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 .