The 15 others who died with Dag
1. Heinrich A. Wieschhoff (USA), director and deputy to the under-secretary, Dept of Political and Security Council Affairs
2. Vladimir Fabry (USA), special counsellor to the officer-in- charge of the UN operations in Congo (ONUC)
3. William Ranallo (USA), bodyguard and personal aide to Hammarskjöld
4. Alice Lalande (Canada), secretary to the officer-in-charge of ONUC
5. Sergeant Harold M. Julien (USA), acting chief security officer, ONUC
6. Sergeant Serge L. Barrau (Haiti), security officer, ONUC
7. Sergeant Francis Eivers (Ireland), investigator and security officer, ONUC
8. Warrant-Officer Stig Olf Hjelte (Sweden), from the 11th Infantry Battalion based in Leopoldville
9. Private Per Edvald Persson (Sweden), from the 11th Infantry Battalion based in Leopoldville
TRANSAIR CREW (ALL FROM SWEDEN) 10. Per Erik Hallonquist, Captain
11. Nils-Eric Ahreus, Captain 12. Lars Litton, Second Pilot 13. Nils Goran Wilhelmsson, Flight engineer 14. Harald Noork, Assistant Purser 15. Karl Erik Rosen, Radio Operator
A small hole was discovered in the cockpit window frame,
approximately one centimetre in diameter. After examination by microscope, it was decided that the hole had “not been caused by a bullet, but most probably by an object with [a] jagged point”. Some rumours relate specifically to the crash scene. According
to the Northern News, the Northern Rhodesian daily newspaper, Hammarskjöld was found leaning against an ant-hill, in a seated position. Tis has been the consensus since 1961 and at the crash site near Ndola, now a memorial to Hammarskjöld, there are steps to the top of this ant-hill and a platform from which one can look out over the neighbourhood. Another rumour is that the secretary general survived the crash
and crawled away from the aircraft, using vegetation to propel himself forward.
Oxford treasure trove It is important to sift through the many rumours and theories about what happened and to establish what is fact and what is myth, so far as possible. Tis is extremely difficult, given the passage of 50 years since the crash. Documentation has disappeared and key witnesses have passed away. But this difficulty was greatly diminished by the discovery of
crucial archive material in the library of Rhodes House, the cen- tre of Commonwealth and African Studies at Oxford University. Tis material belongs to the archive of Sir Roy Welensky, who
was prime minister of the British territory of the Central African Federation, comprising Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland (now independent Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi) between 1957 and 1963. Te Federation had a parliamentary system but the franchise
was confined to the white minority. It was under Welensky’s pre- miership that the Rhodesian investigation into Hammarskjöld’s death took place. Most of the relevant files have been kept secret, but the archi-
New African | October 2011 | 59
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