Siege at Jadotville by Declan Power
Jim Cornelius brought this to my attention when this story was adapted to film last year. In 1961, Katanga in the Congo was a dangerous place. The Irish A Company were sent into the Congo as part of UN peacekeeping forces. They found themselves surrounded in a remote outpost without the necessary tools to affect a win or even a lengthy holdout.
For many years, public perception did not view A Company fairly, feeling they had surrendered too easily and put a black mark on Ireland's army on the world stage. After many years, survivors of A Company and Power's book have set the record straight.
I have yet to see the movie, I don't know how much background is included, but Power's book does a fine job of laying out all the chaos of the region and the UN's flawed
A Company were under-equipped, under-informed and it's a wonder they weren't rolled over on day one. The Irish were a largely green force (no pun intended)--even the officers hadn't had much combat experience, if any--and they held out against a much larger force of battle-hardened Belgian and French mercenaries intermingled in the Katangan forces. A Company were hamstrung (to put it lightly) by poor equipment, poor supplies, and poor "planning" from their superiors and the UN. Also, of course, was their charter as peacekeepers while the enemy played by rules they could not.
I definitely recommend this book if you want to understand how the whole siege came to be and played out for the men of A Company.
