When the British government announced their intention of withdrawing from their Aden Protectorate, a number of guerrilla groups emerged to hasten the British departure. The uprising was brought to an abrupt halt by the arrival of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.
Aden has been in British hands since 1836 when Sultan Muhsin bin Fadl ceded the territory to them, British marines were stationed there from 1839 to prevent pirate attacks on British ships on passage to India. The territory, being about equidistant from the British possessions of Suez Canal, Bombay and Zanzibar, became an important resupply and coaling base for the British navy engaged in protecting the empire.
By the 1960s, the British government were in the process of granting independence to much of its empire and in 1963, announced that it would withdraw from Aden within five years. This was a signal to stake their claim by various anti British factions backed by hostile neighbouring states such as the Communist led North Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Both countries laid claim to Aden and the rebels were further supported with weapons and equipment by Colonel Nasser’s Egypt.
Recognising this threat, Britain began to unite the various states in the region in preparation for independence and in 1963, incorporated the colony into the Federation of Arab Emirates of the South, renaming the area The Federation of South Arabia a year later and forming various militias into a Federal Army and a Federal Guard, commanded by British officers. In May 1967, an advance party of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, led by Lt Col Mitchell, arrived to take over guard duties from the Northumberland Fusiliers who were finishing their tour. The rest of the battalion were due to arrive on the 23rd of June. Mitchell was a charismatic and forceful leader who did not suffer fools gladly and believed that the softly softly approach of the British government in their handling of events in the region put soldiers lives at risk. He was also fighting for the existence of his beloved Argyll and Sutherland Highland Regiment which was under threat of disbandment in the upcoming defence review. He understood the value of good publicity and had frequently used the press to further the Regiment’s cause which did not endear him to his superiors. His men loved him.
On arrival the Highlanders were billeted with the Fusiliers in barracks known as Waterloo Lines and began working with them to learn all they could about the area and its problems. The Fusiliers had been highly successful in putting down civil disturbances during their nine month tour in Aden and Mitchell was keen to capitalise on this knowledge. Around noon on the 20th of June, the Argyll’s D Company commander Major Bryan Malcolm requested permission from Mitchell to accompany a Fusilier patrol into the Crater area of Aden where a “State Red” shooting incident was being reported. Mitchell agreed and Malcolm, plus Privates Hunter and Moores prepared to go out with the patrol.
The trouble proved to be more than a local disturbance; some units of the South Arabian Army; (SAA) had mutinied and burnt down their barracks. The force had been formed by combining the old Federal militias and was commanded by mainly Arab officers. The force was known to harbour elements of two dissident groups, the National Liberation Front, (NLF) and the Front for the Liberation of South Yemen, (FLOSY) and the British were unsure where SAA loyalties lay. The mutiny was quickly put down, but the unrest spread to other barracks where Arab soldiers broke into the armoury and started fighting each other in tribal groups. Discipline broke down and British and Arab officers locked themselves in the camp guardroom. The mutineers then started firing on the British Waterloo Lines. Just then, a British 3 ton truck containing troops returning from weapons training at a nearby shooting range passed the SAA barracks and came under heavy machine gun fire killing eight British soldiers. A company of the Kings Own Royal Border Regiment, accompanied by a troop of The Queens Dragoon Guards, was sent out to put down the mutiny and on entering the area, came under more machine gun fire killing one and wounding eight others.
Despite their anger at the cowardly acts of the mutineers, the troops remained calm and disciplined even though they could see the bodies of British soldiers lying on the ground. Under fire they collected the dead and wounded and rescued the officers trapped in the guardroom.
While this was taking place, the Arab Police in their barracks in Crater started to get nervous. Hearing the shooting and fearing that the British would be out for revenge they emptied their armoury and took up positions on the roofs of the police buildings The Fusiliers commander, Major Moncur, sent Lt Davis and his section into Crater in a Humber armoured car (known as a “Pig”) but noting nothing unusual, Davis returned to the barracks. They were sent out again a short while later and this time noticed that the locals had erected a series of road blocks. As the patrol headed towards the police barracks they found that some buses had been parked to block the main Awa road. Davis and three of his patrol dismounted the vehicle and immediately came under heavy fire. He ordered the Pig to return to base and moved to engage the attackers, but when his signaller was killed, he was unable to contact base and alert them to the situation.
Not having heard from Davis since he left for the Crater district, Major Moncur was concerned and together with his escort of Sergeant Major Hoare, Fusiliers Hoult and Storey and two others, set off in search in a Land Rover. It was this “State Red” patrol that was joined by Major Malcolm and his two Highlanders, Privates Moores and Hunter, who followed in a second Land Rover, neither realising that they were heading into an ambush.
