David "Taffy" Williams: Congo/Biafran Mercenary

Though he was born in Wales, David Hugh Williams, better known as “Taffy” ,would spend the majority of his life in Africa. When the Congo Crisis broke out, Taffy headed to the breakaway state of Katanga to fight against the communist forces from the Congo. After the fighting for Katanga ceased, the Simba Rebellion began, and Taffy saddled up with Col. Mike Hoare’s 5 Commando between 1963-65. Taffy gained a solid reputation for his bravery and calmness during firefights as well as being liked by his men and fellow mercenaries.

Toward the end of the Simba Rebellion, Taffy would start to rub elbows with mercs like Rolf Steiner and Jean Schramme rather than the mercenaries of 5 Commando, eventually leading to his next venture. Taffy fought alongside the mercenaries during the Mercenary Revolt of 1966-67, cementing his loyalty and making a name for himself, so when the time came, Rolf Steiner offered him a contract to fight for Biafra during the Nigerian Civil War. In 1968, once Taffy arrived in Biafra, he started to train and work with the Biafran soldiers, and it didn’t take long for him to become impressed with their skills and tenacity. Taffy said; "I've seen a lot of Africans at war, but there's nobody to touch these people. Give me 10,000 Biafrans for six months, and we'll build an army that would be invincible on this continent. I've seen men die in this war who would have won the Victoria Cross in another context". These men were nothing like the men he trained and fought alongside in Katanga in the early 60’s.

Taffy was regarded in Biafra as being a "bullet proof" mercenary since he survived so many battle wounds throughout his service and was even reported five times to be killed in action from December 1967-October 1968, only for him to turn up alive each time. Often Taffy would personally lead his troops into battle, oftentimes standing in a hail of gunfire, just to prove to his troops that he truly was "bullet-proof". He wanted to both unnerve the enemy Nigerian soldiers and rally his own men at the same time. Taffy was assigned 100 Biafran soldiers in early 1968, and was tasked to keep 2 battalions of Chadian mercenaries hired by the Nigerian Federal Army, at a standstill, for over 12 weeks using only antiquated weapons. Taffy redeployed his forces in early April, and the Chadians forded the Cross River and captured Afikpo. 

Later on, Taffy joined the 4th Commando Brigade led by Lt. Col Rolf Steiner and would obtain the rank of Major. Steiner had command of 3000 men, and was assigned to the area around the Enugu-Onitsha road. Toward the end of August in 1968, Taffy had around 1000 soldiers under his command, tasked to carry out counter offensives against two battalion-sized enemy units that were attempting to cross the Imo River Bridge with Soviet military advisers. Taffy had to resupply at Aba to continue his fight for the bridge,but when he arrived there was practically no munitions available. It turned out by this point in the war that the Nigerian Air Force had been blocking the main supply routes for Biafra. Some of Taffy’s men barely had a couple of rifle rounds left and were forced to withdraw. 

After the war, Steiner and four others were arrested and kicked out of Nigeria, leaving Taffy as the last white mercenary to leave the country as Biafran secession ended. He left the state shortly before its full collapse. As for his legacy, it is rumored that the author Frederick Forsyth had been in Biafra as a war correspondent and had met Taffy during his time in Biafra and Taffy served as the inspiration for Carlo Shannon in Forsyth's book The Dogs of War. Major David Hugh “Taffy” Williams passed away in Lambeth, London, England in 1996.