Costas Georgiou

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Costas Georgiou was a British paratrooper and mercenary.[1]

Northern Ireland

Georgiou served in 1 Battalion, Parachute Regiment in Northern Ireland.[2]

Georgiou was one of four soldiers charged with bank robbery in January 1972. The Irish News reported:

Four British soldiers serving in Northern Ireland appeared at a special court at Bangor yesterday, charged with stealing £93 from Clandeboye Post Office last Tuesday:
The soldiers, members of the Parachute Regiment stationed at Palace Barracks, are also charged with putting the Post Master, Mr. Oswald Walsh, in fear of being subjected to force.
They are Privates Cyril Verbeck (21), Stephen Peter Kirby (21), Michael Wainhouse (22) and Costas Georgiou (21). They were remanded on their own bail of £20 into military custody to appear at Bangor Magistrate's Court on February 2.[3]

According to Tony Geraghty, Georgiou and Wainhouse were convicted and sentenced to 5 years imprisonment.[4]

UNK 180

UNK 180 is the cypher of a soldier referred to at the Bloody Sunday Inquiry.

Witness Soldier 027 gave the following account to the inquiry:

Soon after arriving in Belfast I received a beating at the hands of UNK 180. He was an individual who lived in a world that I cannot comprehend. He had all the positive attributes of a para. He was a very efficient soldier, and by reputation an excellent shot and a top recruit. However, he was totally lacking in the attributes usually associated with a normal human being. On a day off with a colleague, he took a sub-machine gun from the barracks and attempted to rob a Post Office in Belfast (it was not difficult to get weapons out of barracks if you wanted to). He was given 5 years and, during his trial, he threatened to kill the prosecuting officer. He was dishonorably discharged and later became a notorious mercenary.
He was an extreme example of a person crossing the line of acceptability, but was not unique in being dishonorably discharged. Naturally, there were also those who came close to crossing the line, but were not dishonorably discharged, and remained within the regiment.[5]

The Company Sergeant Major of Support Company, 1 Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, Soldier 202 stated:

I have been asked about specific men in the Company. One of the men I have been asked about is UNK 180. I recall UNK 180 as he became quite a controversial character. There is always the odd eccentric who is a cause for concern. I heard that he was subsequently involved in an incident in Angola where he and some others who had previously served in I Para were executed.
I have also been asked to comment on certain individuals who featured prominently in the events of Bloody Sunday. Soldier F and Soldier G were maverick types and, although they were not maverick to the same extent as UNK 180, they were enthusiastic soldiers. They were not in the same category as UNK 180. If that had been the case I would have done something before the day to reign them in. Soldier H certainly did not fall into the UNK 180 category and I was really surprised when I heard of his actions on the day.[6]

It would seem likely that UNK 180 was one of the four soldiers involved in the Clandeboye robbery.[7] Of these only Wainhouse and Georgiou are known to have visited Angola, and only Georgiou was executed there.[8]

Mercenary

Following their release Georgiou and Wainhouse linked up with two other former paratroopers, Georgiou's cousin Charles Christodolou and Nicholas Mervyn Hall. In 1975, Hall advertised his services as a freelance soldier in the press, and the other three were among those who responded.[9]

The group made contact with the FNLA, and was given a mission in central London as a loyalty test. Hall refused this, but Georgiou complied and set fire to the offices of the Mozambique and Guinea Information Centre on 12 Little Newport Street on 6 November 1975.[10]

Angola

The four arrived in Angola in December 1975, where Georgiou renamed himself "Colonel Callan" after a television character of the time.[11]

Tony Geraghty records that Callan, "his fellow assassin Sammy Copeland and their inner ring of ex-para psychopaths - the mercenary advance guard - killed people as a mundane, daily process".[12]

Maquela

At Maquela, on 2 February 1976, Callan shot dead 22-year-old ex-soldier Phil Davies for firing a rocket at a mercenary vehicle by mistake. He then presided over the slaughter of between 11 and 14 men from the second wave of mercenaries, who were taken to a valley and told to start running at which point Georgiou's colleagues picked them off.[13]

Luanda Trial

Georgiou was eventually captured by Angolan government forces, and was one of thirteen mercenaries put on trial in June 1976. He was one of four who were sentenced to death and executed by firing squad on 14 June 1976.[14]

External Resources

Notes

  1. ↑ Tony Geraghty, Guns for Hire: The Inside Story of Freelance Soldiering, Piatkus, 2008. p.60.
  2. ↑ Tony Geraghty, Guns for Hire: The Inside Story of Freelance Soldiering, Piatkus, 2008. p.60.
  3. ↑ British soldiers on post office theft charge, Irish News, 21 January 1972.
  4. ↑ Tony Geraghty, Guns for Hire: The Inside Story of Freelance Soldiering, Piatkus, 2008. p.60.
  5. ↑ Soldier 027 evidence, Bloody Sunday Inquiry.
  6. ↑ Soldier 202 evidence, Bloody Sunday Inquiry.
  7. ↑ British soldiers on post office theft charge, Irish News, 21 January 1972.
  8. ↑ Peter McAleese, No Mean Soldier, Cassell Military Paperbacks, 2000, p.346.
  9. ↑ Tony Geraghty, Guns for Hire: The Inside Story of Freelance Soldiering, Piatkus, 2008. p.60.
  10. ↑ Tony Geraghty, Guns for Hire: The Inside Story of Freelance Soldiering, Piatkus, 2008. p.61.
  11. ↑ Tony Geraghty, Guns for Hire: The Inside Story of Freelance Soldiering, Piatkus, 2008. p.62.
  12. ↑ Tony Geraghty, Guns for Hire: The Inside Story of Freelance Soldiering, Piatkus, 2008. p.69.
  13. ↑ Tony Geraghty, Guns for Hire: The Inside Story of Freelance Soldiering, Piatkus, 2008. p.71.
  14. ↑ 1976: Death sentence for mercenaries, On This Day - 28 June, BBC News, accessed 29 June 2010.
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