Aden 1965 - 66



Short History

British interests in the area which would later become South Yemen, began to grow when in 1832, British East India Company forces captured the port of Aden, to provide a coaling station for ships en route to India. The colony gained much political and strategic importance after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.

Aden was ruled as part of British India until 1837, when the city of Aden became the Colony of Aden, a crown colony in its own right. The Aden hinterland and Hadhramaut to the east formed the remainder of what would become South Yemen and was not administered directly by Aden but were tied to Britain by treaties of protection. Starting in the latter decades of the 19th century and continuing into the 20th century, Britain signed agreements with local rulers of traditional polities that, together, became known as the Aden Protectorate. The area was divided into numerous sultanates, emirates, and sheikhdoms, and was divided for administrative purposes into the East Aden Protectorate and the West Aden Protectorate. The eastern protectorate consisted of the three Hadhramaut states (Qu'aiti State of Shihr and Mukalla, Kathiri State of Seiyun, Mahra State of Qishn and Socotra) with the remaining states comprising the west. Economic development was largely centred in Aden, and while the city flourished partly due to the discovery of crude oil on the Arabian Peninsula in the 1930s, the states of the Aden Protectorate stagnated.

Encouraged by the rhetoric of President Nasser of Egypt against British colonial rule in the Middle East, pressure for the British to leave grew. Following Nasser's creation of the United Arab Republic, attempts to incorporate Yemen in turn threatened Aden and the Protectorate. To counter this the British attempted to unite the various states under its protection and, on 11 February 1959, six of the West Aden Protectorate states formed the Federation of Arab Emirates of the South to which nine other states were subsequently added. During the 1960s, the British sought to incorporate all of the Aden Protectorate territories into the Federation. On 18 January 1963, the Colony of Aden was incorporated against the wishes of much of the city's populace as the State of Aden and the Federation was renamed the Federation of South Arabia. Several more states subsequently joined the Federation and the remaining states that declined to join, mainly in Hadhramaut, formed the Protectorate of South Arabia.

In 1963 fighting between Egyptian forces and British-led Saudi-financed guerrillas in the Yemen Arab Republic spread to South Arabia with the formation of the National Liberation Front (NLF), who hoped to force the British out of South Arabia. Hostilities started with a grenade attack by the NLF against the British High Commissioner on 10 December 1963, killing one person and injuring fifty, and a state of emergency was declared, becoming known as the Aden Emergency.

In January 1964, the British moved into the Radfan hills in the border region to confront Egyptian-backed guerrillas, later reinforced by the NLF. By October they had largely been suppressed, and the NLF switched to grenade attacks against off-duty military personnel and police officers elsewhere in the Aden Colony.

In 1964, the new British government under Harold Wilson announced their intention to hand over power to the Federation of South Arabia in 1968, but that the British military would remain. In 1964, there were around 280 guerrilla attacks and over 500 in 1965.

In 1965 The 1st Bn Kings Own Yorkshire Light infantry arrived in Aden, the first thing that hit us as the plane doors opened was the suffocating heat, we were drenched in sweat within 5 minutes. the start of a 9 month tour of duty where initially we were encamped in a tented area called Radfan camp -

Within a very short time under the command Lt Col Saltonstall, we would be respected by all and sundry and called the 'Green Berets'

 

Can I thank Stan Green KOYLI/2 LI for these great photos that he has kindly allowed me to use, Stan was in the Intelligence office.

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Can I thank Gary for these photos that he has kindly allowed me to show here. Gary served all his time in A Coy of The KOYLI

Nev Roe, at HMS Sheba

Lew Stocks the barber ha ha

 

 

Milton Has kindly taken the time write a short memoir of an incident in his stay in Aden whilst serving in A Coy The KOYLI   You lads who were in Aden will remember how knackered you were after doing a night patrol or road block. Never seemed to get enough sleep when we were back in camp. We would be allowed to sleep in until about 11 o'clock in the mornings, we did any drills after lunch and went back out around 4 p.m. On this particular occasion we got back to the lines about 1.30 a.m. After putting weapons away it would have been after 2.a.m and we were told that we had to be out of bed at 7.30a.m as the Brigadier was inspecting the camp. This really built up our morale, Someone gave me a kick in the guts for breakfast and I asked them to kindly go away. Next thing I know the sheet is pulled back and I'm staring up at the Brigadier, Saltonstall,Tara, Joe Davey, old uncle Tom Cobley and all, The Brig said "Been out on night patrol have we?" I gave him a sleepy nod, "Out again tonight eh" said the Brigadier. Another nod from me. "Good lad, get some sleep,That's the thing to do". With that he slapped me on the shoulder and carried on inspecting the lines and I turned over and went back to sleep, but not before I got some dirty looks from our lot. Bugger me if the same thing did'nt happen to me again a couple of months later. Same Brigadier, same entourage, same bat channel, only this time it was the shower blocks we were forbidden to use, but my time was getting short so I said stuff em. We were going out early and there was no way I was going to miss out on a shower. There I was in the shower singing 'O Sol Omeo', turned around and they're all staring at me with open mouths and murder in their eyes, all except the Brigadier that is, Again he proved to me that not all officers were prats, he asked me if I was getting ready for patrol, he then said  "Thats the ticket" and moved on leaving me naked and all soaped up. As they all filed past, Saltonstall he turned and whispered something to the RSM who Turned and whispered to Joe Davey, who hung back and whispered to me. "See me Later". Joe was a good operator though and all he said was to stop annoying the officers as it only made them cry.   Milt Post Script: In 1966 the British Government announced that all British forces would be withdrawn at independence. In response, the security situation deteriorated with the creation of the socialist Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen (FLOSY) which started to attack the NLF in a bid for power, as well as attacking the British.

I would like to thank Dennis Lancaster for the following images,
Dennis was in the RAF at Steamer Point, Aden.
Attached to the 22 Tactical signals Unit
 

Camel cart in Aden

Crater

Ariel view of Crater

Labourers awaiting jobs

Maala Straight

Patrol Maala

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Hills surrounding area

Maala Straight

Floods 1967

The Married Quarters RAF Maala

A Maala straight shop

Cigarette seller

 

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