THE SCHOOL OF INFANTRY WARMINSTER
Historically I think the defining event in 1967 which had ramifications for the future was the Six Day War when Israel took on Syria , Jordan , Lebanon , Iraq and Egypt capturing the West Bank , Old Jerusalem , the Golan Heights and Sinai . It has ever since left the Arabs with a deep inferiority complex . It certainly had a deep affect on those Arab students we had at Warminster at the time ; they simply could not believe Israel had knocked out all their air forces on the ground .
For Alan Elliott Thompson I took my third oath of allegiance , this time "till death us do part ! " and became a Dad as Douglas launched himself into the World on 30th of September in Bradford on Avon .
My tour at Oswestry was cut short by about eight months so I could take up this new appointment as a captain instructor on the Platoon Commanders Division (PCD) . Newly commissioned infantry officers out of Sandhurst were meant to complete a course with PCD within six months commissioning .
As an instructor one was responsible for a syndicate of ten students which you looked after throughout the course but also for certain exercises , lectures , syndicate discussions and TEWTS usually linked to core subjects . I for example was responsible for : gaining intelligence , tracking , chemical warfare and air photography . In addition to having a captain instructor each syndicate also had an NCO from the Small Arms School Corps (SASC) . Many year years later I became responsible for this small Corps .
In order to make sure we were up to date on our teaching this took me on visits to the RAF School of Photography , School of Military Intelligence and the Royal Army Veterinary Corps . Much of the knowledge I gained put me in good stead in subsequent appointments .As an intelligence officer in Londonderry I was able to establish a good rapport with the RAF photo interpretation unit at RAF Aldergrove . Combat Tracker Teams were formed in Borneo combining the skills of visual trackers and tracker and pointer dogs. Over the years dogs have taken on many more tasks in detecting drugs and mines .
Instructors came from different regiments but we also had a Royal Marine and an Australian major . Although the youngest instructor I think I had a degree of credibility with the students having been in Borneo and Aden . Basil Hobbs who was our boss still lives in Warminster and must be in his 90s . Others were not so fortunate , Ian Corden Lloyd was a 10th Gurkha , transferred to the Green Jackets and then got killed in a helicopter crash in Northern Ireland as a commanding officer.
Most of our exercises took place on Salisbury Plain but the final exercise was held in Wales in Sennybridge . This could be pretty miserable in the winter . I remember trying to persuade one Arab student to complete the course by offering to give him a £1 for each day he stuck it out , potential outlay of £3 ! This student listened intently but went on to explain his father was worth £3m . He jacked it in before nightfall .
I kept up parachuting at Netheravon for a bit and played rugby for Bath ( Fourth Team ) .
What else was going on in 1967 ? In Mar Stalin's daughter Stevlana requested asylum in the USA .Aug saw British troops pull out of Aden . In Canada De Gaulle made his famous speech " Vive Quebec Libre ." and in Oct Che Guevara was executed in Bolivia . In medicine we saw the first heart transplant by Dr Christian Barnard in South Africa .
We spent two years at Warminster in our first Army quarter so that was through to 1968 . In that latter year US troops in Vietnam reached 486,000 . That year also saw the assassination of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King . The Russians invaded Czechoslovakia and in Northern Ireland the first indications of trouble were on the horizon , a conflict which was to last thirty years .
Two years at Warminster gave me a solid foundation on many aspects which included co-operating with other arms , armour and artillery . I also started learning how to be a Dad !
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Thursday, April 12, 2012
INFANTRY JUNIOR LEADERS BATTALION
On return from Aden I led a pretty nomadic life for the next six months which took me to Somerset , Isle of Wight , Scotland , Suffolk , Kent , Wiltshire and then Shropshire .
It was strange having to do these basic courses alongside newly commissioned officers just out of Sanhurst . The first was at Hythe in Kent on weapons and the second on tactics at the School of Infantry in Warminster . There were gaps in my knowledge I have to admit but I think the great advantage was that it enabled me to return eighteen months later as a captain instructor on the Platoon Commanders Division thus getting promoted two years earlier than normal . I exchanged my little car for a mini van which was convenient as with all these moves you could throw everything in the back .
I have got to confess I was not over the moon about going to the Infantry Junior Leaders Battalion at Oswestry . Training boy soldiers was not my scene or so I thought. I was to change my mind and became a fan . In fact when I was a commanding officer all my company sergeant majors were ex-Junior Leaders .
In the 1960s the Infantry , Armoured Corps , Artillery and Engineers were all running Junior Leader Battalions and the Technical Arms had Apprentice Colleges . In those days the school leaving age was fifteen which meant we could take these young men in at 15 yrs and train them through to 18 yrs when they would become adult soldiers .
