil war. Lumumba was murdered in 1961. 573 The United Nations up to this point had not done a great deal to bring stability to the new nation.
In response to the crisis, the Security Council gave permission for the U.N. force based there to use military force to prevent civil war. This was not needed, as in August 1961 three of the remaining warlords agreed to a meeting to form a new parliament in Leopoldville that was to be lead by Cyrille Adoula. The only group that was not part of this was Tshombe’s Katanga. Adoula asked the United Nations to provide military support for an attack on Katanga, as he made it his first task to remove Tshombe, believing that as long as Tshombe was effectively in charge of Katanga, the Congo could never be unified and peaceful.
In August 1961 five thousand U.N. troops launched an attack on Katanga. Though they captured key points in the province, they did not capture Tshombe as he had fled to Rhodesia with the aid of Pieter Krueler. “I helped the guy get out; throwing him on a plane, and then had to figure out if I still had a job. In some weird way it looked like I was the de facto leader of some five thousand black Congolese, and let me tell you, being the only white face in that crowd made me feel about as secure as a man staked out in front of a firing squad.”574
In fact, Krueler had helped many whites get to the airfield and board the few flights that arrived, their pilots braving gunfire from any one of the several feuding factions. One pilot made several trips, and Krueler could not remember his name, and until recently in 2012, courtesy of historian Jon Guttman, did the name of the bravest of these aviators finally became known. Apparently, the pilot flying the aircraft that took out Tshombe and others was flown by a former RAF fighter pilot and ace from Iceland named Thorsteinn Elton “Tony” Jonsson. Jonsson also flew later in 1967 throughout the Biafran Civil war in Nigeria.
As a result of the problems, Secretary General Hammerskjöld flew to Rhodesia to meet Tshombe in 1961, but the U.N. leader was killed when his plane crashed. (He was succeeded by the Burmese educator U Thant, who served as secretary general until 1971.) United Nations troops launched an attack on Katanga Province in December 1961. As a result, Tshombe agreed to return and meet with Adoula to discuss issues in Leopoldville.
The talks lasted for nearly a year and proved fruitless. In late 1962 the United Nations force in the Congo attacked Katanga again. Tshombe fled the Congo, this time for good, and in January 1963 Katanga was reunited with the rest of the Congo. The operation almost bankrupted the U.N. By the summer of 1964 the international force had departed, which was when the real fighting broke out in the Congo … again.
The latest self-proclaimed “President of the Congo,” devoted Marxist Christophe Gbenye, led a rebellion of fierce tribesmen calling themselves Simbas (“lions” in Swahili), a radical group that would become notorious. His rebels soon captured large sections of the northern half of the country, leading foreign governments, including those of the United States, France, Great Britain and Belgium, to urge their citizens to evacuate all threatened areas. Krueler stayed, working to keep the mines safe and establishing security, as things seemed to have quieted down where he was. However, it was only the calm before the final storm.
To combat the rebellion, newly-appointed Congolese President Moise Tshombe recruited South African World War II veteran Major Michael “Mad Mike” Hoare, and gave him authority and subsequent rank to raise a mercenary army of white Africans to assist Tshombe’s black Congolese fighters. Hoare would become a legend in the world of professional soldiers. During World War II he had fought in Burma with Brig. Gen. Orde Wingate, gaining great experience in jungle fighting against the Japanese. Hoare already had a solid reputation by previously leading a mercenary group during the Katangan secessionist revolt, which is when he first met Krueler. During this operation, in which Tshombe had been a participant, Hoare had no trouble training a three hundred-man unit of mostly South African and Rhodesian “mercs” that he dubbed 5 Commando. In fact, men from over a dozen nations were within its ranks, arriving during July and August, including some German World War II veterans, and at least two Americans.
Krueler knew Mad Mike reasonably well and summed him up:
Hoare enforced two non-negotiable regulations among his men—that they shaved and refrained from drinking before battle. Apart from outright harming civilians, he gave great latitude regarding their conduct of operations, as long as they followed his orders. I know personally that he shot one of his own men for violating his directives. He was not to be disobeyed. He was the ultimate soldier, but he was not the ultimate mercenary. He would never fight for a Communist regime, or anything that was contrary to his personal code of ethics and honor.575
In addition to hiring Hoare’s mercenaries, and using Krueler to help train his fighters in guerrilla tactics, Tshombe also turned to the United States for assistance. Krueler met with him after his return, and he suggested that due to the realties of modern warfare Tshombe somehow get his hands on air support. World War II, Korea and the French Indochina conflict had proven that tactical and logistical air support were critical for success. Logic indicated that air support and air transportation were crucial for combating a large rebel force, as well as providing a supply source for friendly forces.
