Foreign volunteers fought on behalf of General Franco and the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War for a right-wing cause whose aim was to smash democracy. These assorted adventurers, fascists, and Catholic crusaders were on the winning side, but their role has remained strangely hidden until now. Men from Portugal and Morocco signed on for money and adventure. General Eoin O'Duffy organised 700 Irishmen in a modern Crusade; 500 Catholic Frenchmen fought in the "Jeanne D'Arc" unit; and thirty British volunteers, including aristocrats and working-class fascists, also took up arms. Romanian Iron Guard extremists died at Majadahonda and an Indian volunteer fought in the fascist militia. There were Russians, Americans, Finns, Belgians, Greeks, Cubans, and many more. Goose-stepping alongside the volunteers were fascist conscripts from Germany and Italy, in training for the next world war. Foreigners, whether unknown individuals like British pilot Cecil Bebb or infamous figures like the German dictator Adolf Hitler, were essential to Franco's victory. Without Bebb--who flew General Francisco Franco from the Canary Islands to Spanish Morocco in 1936, a journey which was to precipitate the onset of the Spanish Civil War--the war would never have started; without Hitler, Franco would never have won.

Franco's International Brigades: Franco's International Brigade: Adventurers, Fascists, and Christian Crusaders in the Spanish Civil War (Columbia/Hurst)

History

Othen.Christopher

Europe

Hurst

The first full account of an African secession that introduced the modern mercenary--and killed the head of the United Nations In King Leopold II's infamous Congo "Free" State at the turn of the century, severed hands became a form of currency. But some Belgians didn't seem to have a sense of historical shame, as they connived for an independent Katanga state in 1960 to protect Belgian mining interests. What happened next was extraordinary. Katanga 1960-63 tells, for the first time, the full story of the Congolese province that declared independence and found itself at war with the world. The Congo had no intention of allowing the renegade region to secede, and neither did the CIA, the KGB, or the United Nations. It was a fantastically uneven battle. The UN fielded soldiers from twenty nations, America paid the bills, and the Soviets intrigued behind the scenes. Yet to everyone's surprise the new nation's rag-tag army of local gendarmes, jungle tribesmen and, controversially, European mercenaries, refused to give in. For two and a half years Katanga, the scrawniest underdog ever to fight a war, held off the world with guerrilla warfare, two-faced diplomacy, and some shady financial backing. It even looked as if the Katangese might win.

Katanga 1960-63: Mercenaries, Spies and the African Nation that Waged War on the World

Africa

The History Press

Katanga 1960-63 tells, for the first time, the full story of the Congolese province that declared independence and found itself at war with the world. The Congo had no intention of allowing the renegade region to secede, and neither did the CIA, the KGB, or the UN. The UN fielded soldiers from 20 nations, America paid the bills, and the Soviets intrigued behind the scenes. Yet to everyone’s surprise the new nation’s rag-tag army of local gendarmes, jungle tribesmen, and, controversially, European mercenaries, refused to give in. For two and a half years Katanga, the scrawniest underdog ever to fight a war, held off the world with guerrilla warfare, two-faced diplomacy, and some shady financial backing.

Ninety thousand foreign volunteers fought for Franco in the Spanish Civil War, but until now their story has never been told. They were an unlikely collection of men and women: American adventurers and British aristocrats, Peruvian poets, Finnish film stars, debout Irish Catholics, White Russians, Romanian fascists, French monarchists, and Moroccan nationalists. Fighting alongside them were fifteen thousand German and seventy thousand Italian soldiers. Using memoirs, interviews, and archives, Christopher Othen paints a picture of a continent on the brink of world war. Christopher Othen studied linguistics, literature, and law and has worked as a journalist, musician, and legal representative for asylum seekers.