The training was by no means all military and the academic side concentrated on the Three Rs but some of the brighter ones went on to take O & A Level Exams . However , when the school leaving age was raised to sixteen the syllabus had to be curtailed . This was unfortunate as with a pupil instructor ratio of 10:1 I am sure the juniors were getting a better education than in many a state school . Then in the 1990s Junior Leader Battalions were disbanded as part of a cost cutting exercise .
I , with my background, was earmarked to go to the Tactics Wing but a Leicester Officer who had been to Oswestry told me the thing to get into was the External Leadership(EL) Wing ( Adventure Training ). Each term the Juniors did an Adventure Training Week and they got progressively got harder as they got older . Activities included : hill walking , caving , rock climbing , abseiling , canoeing and skiing .
I was in for a shock as I was petrified initially of rock climbing . Somehow I got over it mainly due to two other officers . First Jim Hawkins who was a really climber who dragged me up second on the rope mainly in Snowdonia and then introduced me to leading easier climbs and secondly another officer who was quite a robust character who had fallen off and explained how he had subsequently had nightmares . Somehow this helped knowing I was not the only one who got scared on a rock face . Climbs are graded : extreme , very severe , severe , very difficult down to the easy end difficult . I never got above leading severe . It is a salutary lesson when one has to face up to ones limitations . One problem in climbing with juniors is that some would not be strong enough to hold you if you came off so in effect you are climbing free , no safety.
The EL Wing was commanded by a Scots Guards captain and the instructors were my vintage from all different regiments . The second in command was Captain Joe Hillis (Angus's God Father ) ;not a very good one my fault ! Joe was in the Inniskilling Fusiliers . We would spend most of our time away in Snowdonia , Derbyshire and South Wales . I think the things I enjoyed the most was abseiling off Chirk Viaduct near Oswestry and canoeing on the River Severn and Wye .
Nearly all of us were financially stretched in those days as the Army was not well payed so when the Juniors went off on leave at the end of term we got civilian jobs to make ends meet . Hence four of us ventured off to London to help dig the Jubilee Line .
I did along with some others manage to get off on a parachute course at Netheravon where we progressed from static line to 15 second delays .
It was at this time at the weekends I was heading north to Edinburgh to see Miss Paterson .
What of the big Wide World . Robert Menzies retired as Prime Minister of Australia . The number of Australian troops in Vietnam increased to 4,500 . Also Australia went for decimal currency . In China the disastrous Cultural Revolution was gaining momentum .
In South Africa extended Apartheid to Namibia whilst to the north in Rhodesia sanctions were applied to try to isolate Ian Smith's regime .
In Europe France and Britain agree to building the Channel Tunnel .
On return from Aden I led a pretty nomadic life for the next six months which took me to Somerset , Isle of Wight , Scotland , Suffolk , Kent , Wiltshire and then Shropshire .
It was strange having to do these basic courses alongside newly commissioned officers just out of Sanhurst . The first was at Hythe in Kent on weapons and the second on tactics at the School of Infantry in Warminster . There were gaps in my knowledge I have to admit but I think the great advantage was that it enabled me to return eighteen months later as a captain instructor on the Platoon Commanders Division thus getting promoted two years earlier than normal . I exchanged my little car for a mini van which was convenient as with all these moves you could throw everything in the back .
I have got to confess I was not over the moon about going to the Infantry Junior Leaders Battalion at Oswestry . Training boy soldiers was not my scene or so I thought. I was to change my mind and became a fan . In fact when I was a commanding officer all my company sergeant majors were ex-Junior Leaders .
In the 1960s the Infantry , Armoured Corps , Artillery and Engineers were all running Junior Leader Battalions and the Technical Arms had Apprentice Colleges . In those days the school leaving age was fifteen which meant we could take these young men in at 15 yrs and train them through to 18 yrs when they would become adult soldiers .
The training was by no means all military and the academic side concentrated on the Three Rs but some of the brighter ones went on to take O & A Level Exams . However , when the school leaving age was raised to sixteen the syllabus had to be curtailed . This was unfortunate as with a pupil instructor ratio of 10:1 I am sure the juniors were getting a better education than in many a state school . Then in the 1990s Junior Leader Battalions were disbanded as part of a cost cutting exercise .
I , with my background, was earmarked to go to the Tactics Wing but a Leicester Officer who had been to Oswestry told me the thing to get into was the External Leadership(EL) Wing ( Adventure Training ). Each term the Juniors did an Adventure Training Week and they got progressively got harder as they got older . Activities included : hill walking , caving , rock climbing , abseiling , canoeing and skiing .