President Lyndon Johnson, after discussions with U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, Allen Dulles, former head of the CIA, and others, responded to Tshombe’s request for aid by deploying to Leopoldville Joint Task Force (JTF) Leo, a United States Strike Command force, consisting of three Tactical Air Command C-130s and support personnel.
The transports were from the 464th Troop Carrier Wing, based at Pope Air Force Base (AFB), adjacent to Fort Bragg. Paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division provided protection for the C-130s now based at remote African airstrips. A fourth C-130, a “Talking Bird” communications package, allowed long-range radio communications between the task force and Strike Command headquarters at MacDill AFB, Florida, as well as the Pentagon, the State Department and the White House. Tshombe had U.S. support, but he could not rely upon open support from American military ground forces.576
U.S. Air Force General Curtis E. Lemay recalled:
At this time we had just started getting involved in Vietnam, and in fact the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was still being discussed when I was informed of what was going on. When this situation hit us, Strategic Air Command was busy with global operations, primarily to South East Asia. This was a diversion of assets, and of course, resources needed elsewhere. This was the worst thing to have happened in Africa during my lifetime, and I knew it would get worse before it got any better.577
The greatest issue facing the Americans and Europeans were the large numbers of white non-Africans in the country. Many were missionaries, workers and embassy officials. They were at great risk and some murders had already been documented. In his 1967 book Congo Crisis author Joseph T, Baly related the experiences of Charles and Muriel Davis, missionaries in the Congo:
The situation was getting worse, as these “Simba” characters were getting bolder with every action that did not receive a forceful condemnation from the outside world. Europeans in Stanleyville were not very threatened at this time. This was mainly, I think, due to the necessity of worldwide opinion and support for their cause. However, understand that the locals were not protected. The UN had gone, remember, and the Simbas started torturing and killing them. Then, they realized that that the whites could serve as bargaining chips and began taking them hostage… .
I heard that U.S. Consul Michael Hoyt was taken into custody on September 5, along with many others on his staff. Word reached us that they were in the Central Prison. Others were also captured and taken there, while many Europeans were being held in the Victoria Hotel. Over the next two months, the Simbas took foreigners from two dozen nations and held them in hotels, prisons, and the like. The Simbas stated that the hostages would be killed if the United States did not stop supporting the Congolese government. I found this odd, as there was no real government at that time. I also knew enough about America that if they in fact began killing its citizens, the result would not be what they [the terrorists] expected… .
Not long afterward Dr. Paul Carlson, a Christian medical missionary, was murdered. I knew him. He was a good man, only helping people. He was accused of being a CIA agent because he was an American and owned a radio. Ironically, his radio was used to confirm deliveries of medical supplies. What may have gotten him killed was his contact with us, ensuring that the roads were clear and safe for the movement of very ill villagers to the main hospitals in Leopoldville and Stanleyville. I hate to think that my involvement would have cost him his life. That was a great tragedy, and after Carlson was killed along with others, the mercenaries were pretty much given the green light, and the Belgians had ordered their paras back in. The game had changed.578
In 1963 President Kasavubu and Prime Minister Cyrille Adoula were in power in Leopoldville. Kasavubu, an early militant in the struggle for independence, had been de facto president since 1960. A tribal leader of the Kongo people, he represented only a narrow spectrum of Congolese nationalism. Cyrille Adoula, a member of the Congolese National Movement (MNC) and prime minister since 1961, hoped to install a broadly based government that would encompass the divergent hopes of the Congolese people across the board.
Krueler remained in the Congo until December 1964, and upon leaving vowed never to set foot in the country again, leaving the problems and turmoil behind him. He had decided:
… if De Beers needed people to go into those countries, they needed much younger men than me. I walked away, and never looked back. Even today [1984], it is still a very fucked up country, and Mobutu has done not one damn thing to help his people, although I hear hear he is one of the world’s ten richest men. I wonder where that money came from, seeing how illiteracy is over 70 percent and there are more paved roads in [South Africa’s] Kruger National Park than in all of modern day Zaire. What an asshole. We should have shot him back in ‘64.579
Krueler returned to his native South Africa and decided that he would retire and live a quiet life. This lasted until 1971, when a unique stranger would pay him a visit. That meeting would help change the course of African history, and find Krueler at the genesis of special operations in Africa.