Franco's International Brigades: Foreign Volunteers and Fascist Dictators in the Spanish Civil War

Reportage Pr

In October 1935 Fascist Italy invaded independent Ethiopia. The Italians had planes, high explosive, and mustard gas. The Ethiopians had swords and spears. Emperor Haile Selassie needed expert outside help. What he got was a crazy gang of mercenaries who could barely shoot straight and were further to the right than Mussolini. There were Americans posing as fake French counts, Fascist Belgian guns for hire, an African-American pilot duo known as the Black Eagle and the Brown Condor (they hated each other), a Cuban veteran of three failed far-right coups, an Austrian Nazi doctor, Swedish soldiers who preferred fighting communism, and an alcoholic English dropout.Haile Selassie’s international state support was equally disreputable. Hitler backed Selassie as part of a plot to grab back the Rhineland and Japanese secret societies pushed a penniless Tokyo princess into marriage with an Ethiopian prince. Together, this bizarre foreign legion tried to save Ethiopia from Fascism. This is the first time the story of Haile Selassie’s motley combatants has been told, researched from primary records, some in French, Swedish, Spanish and Czech. In his own fast-paced style, Christopher Othen demonstrates how the invasion of Ethiopia almost turned into a worldwide race war.

Lost Lions of Judah: Haile Selassie's Mongrel Foreign Legion 1935-41

Amberley Publishing

Henri Lafont arrived back in Paris after his escape from the prison camp to find the Germans had got there first. Wehrmacht troops paraded down the Champs-Élysées and the swastika flew from the top of the Eiffel Tower. Everywhere were signposts in Gothic German script pointing the way to city landmarks, and sandbags were piled high outside requisitioned buildings. Most Parisians had already fled the metropolis in cars and carts loaded high with furniture. Over at the Hôtel Ritz, waiters were serving poached sole and scalloped eggs to German officers and American war correspondents. Table talk was about the odds of a quick surrender from the British, who were still fighting from across the Channel. It may have looked like defeat for France, but Henri Lafont could smell opportunity. Anyone prepared to work for the Nazis in Paris was about to get the chance to become richer than they could ever have imagined. Book jacket.

The King of Nazi Paris: Henri Lafont and the French Gestapo

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

Biteback Publishing

By the summer of 1943, Henri Lafont had become the most powerful Frenchman in occupied Paris. After spending his early years as a petty criminal scavenging from bins and running from the French police, Lafont was recruited by the Nazis. From this point on his life changed for ever. Lafont established a motley band of sadistic oddballs that became known as the French Gestapo and included ex-footballers, faded aristocrats, pimps, murderers, burglars and bank robbers. The gang wore the finest clothes, ate at the best restaurants and threw parties for the rich and famous of Nazi Paris out of their headquarters on the exclusive rue Lauriston. In this fascinating portrait of occupied Paris, Christopher Othen explores how Lafont and his clan of criminal misfits rampaged across the French capital and left a trail of devastation in their wake. He vividly depicts how the gang robbed and murdered their way through the Second World War under the cover of fighting the resistance - until the Allies finally liberated France, and a terrible price had to be paid.