As the two vehicles passed the police barracks they were caught in a hail of crossfire, those not hit in the first fusillade jumped out and attempted to return fire, but having nowhere to take cover, were quickly cut down. Fusilier Storey managed to escape death by running into some nearby flats. He held off his attackers for three hours until he was captured but later released unharmed. All his companions were killed.
Travelling in a Pig and accompanied by two armoured cars, a Saladin and a Ferret of the Queens Dragoon Guards, Lt John Shaw of the Fusiliers volunteered to take his section into Crater to support Major Moncur and when they arrived at the scene of the ambush they found the two burning Land Rovers surrounded by the bodies of eight British soldiers. The three vehicles came under intense fire and the Saladin commander radioed for permission to use his 76mm gun against the police barracks. This was refused and the beleaguered troops had to rely solely on their rifles and machine guns whereas, if they had been given permission to use heavier weapons, they could have suppressed the enemy fire and retrieved the bodies of their dead comrades. Many more attempts were made to advance on the barracks and each time, permission to use heavy weapons was refused.
At the end of the day 22 British soldiers lay dead and Crater was in the hands of some 500 terrorists and Arab police. To rub salt into the wounds, the bodies of the British soldiers were given a public trial by the terrorists.
The decision was made by Brigade HQ to seal off the area and marine snipers from 45 Commando were posted on the high ground overlooking the area. Over the next days the marines identified and shot 10 armed terrorists while in Crater groups of NLF and FLOSY took to the streets and started fighting each other while the Arab police stood by and did nothing. Colonel Mitchell of the Highlanders, together with Colonel Blemkinsop of the Northumberland’s requested permission from Brigade HQ to enter Crater and retrieve the bodies of their men. This was refused by Major General Philip Tower, GOC in the area on the grounds that the act might result in a general uprising in the Colony and endanger the many British civilians up country. Tower, whose combat experience was in the artillery, understood little of the issues involved in infantry action against terrorists and did not want a major confrontation at a time when Britain was preparing to leave the area. Mitchell and Blenkinsop recognised and shared the anger felt by the men under their command at leaving their dead comrades behind.
After three frustrating days of inaction, permission was given for Colonel Mitchell to send a probe patrol into the area to assess the situation. He stretched the remit of his orders and began planning for the reoccupation of Crater. This decision was to alienate himself even further from Tower. He decided to mount the operation in three phases with troops entering simultaneously from the eastern and seaward sides and converging on the police barracks which would then be surrounded and attacked. He began by sending reconnaissance patrols into the area at night to obtain accurate locations of enemy positions and movements, shutting down all street lighting to minimise the danger of sniper fire on his patrols. The civic authorities complained to Mitchell’s superiors and he was ordered to turn the lights back on. This he did, but righted the situation by ensuring that his Jocks removed all street lighting bulbs in their patrol areas.
On the 2nd of July, an increasingly frustrated Mitchell decided to make a daylight recce of the area and with his Adjutant manning a machine gun mounted on his Land Rover and with a second vehicle as escort, headed out to what he hoped observers would think was a normal patrol into Aden town. He headed for the Supreme Court building and at the last moment veered off onto the road through Crater. The gunmen in the area were caught off guard and were too startled to open fire. Mitchell later noted, “Somebody shouted a warning. I looked round and noticed a low trolley about eight feet long and loaded with coca-cola bottles was being pulled into the road behind us, cutting off our escape. Once trapped in the road we would be shot to pieces. Instant action was essential, I swung the Land Rover around in a tight U turn and headed at full speed towards the trailer and we struck it side on, smashing through, showering coca cola bottles in all directions. The second Land Rover followed, bursting both rear tyres on the broken glass. A few moments later we were back in our own positions”. It is interesting to note that, one month after Mitchell’s foray, the British authorities were presented with an official claim for 800 coca cola bottles!
On the 3rd of July, Mitchell was given the go ahead to retake Crater. The mission, codenamed “Operation Stirling Castle” was to be carried out by the Argylls with the support of the Queens Dragoon Guards in their Saladin armoured cars. The Guards had struck up an affinity with the Northumberland Fusiliers from whom the Argylls had taken over and taped the regiment’s red and white hackles to the aerials of the Saladin’s to ensure that the Fusiliers were symbolically represented in the retaking of Crater. The Saladin commander radioed the Fusilier Colonel Blenkinsop, “Your hackle flies again in Crater”.
At H hour, a platoon of Highlanders was landed on the seaward side by RN helicopter and took up positions guarding the South Gate. At 1800 hours the main part of the Battalion moved in from the east and joined with the patrol at the gate. Leading them was Pipe Major Kenneth Robson playing “Scotland the Brave” and the regimental march “Monymusk”. Mitchell later remarked, “To me that single moment in Crater was worth all my quarter century of soldiering”.
