RAF KHORMAKSAR
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It does, Britain at War this month I think has articles of Aden and pictures of the flats etc.
View Issue | Britain at War
View Issue | Britain at War
Aden: End Of Empire
Marking the 50th anniversary of Britain’s withdrawal from Aden, John Ash takes a retrospective look at the history of this bloody conflict in a special-length feature article. Today, the territory abandoned by Britain half a century ago is still riven with war.
Marking the 50th anniversary of Britain’s withdrawal from Aden, John Ash takes a retrospective look at the history of this bloody conflict in a special-length feature article. Today, the territory abandoned by Britain half a century ago is still riven with war.
Here is a sequence taken by me of suspects rounded up after an incident and taken to the Aden Supply Depot. In the first shot the initial three gentlemen are being shown how to stand with their hands against the wall with their feet apart. In the last shot the assembled multitude are being loaded on to a Bedford 4-tonner presumably to be taken to Fort Morbat for a bit of a debrief.
One night there was a bang and the Cameronians spilled out and rapidly put up temporary road barriers. Out went our lights, I grabbed a couple of cold beers and we got up on to the bathroom windowsill. The lads have got the driver and the passengers from a taxi against the wall underneath the window. We can't see them but we can hear them. Now after a stop and search the detainees are invited to sign a form which states that they have been detained by the lawful authority and have now been released without any harm having been caused to them. This taxi driver, who could speak a bit of English, refused to sign so the Corporal was sent for. He could not succeed either so the Sergeant was sent for. He came out of the Depot and vanished out of sight underneath the window.
"Aye right. Whit's your f*****g case then Sabu"? This beautifully crafted piece of Glaswegian dialect made me smile just a little. We were not very politically correct in those days! Anyway, the Sergeant did not succeed either so the Officer was sent for. He came across the road beautifully turned out and wearing trews.
"What seems to be the trouble chaps"? This was delivered with a cut glass Oxford accent. However, it had the desired effect. The chit was signed and they all departed. Thinking back on it, I wonder if the taxi driver simply did not realise that the soldiers were speaking a strange version of English?
One night there was a bang and the Cameronians spilled out and rapidly put up temporary road barriers. Out went our lights, I grabbed a couple of cold beers and we got up on to the bathroom windowsill. The lads have got the driver and the passengers from a taxi against the wall underneath the window. We can't see them but we can hear them. Now after a stop and search the detainees are invited to sign a form which states that they have been detained by the lawful authority and have now been released without any harm having been caused to them. This taxi driver, who could speak a bit of English, refused to sign so the Corporal was sent for. He could not succeed either so the Sergeant was sent for. He came out of the Depot and vanished out of sight underneath the window.
"Aye right. Whit's your f*****g case then Sabu"? This beautifully crafted piece of Glaswegian dialect made me smile just a little. We were not very politically correct in those days! Anyway, the Sergeant did not succeed either so the Officer was sent for. He came across the road beautifully turned out and wearing trews.
"What seems to be the trouble chaps"? This was delivered with a cut glass Oxford accent. However, it had the desired effect. The chit was signed and they all departed. Thinking back on it, I wonder if the taxi driver simply did not realise that the soldiers were speaking a strange version of English?
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Ah, preserved for posterity!! Nice imagery and the associated story 
6 months patrolling within the wire at Khormaksar was pretty tedious - in general the bad guys will go for soft targets, and a well defended base does not come into that category. We did break the monotony doing impromptu road blocks at the Northern end of the causeway. The plan was that a few chaps took off in a Whirlwind, landed near the road and had a temporary roadblock set up within a minute or so. I dont recall us ever finding anything untoward in any of the vehicles we searched, but at least it relieved the boredom, which was always a problem at that stage in 1966 as things hadn't really hotted up. I had to stop the chaps using the hand throttle on our Land Rovers, setting it to around 10 mph out on the airfield somewhere, then both jumping out and running round the vehicle and swapping seats!