I was in for a shock as I was petrified initially of rock climbing . Somehow I got over it mainly due to two other officers . First Jim Hawkins who was a really climber who dragged me up second on the rope mainly in Snowdonia and then introduced me to leading easier climbs and secondly another officer who was quite a robust character who had fallen off and explained how he had subsequently had nightmares . Somehow this helped knowing I was not the only one who got scared on a rock face . Climbs are graded : extreme , very severe , severe , very difficult down to the easy end difficult . I never got above leading severe . It is a salutary lesson when one has to face up to ones limitations . One problem in climbing with juniors is that some would not be strong enough to hold you if you came off so in effect you are climbing free , no safety.
The EL Wing was commanded by a Scots Guards captain and the instructors were my vintage from all different regiments . The second in command was Captain Joe Hillis (Angus's God Father ) ;not a very good one my fault ! Joe was in the Inniskilling Fusiliers . We would spend most of our time away in Snowdonia , Derbyshire and South Wales . I think the things I enjoyed the most was abseiling off Chirk Viaduct near Oswestry and canoeing on the River Severn and Wye .
Nearly all of us were financially stretched in those days as the Army was not well payed so when the Juniors went off on leave at the end of term we got civilian jobs to make ends meet . Hence four of us ventured off to London to help dig the Jubilee Line .
It was at this time at the weekends I was heading north to Edinburgh to see Miss Paterson .
What of the big Wide World . Robert Menzies retired as Prime Minister of Australia . The number of Australian troops in Vietnam increased to 4,500 . Also Australia went for decimal currency . In China the disastrous Cultural Revolution was gaining momentum .
In South Africa extended Apartheid to Namibia whilst to the north in Rhodesia sanctions were applied to try to isolate Ian Smith's regime .
In Europe France and Britain agree to building the Channel Tunnel .
Saturday, April 7, 2012
FAREWELL TO THE BARREN ROCKS OF ADEN
It was not just farewell to "The Barren Rocks of Aden " (a famous pipe tune ) but to the Leicesters for four years . More significant it was farewell to my platoon who had been with me for three years in Borneo and Aden . I in fact went back to the UK a month ahead of the Battalion as it was decided that I should do these courses at the School of Infantry which I should have done on leaving Sandhurst . Also I was posted to the Junior Leaders Battalion at Oswestry in Shropshire .
I suppose you could say at that stage in life I was an angry young man . Early twenties wondering what was the meaning of life . Wanting to explore different military options like going to the SAS but on the other hand exploring the opposite sex might be more exciting . Being shot at is exciting but it is also bloody dangerous and I do not think I had a death wish .
What about the big World outside in 1965 . Before we left for Aden we had watched the State Funeral of Winston Churchill on television. In Feb the US bombed North Vietnam and Malcolm X was shot dead in New York . Then in Mar US Marines landed in South Vietnam and Australia decided she would also support the Americans and send troops. BP finds oil in the North Sea .
In Nov Ian Smith declares Unilateral Independence for Rhodesia which was to last till 1980 .
Things hotted up in Aden after we left and battalions like the Northumberland Fusiliers and the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders had a much more intensive time especially Aden itself .
Having reread sections of a book Douglas sent me , Looking for Trouble by General Sir Peter De La Billiere , one bit is worth repeating ." Yet in all our occupation we had behaved in a deplorably self- centered fashion :concentrating on our own trade , we had done almost nothing for the local people. We had never built a tarmac road outside the town and although we had set up a loose up-country administration and some rather feeble attempts at schools , we had never brought the warring tribes together to create a unified state, or introduced significant improvements to their primitive way of life . The result was that the Arabs never developed any particular loyalty to us ; and the only effective way we had by bribing of keeping the rulers on our side was bribing them with arms ammunition and money .British control of the hinterland was always fragile, and when the Communist-inspired challenge came down from the north , it began to crack up . "
As I left my platoon presented me with a watch and I bid farwell to B Coy but when I got to the airport I was turned away and another platoon commander in B Coy who had just been sacked had priority over me . Nothing for it but another night in that grotty tent . I headed down to the Officers' Club and bbid a second farewell to my favourite nurse .
It was not just farewell to "The Barren Rocks of Aden " (a famous pipe tune ) but to the Leicesters for four years . More significant it was farewell to my platoon who had been with me for three years in Borneo and Aden . I in fact went back to the UK a month ahead of the Battalion as it was decided that I should do these courses at the School of Infantry which I should have done on leaving Sandhurst . Also I was posted to the Junior Leaders Battalion at Oswestry in Shropshire .