The troops came under sniper and machine gun fire as they advanced, but this was soon suppressed by the Saladin’s machine guns. One patrol came across a group of Arabs and ordered them to halt; one Arab attempted to run away and was shot, the only man killed in the operation.
By 11 pm the first phase of the assault was completed and a company of Argylls climbed the steep sides of the old Turkish fort only to find that the defenders had fled leaving their flag behind. This was quickly replaced by the Argylls flag. Others took over the Chartered Bank and Treasury building.
The inhabitants of Crater were woken at dawn by the sound of “Long Reveille” and “Johnny Cope” played by the Argyll’s Pipes and Drums from the roof of the Legislative building. Surrounded by riflemen, the band made it clear that the British were back.
Mitchell could now turn his attention to the police barracks and early the next day held a meeting with the Arab Police Commander, Superintendant Ibrahim who told him that the police were “very scared” of Scots retaliation because of the events of the 20th. Mitchell assured him that they would be properly treated if they lay down their arms and handed over the ringleaders of the mutiny, if they resisted they would be “Wiped out”.
The Argylls now made their final advance into the main part of the Crater district, this time with no resistance. Negotiations were conducted with the Arab police and the bodies of the dead British soldiers removed. Some of these bodies had been mutilated by the police. The Argylls quickly established themselves as the new armed force in Crater and reached an uneasy truce with the Arab police although the soldiers couldn’t understand why the mutineers had not been arrested and patrols remained very alert in case the police turned treacherous again.
The Argylls established some 30 observation posts in Crater, sited on tall buildings and fortified with concrete and sand bags. Machine guns were set up in the posts to cover all main roads with interlocking arcs of fire and every post, patrol and vehicle was linked by radio to the Battalion net. Mitchell wanted to ensure that the locals knew that there was a “new sheriff in the area” and patrolled aggressively in company with the armoured cars of the Queens Dragoon Guards. He did not impose a curfew, but advised the Arab Police to tell local inhabitants that it would be “safer” if they kept off the streets after 7pm. Mitchell would often join patrols and would insist that his officers led by example and show no fear, reprimanding one of his junior officers for taking cover in a doorway, “What the hell are you doing? Get out in the middle of the street where people can see you”.
He had the regiment’s Land Rovers stripped of their roofs and side panels and had heavy machine guns mounted to show that they were ready for anything. He also ordered his troops to wear the Argyll Regimental Cap Badge on their Glengarries in place of the Highland Brigade Badge which was a stag’s head on a St Andrew’s cross. The Jocks called it “The Crucified Moose”! All main entrances into Crater had been sealed off and checkpoints established, but on the 5th of July, Mitchell was ordered to take them down. The Jocks could still search civilian vehicles, but were forbidden to search vehicles of the Arab Police or Arab Militia. This made it easy for terrorists to smuggle weapons into Crater which did not please Mitchell. He was determined that there would be no repetition of the murder of British troops in June and told his officers that if ever the situation arose they were to counter attack without waiting for permission from himself. His orders stated that, “If you are out of ammunition you are to go in with the bayonet, it’s better that the whole battalion dies in Crater to rescue one Jock than any one of us come out alive”.
Pretty soon Mitchell’s tough stance was bringing a sense of order in Crater with shops beginning to reopen and the return of some refugees. As Mitchell said, “They know if they start trouble we’ll blow their bloody heads off”. He let it be known that “Argyll Law” now operated and his Jocks would keep the peace if there was no further trouble on the streets. If trouble broke out however, he would give the order “Portcullis”.
This order was to be given in the event of trouble and would result in the district being sealed off and all males between 15 and 35 in the area of the incident being held for interrogation plus photographing and finger printing. When the next incident did occur, a grenade thrown at a foot patrol, Portcullis was ordered and Crater was sealed off and the thrower pursued. The Jocks went in hard and their methods prompted a series of complaints to the British High Commission and a smear campaign against the Argylls and Mitchell, led by dissidents and prompted by the Egyptian Intelligence Service. Once again the timidity of the GOC in Aden, Major General Tower and the British government’s desire to “play down” any trouble, led to Mitchell being ordered to take a softer line and that in future, all searches and interrogations had to be made with the Arab Police present. Recognising this mood, the Arab Police became less intimidated by the soldiers and the terrorists felt that they could restart their bombing campaign. Brigade HQ also insisted that the battalion attended a ceremonial parade at the Arab Police barracks which left a very bad taste in the mouths of the Argylls.
Mitchell ordered that kilts should be worn at the parade and added, an order to “shoot at anything not wearing a kilt that stepped out of line”. On the 18th July a terrorist was shot by a patrol and on the 21st Lance Corporal William Orr was shot dead by a sniper while inspecting an observation post above the market place. The Argylls immediately surrounded the building from where the shots were fired and searched for the sniper and his weapon neither was found. One Arab tried to break out from the cordon around the building and was shot dead.
