Thomas Michael Hoare , better known as Mad Mike , considers one of the most famous mercenaries for his military activities in Africa and his failed attempt to carry out a coup d'etat in the Seychelles, has died at 100, according to the BBC .

"Mike Hoare lived according to the philosophy that you get more out of life by living dangerously , so it is even more remarkable that he has lived more than 100 years," his son said in a statement announcing his death.

Born in India, although of Irish parents, his life took a turn when not being accepted into the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst joined the British Army reserve. When World War II broke out, he entered the London Irish Rifles and later the Royal Armored Corps where he fought in the Arakan campaign in Burma and the battle of Kohima in India.

But from the 60s where Mad Mike's fame turned black. During the Congo crisis Mad Mike organized and directed two groups of independent mercenaries . It was in 1961 when he was introduced to Moïse Tshombe, a Congolese politician and businessman who would become Congolese Prime Minister three years later. In 1964, Tshombe hired Hoare to face Simba's rebellion, backed by the communists.

When the campaign was completed 18 months later, Hoare and his mercenary unit, which he nicknamed The Wild Geese , were internationally known, were even taken to the big screen in 1978. The movie, The Wild Geese . He starred Richard Burton as Colonel Allen Faulkner, a character based largely on Mad Mike , nickname that was put on East German radio for his anti-communist campaigns in Africa.

When it seemed that Hoare had retired, the early 80s arrived. In 1981 Mad Mike launched a surprising attack to overthrow the Seychelles government. With the tacit support of the governments of South Africa and Kenya, Mad Mike began to conspire.

The exiles of Seychelles in South Africa, on behalf of former President James Mancham, contacted Hoare , then in South Africa as a civilian resident, to fight alongside 53 other mercenary soldiers including the former Special Forces of South Africa (Recces), former soldiers of Rhodesia and former mercenaries of Congo.

Hoare met, in November 1981, with a group of middle-class mercenaries, and called them "Ye Ancient Order of Froth Blowers" (AOFB), similar to a charitable English social club of the 1920s. So that the The plan will work, he passed the mercenaries as players of a rugby club and hid the AK-47 in the bottom of his luggage .

Almost all the men managed to pass customs at the Mahe airport. However, one of his group went to the wrong queue, fought with a customs officer, who ended up registering his purse. When officers found an AK-47 dismounting, the man panicked and revealed that there were more weapons outside.

At this point, the whole plan collapsed, and in the midst of the conflict that followed at the airport, the mercenaries took an Air India plane and took it back to South Africa. The mercenaries were imprisoned for six days, and Hoare and his plans, ridiculed in the world press.

A year later they were tried for hijacking the Air India plane. Mad Mike was sentenced to 20 years, with 10 years of suspension. He was released after 33 months. He spent his last years in South Africa.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • international

Government Margarita Robles, the iron-headed chief of the military who will continue to send 'firm'

ItaliaMediaset modifies the statutes of its new holding in another clash of the Berlusconi and Vivendi

Qabus bin Said: The Sultan of Oman dies at 79 and his cousin Haizam bin Tariq succeeds him