I suppose you could say at that stage in life I was an angry young man . Early twenties wondering what was the meaning of life . Wanting to explore different military options like going to the SAS but on the other hand exploring the opposite sex might be more exciting . Being shot at is exciting but it is also bloody dangerous and I do not think I had a death wish .
What about the big World outside in 1965 . Before we left for Aden we had watched the State Funeral of Winston Churchill on television. In Feb the US bombed North Vietnam and Malcolm X was shot dead in New York . Then in Mar US Marines landed in South Vietnam and Australia decided she would also support the Americans and send troops. BP finds oil in the North Sea .
In Nov Ian Smith declares Unilateral Independence for Rhodesia which was to last till 1980 .
Things hotted up in Aden after we left and battalions like the Northumberland Fusiliers and the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders had a much more intensive time especially Aden itself .
Having reread sections of a book Douglas sent me , Looking for Trouble by General Sir Peter De La Billiere , one bit is worth repeating ." Yet in all our occupation we had behaved in a deplorably self- centered fashion :concentrating on our own trade , we had done almost nothing for the local people. We had never built a tarmac road outside the town and although we had set up a loose up-country administration and some rather feeble attempts at schools , we had never brought the warring tribes together to create a unified state, or introduced significant improvements to their primitive way of life . The result was that the Arabs never developed any particular loyalty to us ; and the only effective way we had by bribing of keeping the rulers on our side was bribing them with arms ammunition and money .British control of the hinterland was always fragile, and when the Communist-inspired challenge came down from the north , it began to crack up . "
As I left my platoon presented me with a watch and I bid farwell to B Coy but when I got to the airport I was turned away and another platoon commander in B Coy who had just been sacked had priority over me . Nothing for it but another night in that grotty tent . I headed down to the Officers' Club and bbid a second farewell to my favourite nurse .
Friday, April 6, 2012
GETTING THE JINXEvery now and then a soldier, regardless of rank , gets the jinks . It is usually associated with returning to some place where he has courted disaster or death . This happened to me in the Radfan but first let me introduce you to another character , Geordie Taska .
Taska had been a trooper in A Sqn , 22SAS , the same Squadron I worked with in Borneo . In 1964 A Sqn was deployed to the Radfan . Taska was part of a 12 man patrol commanded by a Captain Robin Edwards which was tasked with infiltrating into the mountains to lay out a landing zone for the Parachute Regiment . Things went wrong early on as the signaller Trooper Warburton took ill and as a result they did not make their planned objective by first light and had to hide up in a stone goat pen . They were then discovered by an Arab goat herd who they had to shoot . This alerted the local tribesmen who started to move in . They were held off by calling in RAF Fighter Jets throughout the next day but come last light the RAF could not operate . There was no option but to try and break out . Unfortunately in the process Captain Edwards and his signaller Warburton were killed . They were subsequently decapitated by the Arabs and their heads displayed in Taiz in the Yemen . The rest the patrol managed to break contact and get to Thumier . Georgie Taska was one of them . By the time I met him he had been posted back to us as a corporal in the Transport Platoon but was attached to us at Monksfield .
About a couple of days after the incident in which Ryder got hit intelligence came which indicated the dissidents were going to attack us at Monksfield that night . The Company Commander ( Heggie ) wanted to send two patrols out to intercept any Arab groups coming in . I was to take one patrol to the Wadi Lahamaran and Geordie Taska was to go to the area where his SAS patrol had met with disaster . Neither Taska or I were keen to go to the locations allocated and we suggested we might do a swap . However , Heggie would not agree on the basis both of us should go back to areas we were familiar with. Being good soldiers we did as we were told .
Once again in this familiar wadi my patrol settled down to a long night . It must have been about one in the morning when we heard the noise of someone coming . We slipped of our safety catches off , patted the grenades in front of us and waited . Then sauntering down the wadi came a stray goat . I think Shakespeare might term this comic relief .
Well shortly after this a booming voice came over the radio " THIS IS SUNRAY MARY'S HAD A BOY " ( Sunray is the appointment title used by commanders on the radio ie Heggie ) Mary , John Heggs wife had been pregnant with their second child when we left for Aden .
This was great news as there might just be a party in the offing and I might be allowed to pull out early . I remember suggesting that my mortar section might just fire off a few rounds in celebration . Well not only did they start firing but also a troop of artillery we had with us with their howitzers . I did not pull out early but as I made my way back with my patrol the Arabian sky was ablaze with star shells . We must have spent a fortune on ammunition .
