Word: katanga
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Katanga struggle had been a wacky if bitter war with no front line, no clear victories or defeats, and not even very many deaths (13 U.N., 30 Katangese before the U.N.'s major drive). But there was plenty of shooting, especially when the U.N. planes swooped down on the city from their Kamina base, 260 miles away. In a quiet, bungalow-lined side street, where some of the remaining white housewives strolled with their children, the whoosh of a low-flying U.N. jet brought sudden pandemonium as Katanga soldiers and hastily armed civilians jumped from their cars or stepped...
Atom Smashing. But the planes also had their lethal uses. Out of the blue one morning, the Swedish Saabs showed up with guns blazing over the copper-mining town of Kolwezi, 150 miles northwest of Elisabethville on Katanga's only rail line to the Atlantic Ocean. Within minutes, half a dozen railway locomotives and cars were out of action; then, with a roar, the town's main fuel tanks, filled with thousands of gallons of diesel oil, went up in a leaping column of flame and smoke. Near by was the village of Luilu, site...
...midweek, the U.N. added up its "kills" so far: five Katangese planes destroyed on the ground, 39 trucks, three armored cars, one helicopter, two fuel dumps, and half a dozen railroad locomotives. Crying economic murder, Moise Tshombe accused the U.N. of planning Katanga's industrial destruction. "This day will be marked with a white stone by the capitalist bourgeoisie to mark the story of its decadence," he cried. U.N. officials retorted that they were striking at the industry and transport that might serve Tshombe's cause. But the question arose in many countries: Whatever the merits...
...Unhealthy Roof. On the ground, the battle in Elisabethville seesawed inconclusively. One minute, the streets were full; next minute, people were scattering in all directions at the sound of incoming shells or a long, looping machine-gun burst from a distant weapon. Often a barrage caught Katanga's loyal whites of the home guard in mid-Scotch or mid-meal at an Elisabethville bistro. "Ah, it is time to go," shrugged one 24-year-old as the crump of nearby gunfire sent the lunchtime customers to the floor at one restaurant. Shouldering his rifle, he left in the direction...
...Katanga gunners'main target was the U.N. headquarters. One afternoon, two Belgian whites in civilian clothes, carrying the tube, tripod and shells of a mortar, walked down a street in the center of town, set up their weapon in a used-car lot; then, casually, they began bombarding the U.N. office building five blocks away. The fire of little, informal squads like this one was remarkably accurate-they were getting instructions from the roof of the tallest building in town, the new hospital, which the U.N. later captured...