战争猛犬 (1974)

The Dogs of War is a 1974 war novel by British writer Frederick Forsyth, featuring a small group of European mercenary soldiers hired by a British industrialist to depose the government of the fictional African country of Zangaro. The story details a geologist's mineral discovery, and the preparations for the attack: soldier recruitment, training, reconnaissance, and the logistics of the coup d'état (buying weapons, transport, payment). The source of the title, The Dogs of War, is Act III, scene 1, line 270 of Julius Caesar (1599), by William Shakespeare: Cry, 'Havoc!', and let slip the dogs of war.

The mercenary protagonists are ruthless, violent anti-heroes. Initially introduced as simple killers-for-hire, they are gradually shown to adhere to a relatively moral mercenary code as the novel progresses, but as the protagonist explains to another character, it is difficult for civilians to understand. Forsyth draws upon his journalistic experiences in reporting the 1970 Biafran War between Biafra and Nigeria; though fictional, the African 'Republic of Zangaro' is based upon Equatorial Guinea, a former Spanish colony. The novel's dedication to five men named Giorgio, Christian, Schlee, Big Marc and Black Johnny and "the others in the unmarked graves" concludes: "at least we tried"—and alludes to Forsyth's time in Biafra; the dark tone and cynical plot of the story stem from the same source.

A film version was released in 1980, based upon the novel and directed by John Irvin. The movie was filmed in Belize.

Plot summary

Prologue

In 1970, Anglo-Irish mercenary Carlo Alfred Thomas "Cat" Shannon and his four fellow mercenaries – German ex-smuggler Kurt Semmler, South African mortar expert Janni Dupree, Belgian bazooka specialist Marc Vlaminck, and Corsican knife-fighter Jean-Baptiste Langarotti – leave a West African war they have lost, saying their goodbyes to the general who had employed them for the past six months. While the general and his people leave for exile in one plane, Shannon, his men and a group of nuns with their orphan charges fly out for Libreville in another, piloted by a South African mercenary. After a six-week house arrest in a hotel, the mercenaries are flown to Paris, where they part company.

Part 1: The Crystal Mountain

A few weeks later a prospector employed by British-based company ManCon (Manson Consolidated) sends mineral samples, acquired from the "Crystal Mountain" in the remote hinterland of the African republic of Zangaro, to headquarters. When they are analysed, ruthless British mining tycoon Sir James Manson realises that there is a huge platinum deposit in Zangaro. The president of Zangaro, Jean Kimba, is Marxist, homicidal, insane, and under Soviet influence, so any public announcement of the findings would benefit only the Russians. Confiding solely in his top assistants, security chief Simon Endean and financial expert Martin Thorpe, Manson plans to depose Kimba and install a puppet leader who, for a pittance, will sign over Zangaro's mining rights to a shell company secretly owned by Sir James. When ManCon eventually acquires the shell company for a fair market price, Sir James and his aides will pocket £60 million.

Endean visits a freelance writer to discuss his recommendations and eventually hires Shannon to reconnoitre Zangaro and investigate how Kimba might be deposed. Masquerading as a tourist under the name "Keith Brown", Shannon visits the country and upon his return to London submits a report stating that the army has little fighting value and that Kimba has concentrated the national armoury, treasury, and radio station within the presidential palace in Clarence, the Zangaran capital city and principal port. Should the palace be stormed and Kimba killed, there will be no opposition whatsoever to any new regime. Because Zangaro itself lacks an organised dissident faction, the attacking force must be assembled outside the country and land near Clarence to capture the palace. Shannon budgets the mission at £100,000, with £10,000 for himself. While Endean has been using a fake name "Walter Harris", Shannon has him tailed by a private detective and discovers his true identity and his involvement with Sir James Manson.

Although Manson has taken steps to silence the few people aware of the Crystal Mountain platinum deposit, the chemist who analysed the samples has inadvertently revealed his findings to a former acquaintance, who (unknown to the chemist) has political connections to the Soviet government. The acquaintance reports the findings to the Soviets, who in turn assign a KGB bodyguard to Kimba while they prepare to send in their own geological survey team. In a conversation with a Foreign Office bureaucrat, Sir James learns that the Soviets have got wind of the deposit. Sir James commissions Shannon to organise and mount the coup, to take place on the eve of Zangaro's independence day, one hundred days hence, but does not tell Shannon of the Soviet involvement.

Part 2: The Hundred Days

Shannon reassembles his old team to execute the attack on Kimba's palace, and the team trawls Europe to procure a nondescript tramp cargo vessel (later finding the MV Toscana), inflatable motorboats, uniforms, submachine guns or carbines (eventually buying "Schmeissers", MP-40 machine pistols), mortars, anti-tank weapons, and ammunition. To conceal the nature and purpose of these purchases, Shannon spreads them over several countries, buys from both legitimate and black market suppliers, and establishes a holding company to thwart attempts to unmask the buyers' true identities. He also finds time for a brief sexual liaison with Julie Manson, Sir James' daughter; when she accidentally reveals to him that she saw a mining report of Zangaro and its mineral wealth he learns the object of Sir James' true plan.