When I got back Heggie , David Hickman (2ic) , Company Sergeant Major and Colour Sergeant were well into a bottle of whisky or two but they had left some for me .
Next morning I had a chat with Geordie Taska . His patrol had been uneventful . I told him about the goat . We smiled , nodded : I think we had got over the jinx !
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Having spent some time on Google trying to refresh my memory I am amazed at the amount of information available . Almost tempting to copy screeds of it to show how knowledgeable I am .
Also what amazes me is how little we knew at a junior level as to the intricacies of Arab politics.
Down at platoon level there were the " gollies " and us . Some gollies were trying to kill us and we were trying to kill them so lets keep it simple . The term Wog was banned but the substitute golly was definitely counterproductive . However , it is difficult to prevent this language creeping in when the Police have been infiltrated ; you have a mutiny in the embryonic Federal Army (Arab) and NLF and FLOSY are killing each other.
The caravan route from Aden to Mecca passed through the Radfan . The tribes in the area made a living out of robbing caravans or put it another way imposing a toll . When an end to this was imposed there was a major uprising and in 1964 a major operation was mounted to dominate the caravan route . This involved the Royal Marines , 3 Para , 1R Anglian , A Sqn SAS ,artillery and engineers supported by RAF Hunter jets .
By the time we got there the major battle had been won for the time being but attacks still continued . As far as we were concerned some tribes were friendly , some were unfriendly and others were friendly by day but would attack you at night . In these conflicts experiences tend to be personal or at a low level and one sort of assumes those higher up know what they are doing .This was rather undermined by the fact that we had declared we were withdrawing so why get your Bol---ks shot away .
Our first deployment was to Thumier where there was quite a good airstrip . The deployment north was a major exercise with all trucks sandbagged as a means of protection from mines , armoured cars acted as escorts , defiles picketed and aircraft on patrol above .
Before we left I had chalked my name on the lead truck of my little packet of vehicles. We all arrived safely without incident but three days later I saw my truck or rather the wreck which had been destroyed by a mine . My name was still chalked on the front : bit sobering .
Operating in the mountains was almost the complete opposite from the jungle . In the jungle contacts could be as close as 20 yds . Little went on at night as it was too difficult to move and mortars and artillery were less effective . In the mountains it was different as you could be sniped at from 900yds and even with old fashioned rifles the Arabs were good shots . Most activity went on at night and you did not go on patrol outside the range of your own artillery .
For platoon commanders we tended to sleep by day and go on patrol at night . As we were in and out on the same night we tended to load up with stacks of ammunition . A new belted machine gun (GPMG) had just been issued replacing the Bren Gun but unfortunately we did not have claymore mines . Also I had done my Support Weapons Course on the new 81mm mortar and the Wombat anti tank gun but when we got to Aden we were issued with the old weapons , the 3" mortar and the Mobat . This was annoying as the Marines had the new weapons .
We took over from the Marines who tended to think they were better . However , they were vulnerable to teasing because in 1964 they had been deployed from Aden to Tanganyika to put down a revolt by the Kings African Rifles . Their RSM had loaded the wrong ammo ie 303 instead of 7.62 so when they got to Africa they had to scrounge old 303 rifles off the Navy . I had always wondered when reading the papers that the RM had used rocket launchers ; now I new why . That said they were pretty professional especially the NCOs. It was as late as 1965 or later that we started centralised training at Brecon for Sergeants .
One was always learning something new . How to deal with camels and their drivers . It soon became apparent that the number of mortar bombs you could get on a camel was directly proportional to what you payed the driver. In fact I came to the conclusion it was better to put spare water on the camels and get every soldier to carry two bombs because if you came under fire the camels would bolt and you would be in trouble .
One person who tended to know what was happening was a Pioneer Sergeant who ran the laundry service because if his Arab staff went absent that meant you would be mortared that night .
We did in those days have a mortar locating radar (Green Archer) which the Arabs thought was an evil eye . Some soldiers managed to persuade them that a paludrine tablet was an anti Green Archer pill and also a contraceptive. They could get two Maria Theresa dollars for a pill . Bit naughty but they were the ones who were friendly by day and attack you at night .
That first tour went without a major incident and I am sure we had no casualties . On return one got thing Heggie got B Coy to do was climb the Jebel Shamsan as superstition had it that if you did not climb this Jebel you would return to Aden . I think we did it three times just for safety .