The King of Nazi Paris: Henri Lafont and the Gangsters of the French Gestapo

About the Author Christopher Othen is a writer and former legal representative for asylum seekers. He is the author of The King of Nazi Paris: Henri Lafont and the Gangsters of the French Gestapo and four other books including Franco’s International Brigades: Adventurers, Fascists, and Christian Crusaders in the Spanish Civil War and Katanga 1960–63: Mercenaries, Spies, and the African Nation that Waged War on the World. Product Description The Men from Miami is a real-life Cold War thriller about the Americans who fought for Fidel Castro in the Cuban revolution – then switched sides to try to bring him down. This larger-than-life assortment of adventurers and misfits wreaked havoc across the Caribbean as they fought for and against Castro, then went on to be implicated in President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, a failed invasion of ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier’s Haiti, and the downfall of President Nixon.Back in 1957, Fidel Castro was a hero to many in the United States for his battle against Cuba’s dictatorial regime. Two dozen American adventurers joined his rebel band in the mountains, including fervent idealists, a trio of teens from Guantánamo Bay naval base, a sleazy ex-con who liked underage girls, and at least two future murderers. The rebels’ eventual victory delighted the USA – but then Castro ran up the red flag and some started wondering if they’d supported the wrong side.Many of Castro’s now disillusioned American volunteers – most importantly Frank Fiorini, who would become infamous for his role in the Watergate burglary, and Alex Rorke, whose mysterious 1963 disappearance remains unsolved – changed sides and joined the Cuban exiles who had washed up in Miami. Their numbers swelled with the arrival of amateur mercenaries from across America ready to drink beer and fight communism. Meanwhile, CIA agents were training Cuban paramilitaries in the Everglades and working alongside the Mafia to assassinate Castro.The Cold War had arrived in Florida, and things would never be the same again. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Missing Over Cuba: $25,000 Reward\nOn 
24 September 1963, Alexander Irwin Rorke climbed into a small twin-engine aeroplane 
at Fort Lauderdale airport and took off on a flight across the Caribbean Sea. 
He was never seen again. When the handsome 37-year-old with black hair and blue 
eyes failed to return, Rorke’s panicky wife telephoned New York for help. Her 
father had influential friends.\nSherman 
Billingsley owned the Stork Club, three stories of white tablecloths and potted 
palms just east of Fifth Avenue. In the club’s glory days, big-name actors from 
Hollywood had drunk its overpriced cocktails and pranced around to the band 
while a 14-karat gold chain across the door kept out ordinary folk. These days 
the Stork was looking a lot less glitzy. A picket line protested outside most 
nights over Billingsley’s refusal to unionise and the celebrities had been 
replaced by anyone with $1.99 to spare for a burger and fries.\nDespite 
his club’s decline, Billingsley still had important contacts on both sides of 
the law. Jacqueline Rorke begged him for help finding her husband. Alex’s 
friends Frank Sturgis and Jerry Patrick were organising a search party, but 
they were penniless members of the Miami political underground. She needed 
professional help.\nIt 
was a tough sell. Billingsley had always hated his son-in-law and refused to 
allow him into the family mansion on Park Avenue. When Jacqueline brought 
their son Alex III around for visits, Rorke had to wait outside in the car. 
Billingsley was convinced the marriage was just an act of rebellion by his 
favourite daughter, and it was only when Jacqueline began sobbing down the 
telephone from Florida that he realised how much Rorke meant to her.\n‘Oh 
my God, you really loved him,’ said Billingsley in surprise.[i]\nHe 
reached out to some friends in the Federal Bureau of Investigation. They 
already knew all about Alex Rork

The Men From Miami: American Rebels and Patriots on Both Sides of Fidel Castro’s Cuban Revolution

The Polish Mafia: Guns, Drugs and Murder in the Wild, Wild East

Foreign volunteers fought on behalf of General Franco and the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War for a right-wing cause whose aim was to smash democracy. These assorted adventurers, fascists, and Catholic crusaders were on the winning side, but their role has remained strangely hidden until now. Men from Portugal and Morocco signed on for money and adventure. General Eoin O'Duffy organised 700 Irishmen in a modern Crusade; 500 Catholic Frenchmen fought in the "Jeanne D'Arc" unit; and thirty British volunteers, including aristocrats and working-class fascists, also took up arms. Romanian Iron Guard extremists died at Majadahonda and an Indian volunteer fought in the fascist militia. There were Russians, Americans, Finns, Belgians, Greeks, Cubans, and many more. Goose-stepping alongside the volunteers were fascist conscripts from Germany and Italy, in training for the next world war. Foreigners, whether unknown individuals like British pilot Cecil Bebb or infamous figures like the German dictator Adolf Hitler, were essential to Franco's victory. Without Bebb--who flew General Francisco Franco from the Canary Islands to Spanish Morocco in 1936, a journey which was to precipitate the onset of the Spanish Civil War--the war would never have started; without Hitler, Franco would never have won.

Franco's International Brigade: Adventurers, Fascists, and Christian Crusaders in the Spanish Civil War

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Othen.Christopher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Othen.Christopher

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Othen.Christopher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Franco's International Brigades: Franco's International Brigade: Adventurers, Fascists, and Christian Crusaders in the Spanish Civil War (Columbia/Hurst)

Katanga 1960-63: Mercenaries, Spies and the African Nation that Waged War on the World

Katanga 1960-63: Mercenaries, Spies and the African Nation that Waged War on the World

Franco's International Brigades: Foreign Volunteers and Fascist Dictators in the Spanish Civil War

Lost Lions of Judah: Haile Selassie's Mongrel Foreign Legion 1935-41

The King of Nazi Paris: Henri Lafont and the French Gestapo

The King of Nazi Paris: Henri Lafont and the Gangsters of the French Gestapo

The Men From Miami: American Rebels and Patriots on Both Sides of Fidel Castro’s Cuban Revolution

The Polish Mafia: Guns, Drugs and Murder in the Wild, Wild East

Franco's International Brigade: Adventurers, Fascists, and Christian Crusaders in the Spanish Civil War