Eight soldiers of the Royal Corps of Transport were killed when mutineers fired on their lorry.Order was quickly restored, but rumours that the British were shooting mutineers led to a number of ambushes in the Crater area of Aden. Imam al-Badr had been in power for only a week having succeeded his father who had presided over a feudal kingdom where 80 per cent of the population lived as peasants and which was controlled through bribery, an arbitrary and coercive tax system and a policy of divide and rule. By late 1966 the war had restarted and the fighting had reached a stalemate ‘but the British were still running an extensive mercenary operation in Yemen with those recruited said to be paid £10,000 per annum’ by a mysterious centre in London run by Stirling.After Egypt’s defeat by Israel in the 1967 war, Nasser decided to pull troops out of Yemen, and in November Britain withdrew from Aden. Unfortunately, ‘there are severe limitations on the use of such methods in the world as it is today, and we trust that any repetition can be avoided’.In October McLean visited Saudi Arabia as a personal guest of the King, who called on Britain to provide aid to the Royalists, especially ‘air support… if possible openly, but if this is not possible, then clandestinely’. Three hundred thousand pounds was released for this purpose but by July it had not got off the ground owing to Egyptian counter action.Acts of ‘subversion in Yemeni territory against individual targets’ were being carried out, however, ‘under the control of British officers within the federation’, according to an MoD memo. Aden - Last Troops Withdraw Aka Last Guard Of Honour Reviewed Before Leaving (1967) - Duration: 1:19.
Operation Rancour was the codeword given to ‘current covert operations to exploit [sic] dissident tribes up to 20 miles into Yemen to neutralise Egyptian subversive action against Aden’.An extraordinary top secret document in the government files went even further in considering the options open to Britain. McLean also visited Yemen to meet with the Royalists, including Prince Hassan at his headquarters, to assess the situation and delivered a report of his visit to Defence Minister Peter Thorneycroft. Of Course We Need Those Stinkin’ Badges Britain’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia then met Prince Feisal and told him of Britain’s willingness to provide arms to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen but said London could not provide overt aid directly to the Royalists.In the summer of 1964, Prime Minister Douglas-Home was faced with opposition from his Foreign Secretary to direct aid to the Royalists, while the Defence Secretary and others argued for precisely that. According to Dorril, several million pounds worth of light weapons, including 50,000 rifles, were secretly flown out from an RAF station in Wiltshire. ‘Many would be attracted by’ the regime, Trevaskis noted.These concerns were shared by the arch-mediaeval kingdom in the region, Saudi Arabia, which feared the spread of the overthrow of monarchies by Arab nationalist forces.
Life at the Last Post: Rare pictures from 1960s Aden reveal the real-life gunfire, bombings and revolts that inspired BBC's hit new drama. The files are crystal clear on this point. A plan ‘for the instigation of a revolt in the Beidha area’, just inside the Yemen border, had been approved at least by July, the files show. MI6 officers provided intelligence and logistical support, while GCHQ pinpointed the location of republican units.
So began one of the most secretive and wholly deniable campaigns that the British waged in the 20th century. I’m continually confused by such things in ways I shouldn’t be, despite the patterns, despite the contemporaneous Kennedy/Johnson/Nixon shenanigans of like ilk. In Aden, Tony Boyle, the aide-de-camp to the Aden Governor, evolved a system for passing mercenaries through Customs while Sherif Hussein organised a network of safe houses in Beihan from which operations into the Yemen could be launched. G Scale L And B Open Wagon In Grey By Accucraft / BMSRelevant On 20 June 1967 a mutiny in the Federation Army spread to the local police. As the traffic increased, officers were seconded to the staff of the Federal Regular Army.The proposed Yemen operation was the subject of fierce debate in Whitehall but the Prime Minister was eventually persuaded to support the operation and instructed MI6 to aid the Royalists.