B Coy were again deployed to the Radfan but this time under command of the Coldstream Guards . We were separate in the Danabah Basin at a place called Monksfield. The Basin was about 3 miles wide and 9 miles long and surrounded by Jebel peaks rising to 6,000 ft. Some of these features had been captured in the operation I mentioned took place in 1964 .
Similar to the other deployment all activity tended to happen at night . One Wadi which is embedded in my mind is the Lahamaran . I had taken a patrol twelve strong to set up an ambush . Having found a bend in the wadi I got one group of four to cover down the wadi and I with my group the other direction . My old friend Danny Dance was rear protection with his group . I suppose we had been in position about an hour and a half when my GPMG gunner opened up as he had spotted a group of four running down the wadi . I suspected they were about 20 ft below us lying still so we threw grenades down to try to flush them out . I also called down artillery fire to try to block off escape routes . Quite scary calling down artillery fire in the dark you wonder have I got my own position right .When you hear that whistle as the shell passes over there is a great relief .
Next I threw a white phosphorous grenade into some scrub below us . An Arab jumped out he looked as if he was alight but somehow managed to throw a grenade back at us . I fired at him from the hip and so did the gunner but we missed . Next thing I heard was a clunk , spun round and saw the fuse burning in a grenade . I screamed grenade and must have sprung like a cat to get away from it . Four of us must have been within feet of this grenade and only one got hit , the signaller Pte Ryder . He was in agony so I gave him morphine and then got Danny Dance's group to carry him out . We remained in position and got reinforced by another patrol .
A Fleet Air Arm helicopter managed to get in to Monksfield in the dark and got Ryder out : he survived . The next morning we found the anti tank mines they had been carrying and several blood trails but no bodies .
I thought twenty two, two lives gone, seven to go .
Monday, April 2, 2012
ADEN
Aden , or at least the district called Crater, was once described as " That Unfortunately Extinct Volcano . " It played a part in the scheme of things in the British Empire by being a Coaling Station at the Southern end of the Red Sea servicing ships en route to India . British interest was really only in the port of Aden but in order to protect it we had various treaty arrangements with Arab tribes to the north and west ; hence the term Aden Protectorate. Later there was a large oil refinery in Little Aden and on Perim Island a Cable & Wireless Station.
After India got independence in 1947 and we started to withdraw from our Colonial Empire in the Fareast ( Except Hong Kong ) , Aden lost its strategic importance . We, around 1964/65, declared our intention to withdraw but hung on for about another three years ostensibly to hand over to a stable government . This was never going to happen as the Arabs were not only fighting us they were fighting each other in a power struggle as to whom would take over when we withdrew . The two main factions were NLF & FLOSY . In the Yemen to the north a war was going on between the Royalist and Republicans , the latter being supported by Egypt's President Nasser . Our SAS helped to supply the Royalists with weapons .
Also around this time Communism was trying to fill the vacuum created by the collapse of European Empires . Hence Indochina as the French withdrew and a new struggle in Africa as Belgium and Portuguese colonies got independence .
A State of Emergency was declared in Aden in Apr 1964 and the Leicesters deployed in Jan 1965 . Our home for the next seven months was a tented camp at the end of the runway .Strange but it was at that airport that Jack's Great Grandfather was killed when dissidents blew up his aircraft . However , we in B Coy had two sessions up in the Radfan Mountains .
Our company commander from Somerset managed to break his leg getting off the plane in Aden and had to be sent back . This was just as well as he would not have coped physically with the tour . Captain John Heggs now took over the company . He was 6ft 2in and three ft wide , an aggressive rugby player who had been in command of B Coy in Borneo for some of the time . If you had an argument with John you usually got thumped followed by now lets go and have a beer . Now and again we subalterns would try to get our own back by humming a tune sung by Johnny Cash :
He stood 6ft 6 , weighed 245
Kind of broad at the shoulders , narrow at the hip .
And everybody knew you didn't give lip to Big John
Big bad John .
The soldiers had another favourite Country and Western : King of the Road . They adopted this as they spent a lot of time on vehicle patrols .
About this time the Army had another reorganisation , The Forester Brigade was disbanded and The Royal Leistershire Regiment became The 4th Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment . We changed cap badges and lost our rather special stable belt ( red ,pearl grey and black ) . Still unlike the other three battalions we had never been amalgamated and considered ourselves to be still Leicesters .
In Aden we had 1 R Anglian , and in Little Aden 45 Commando Royal Marines . Also in Theatre were artillery and sappers .
Life broke down into routine between : guard company where you guarded key points like ammunition dumps, the Governor's Residence , the interrogation centre etc . Then you were patrol company based on HMS Sheba and did foot and vehicle patrols , road blocks and the like . After a days work you would return to your tent and find the sheets covered in sand . If you ventured to the toilet well that was just another experience , best to wear a respirator .
