DEFENDING JADOTVILLE

13-17 SEPTEMBER 1961

A Company’s deployment at the siege of Jadotville was a small area that consisted of requisitioned un buildings and hastily constructed foxholes that centred around a purfina petrol garage on the outskirts of the mining town. tony dykes explained, “it was a very small area. We weren’t in the town itself, which was a couple of miles away, and the buildings were bungalows there. We had one armoured car facing elisabethville, one facing the other way, and we were in between. i was opposite the purfina petrol garage where the officers had their headquarters. it was pretty open ground, and the purfina garage was pockmarked with bullets. We were lucky because we had this jet flying over, and the road had craters in it.”

A Company, 35th Battalion’s defences Consisted of simple structures such As houses, foxholes, Bushes And A petrol station

One of the two Ford Mark VI armoured cars that A Company had at the Siege of Jadotville

A damaged villa within A Company’s defence perimeter. It is pockmarked with bullet and shell marks. The bushes in front of the villas provided essential cover for the Irish soldiers