The next day a patrol from D Company was moving down a side alley and stopped to question an Arab who was acting suspiciously. The Arab panicked and tried to grab one of the Argyll’s rifles and both men fell to the floor in the struggle. The Argyll could not fire his weapon in the confined space and killed the Arab with his bayonet. This was seen by the British authorities as an uncalled for act of brutality and new orders were issued to the Argylls stating that bayonets were no longer to be taken on patrol, infuriating the soldiers who felt that their hands were being tied.
This timidity by the British High Command was again seen as weakness by the terrorists who embarked on yet more attacks. On the 23rd, an armed terrorist was shot dead and the next day a grenade was thrown at an Argyll patrol. Grenades were now being thrown at patrols regularly and the terrorists would hide in mosques before and after the attacks knowing that troops were forbidden from entering places of worship. If they suspected that a terrorist was hiding in a mosque, the soldiers would have to call the Arab Police to carry out the search. This was seen as useless as the police would turn up many hours later and find nothing. Mitchell came up with the idea of stationing snipers on the roofs of buildings overlooking the entrances to the mosques, but this meant that he had to reduce the number of men in the various observation posts throughout the area. To overcome this he had dummies made complete with glengarries to occupy the vacant positions and fool the watchers as to the actual strength of the posts.
At 9.49 on the morning of the 24th, the first grenade of the day was thrown and another at 9.58. At 9.59 two terrorists were shot dead by snipers as they ran back into the mosques and a third was killed following another incident later in the day. The mosques were no longer a safe haven. The attacks increased in intensity with grenade, mortar and rocket attacks becoming more and more frequent. By the end of August the Argylls had suffered five killed and eighteen wounded, they in turn had killed twenty terrorists and wounded five. Indiscriminate bombing by the terrorists had resulted in twenty five civilian deaths and many more injured.
Suddenly the attacks stopped. From September to the middle of October the area was quiet with no incidents reported. Mitchell believed that this was “because our finds of ammunition and explosives have finally taken the wind out of their sails”.
It was not to last however, on the 14th October the terrorists started firing mortars into Crater and the ceasefire was over. On the 20th a grenade was thrown at an Argylls patrol, wounding a soldier and a number of civilians. The Jocks chased the two terrorists involved, killing one and wounding the other who escaped in a taxi. The taxi was stopped at an Argyll road block and the driver and passenger tried to run away. Both were shot and killed.
With the British now withdrawing their forces from Aden, the NLF and FLOSY began fighting for control of the country and groups of gunmen roamed the streets shooting and kidnapping, preferring to take on each other rather than face the Argylls. In just two days over 50 bodies were discovered in the streets, but not in Crater where the Union and Argylls flags still flew and to where many Arabs from surrounding areas moved to seek shelter from the killings.
On the 6th of November Mitchell was leading a patrol past the walls of the Arab Police barracks when a grenade was lobbed over the wall and exploded behind them the vehicle and wounding two Jocks. Mitchell was furious and radioed D Company to come down and surround the barracks. He demanded to see the Arab Superintendant Ali Gabir who expressed horror and surprise at the attack. Mitchell had the entire force paraded and told them what a lucky escape they had just had, if it wasn’t for the discipline of the Jocks there would have been a total bloodbath.
The next day a patrol noticed a car driving suspiciously and filled with young men. The vehicle was ordered to stop and as it did so, the men jumped out and started firing at the patrol but were quickly cut down by the more experienced Jocks.
With preparations for withdrawal complete, the various British forces began to hand over positions to the South Arabian Army. Senior Arab officers toured the Argylls bases and observation posts but seemed mainly interested in what would be left behind such as fridges, carpets, air conditioning etc. British forces were scheduled to leave Aden on the 25/26th November. Mitchell codenamed the Argylls withdrawal from Crater, “Operation Highland Clearance”.
Early on the morning of the 26th the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders lowered their flag in Crater while the regimental piper played “The Barren Rocks of Aden”. Mitchell placed himself outside his old Battalion HQ at the Chartered Bank building in Crater and made sure that all his beloved Jocks left safely. When all had passed through with the exception of a small section of B Company, Mitchell made a quick tour of Crater before returning to the bank and handing over the keys to officers of the South Arabian Army.
Mitchell sent a radio message to Brigade HQ stating that there were no longer British forces in Aden town and ended the message, “Up the Argylls”.
It would be normal for a Battalion Commander to be awarded a DSO after such a successful tour. Mitchell had however upset too many senior officers and politicians with his outspoken comments on the timidity of his superiors and also by his seeking publicity in his efforts to save the Argylls from disbandment. In this endeavour he was successful however and the regiment still forms part of the British Army today.
Mitchell, realising that he stood little chance of further promotion, left the army in 1968.
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