I did have an interesting break by going on an exercise with the Royal Marines on HMS Bulwark which was a Helicopter Carrier . Although being Army I have always thought that when it comes to being an Island Nation with an aspiration to project force World Wide the Navy is crucial . The Falklands saga later proved the point .
Operations sometimes had there interesting aspects . Intelligence indicated that the Arabs intended to blow up a mini viaduct on the coastal road . B Coy was given the task to thwart this aspiration . John Heggs ( Heggie ) had this cunning plan which entailed my platoon sunbathing on the beach with their weapons hidden in holdalls and then at night we would change into uniform and ambush the viaduct . One problem was that at some stage the soldiers would have to pull back to HMS Sheba , get some rest and be fed . Heggie's solution to the problem was that each night I would pick up an RAF Nurse from the Hospital and sit under the bridge pretending to be a courting couple . I had no objections to this plan : seemed quite novel and with some prospects .
As it came to pass I was issued with a civilian Mini , reported to the Hospital and collected a nurse . I then drove to the beach , lined the mini up so if I put the lights on high beam it would illuminate the viaduct. There I was with a sub machine and four magazines , two grenades , a pistol , radio on the back seat , a nurse and after the second night a flask of gin and tonic contemplating how I was going to spend the next four hours . This sure was different from sitting in ambush in Borneo picking leaches off ones body : I was going to war with Channel No 5 !
What happened next? Well about midnight I had to hand over the nurse to Heggie at the Officers' Club and then go back to HMS Sheba , change into uniform and then spend the rest of the night underneath that viaduct with half of my platoon . In fact on the first night one soldier broke his ankle jumping off the truck . We could not compromise the operation so he had to stay with us all night in a degree of pain although a shot of morphine helped .
Later I went to see one of these nurses in the RAF Hospital . Diana was her name and she had been hit by a grenade . She had gone to a guest night and as the last course was being cleared the Arab waiters suddenly disappeared and the next thing served up was a grenade . The officer next to Diana had the sense as he dived under the table to pull the legs of Diana's chair . However , as she fell backwards she picked up some grenade fragments . As Diana explained there were several officers trying to stop the bleeding with their napkins but what she was more concerned about was the amount of her underwear being exposed . Fortunately she was not badly injured but it was a close run thing .
Another incident which illustrates the soldiers humour was when one of my platoon jumped off the back of a truck at night on a cordon and search operation only to find he was straddled between the two humps of a camel . The camel stood up and by the time I got out of the front cab and round the back my entire platoon were in fits of laughter .
In Aden we had little contact with the local population and had been given no language training . There was not much love lost between the Arabs and the Somalia elements of the population . The Somali women were tall and elegant wearing highly colourful clothes which was in stark contrast to the Arab women who tended to be short and dressed in black .
During our time there were no riots the main threat was from grenades and Belindiscise Rockets a forerunner of the RPG 7 .
Up country in the Radfan things could not be more different compared to the urban port of Aden requiring different skills and a change of mind set .
Aden , or at least the district called Crater, was once described as " That Unfortunately Extinct Volcano . " It played a part in the scheme of things in the British Empire by being a Coaling Station at the Southern end of the Red Sea servicing ships en route to India . British interest was really only in the port of Aden but in order to protect it we had various treaty arrangements with Arab tribes to the north and west ; hence the term Aden Protectorate. Later there was a large oil refinery in Little Aden and on Perim Island a Cable & Wireless Station.
After India got independence in 1947 and we started to withdraw from our Colonial Empire in the Fareast ( Except Hong Kong ) , Aden lost its strategic importance . We, around 1964/65, declared our intention to withdraw but hung on for about another three years ostensibly to hand over to a stable government . This was never going to happen as the Arabs were not only fighting us they were fighting each other in a power struggle as to whom would take over when we withdrew . The two main factions were NLF & FLOSY . In the Yemen to the north a war was going on between the Royalist and Republicans , the latter being supported by Egypt's President Nasser . Our SAS helped to supply the Royalists with weapons .
Also around this time Communism was trying to fill the vacuum created by the collapse of European Empires . Hence Indochina as the French withdrew and a new struggle in Africa as Belgium and Portuguese colonies got independence .
A State of Emergency was declared in Aden in Apr 1964 and the Leicesters deployed in Jan 1965 . Our home for the next seven months was a tented camp at the end of the runway .Strange but it was at that airport that Jack's Great Grandfather was killed when dissidents blew up his aircraft . However , we in B Coy had two sessions up in the Radfan Mountains .
Our company commander from Somerset managed to break his leg getting off the plane in Aden and had to be sent back . This was just as well as he would not have coped physically with the tour . Captain John Heggs now took over the company . He was 6ft 2in and three ft wide , an aggressive rugby player who had been in command of B Coy in Borneo for some of the time . If you had an argument with John you usually got thumped followed by now lets go and have a beer . Now and again we subalterns would try to get our own back by humming a tune sung by Johnny Cash :
He stood 6ft 6 , weighed 245
Kind of broad at the shoulders , narrow at the hip .
And everybody knew you didn't give lip to Big John
Big bad John .
The soldiers had another favourite Country and Western : King of the Road . They adopted this as they spent a lot of time on vehicle patrols .
About this time the Army had another reorganisation , The Forester Brigade was disbanded and The Royal Leistershire Regiment became The 4th Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment . We changed cap badges and lost our rather special stable belt ( red ,pearl grey and black ) . Still unlike the other three battalions we had never been amalgamated and considered ourselves to be still Leicesters .
In Aden we had 1 R Anglian , and in Little Aden 45 Commando Royal Marines . Also in Theatre were artillery and sappers .
Life broke down into routine between : guard company where you guarded key points like ammunition dumps, the Governor's Residence , the interrogation centre etc . Then you were patrol company based on HMS Sheba and did foot and vehicle patrols , road blocks and the like . After a days work you would return to your tent and find the sheets covered in sand . If you ventured to the toilet well that was just another experience , best to wear a respirator .
I did have an interesting break by going on an exercise with the Royal Marines on HMS Bulwark which was a Helicopter Carrier . Although being Army I have always thought that when it comes to being an Island Nation with an aspiration to project force World Wide the Navy is crucial . The Falklands saga later proved the point .
Operations sometimes had there interesting aspects . Intelligence indicated that the Arabs intended to blow up a mini viaduct on the coastal road . B Coy was given the task to thwart this aspiration . John Heggs ( Heggie ) had this cunning plan which entailed my platoon sunbathing on the beach with their weapons hidden in holdalls and then at night we would change into uniform and ambush the viaduct . One problem was that at some stage the soldiers would have to pull back to HMS Sheba , get some rest and be fed . Heggie's solution to the problem was that each night I would pick up an RAF Nurse from the Hospital and sit under the bridge pretending to be a courting couple . I had no objections to this plan : seemed quite novel and with some prospects .
As it came to pass I was issued with a civilian Mini , reported to the Hospital and collected a nurse . I then drove to the beach , lined the mini up so if I put the lights on high beam it would illuminate the viaduct. There I was with a sub machine and four magazines , two grenades , a pistol , radio on the back seat , a nurse and after the second night a flask of gin and tonic contemplating how I was going to spend the next four hours . This sure was different from sitting in ambush in Borneo picking leaches off ones body : I was going to war with Channel No 5 !
What happened next? Well about midnight I had to hand over the nurse to Heggie at the Officers' Club and then go back to HMS Sheba , change into uniform and then spend the rest of the night underneath that viaduct with half of my platoon . In fact on the first night one soldier broke his ankle jumping off the truck . We could not compromise the operation so he had to stay with us all night in a degree of pain although a shot of morphine helped .
Later I went to see one of these nurses in the RAF Hospital . Diana was her name and she had been hit by a grenade . She had gone to a guest night and as the last course was being cleared the Arab waiters suddenly disappeared and the next thing served up was a grenade . The officer next to Diana had the sense as he dived under the table to pull the legs of Diana's chair . However , as she fell backwards she picked up some grenade fragments . As Diana explained there were several officers trying to stop the bleeding with their napkins but what she was more concerned about was the amount of her underwear being exposed . Fortunately she was not badly injured but it was a close run thing .
Another incident which illustrates the soldiers humour was when one of my platoon jumped off the back of a truck at night on a cordon and search operation only to find he was straddled between the two humps of a camel . The camel stood up and by the time I got out of the front cab and round the back my entire platoon were in fits of laughter .
In Aden we had little contact with the local population and had been given no language training . There was not much love lost between the Arabs and the Somalia elements of the population . The Somali women were tall and elegant wearing highly colourful clothes which was in stark contrast to the Arab women who tended to be short and dressed in black .
During our time there were no riots the main threat was from grenades and Belindiscise Rockets a forerunner of the RPG 7 .
Up country in the Radfan things could not be more different compared to the urban port of Aden requiring different skills and a change of mind set .
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