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6 months patrolling within the wire at Khormaksar was pretty tedious - in general the bad guys will go for soft targets, and a well defended base does not come into that category. We did break the monotony doing impromptu road blocks at the Northern end of the causeway. The plan was that a few chaps took off in a Whirlwind, landed near the road and had a temporary roadblock set up within a minute or so. I dont recall us ever finding anything untoward in any of the vehicles we searched, but at least it relieved the boredom, which was always a problem at that stage in 1966 as things hadn't really hotted up. I had to stop the chaps using the hand throttle on our Land Rovers, setting it to around 10 mph out on the airfield somewhere, then both jumping out and running round the vehicle and swapping seats!
Didn't the passenger have a Class C Licence?
"Mildly" Eccentric Stardriver
In '67 we on the Wessex were able to relieve the boredom with an exercise know as "Laylow". There was a barbed wire fence to the north of the airfield, known as the "Scrubber Line". (Named I believe for the Army officer whose idea it was). The plot was that on a night IS sortie the aircraft would fly along the line, firing the GPMG, which at night, with one-in-four tracer (IIRC) was quite spectacular. The line of fire was illuminated by the searchlights, so in theory no-one would be shot, but it was a nice little show of strength.
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I had to stop the chaps using the hand throttle on our Land Rovers, setting it to around 10 mph out on the airfield somewhere, then both jumping out and running round the vehicle and swapping seats!
"Mildly" Eccentric Stardriver
I arrived in May '67, and the squadron had been operating Wessex for some time. I can't find a date off hand, but I suspect sometime early '66.
Ref "Scrubber Line" Major P Stewart-Richardson (known as "Scrubber") Second-in-Command 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards. Ref: "Aden Insurgency" by Jonathan Walker
Ref "Scrubber Line" Major P Stewart-Richardson (known as "Scrubber") Second-in-Command 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards. Ref: "Aden Insurgency" by Jonathan Walker
"Mildly" Eccentric Stardriver
TTN. I've made a couple of enquiries and it seems the Twin Pins were transferred from the Sqn in '65, when the Wessex were taken on strength. Actual dates I don't have I'm afraid. FWIW, the boss went tourex Jun/Jul of '67, so if he did a two and a half year tour, we're probably talking Feb '65?
Looking at 'Jeff' Jeffords book, RAF Squadrons, it gives June '65 as the date 78 Sqn changed from Twin Pin CC 1 to Wessex HC 2.
It then gives 13 Oct '67 as the date the squadron moved to Sharjah, where it stayed until disbanding on 21 Dec 71.
There appears to be no record of RAF Whirlwinds serving at Khormaksar - did the Royal Navy use them, and could they have been in Aden?
It then gives 13 Oct '67 as the date the squadron moved to Sharjah, where it stayed until disbanding on 21 Dec 71.
There appears to be no record of RAF Whirlwinds serving at Khormaksar - did the Royal Navy use them, and could they have been in Aden?
Brakedwell:
Your last two photographs show the Esso filling station which was just round the corner from me (from the other side of Maalla Straight). I used it often. Then, one morning an RAF Sergeant (I think he was aircrew) was assassinated there whilst filling his car to go to work. I have a feeling that he was one of the first victims of the paid assassin(s) who hailed from the GDR. He managed to bump off quite a few people before he was caught and that was because a Swedish journalist actually saw him attack someone in the Crescent. He had easily escaped capture up until then for no one had thought of rounding up Europeans after an incident!
I was also on the roof of Bazara South one night on warden duty when there was a loud bang. A Claymore mine had just gone off inside a "civilian" block about 100 yards away. The occupants were an assortment of Aden Airways, civil servants and service personnel who should have known better. (We were restricted to six people in your flat during curfew but they were in a non-protected area and had no such limitation.) One of the hired servants for the party had placed the mine (a "jumping jack" mine) in the drinks cabinet. I seem to remember that most of the dead and the badly injured were wives. Rumour had it that one Wg Cdr's wife lost both of her legs.
Despite this, we were reasonably happy in Bazara South for we figured that the Cameronians were not very far away. We had a good relationship with our neighbours across the road. From time to time I would pop across to the ASD and speak to the Duty Sergeant. I would ask him to send two of his soldiers over to us when they came off patrol and we would feed and water them. This was usually after a Nairobi trip so they would enjoy fillet steak, mushrooms and all the trimmings - my wife was a bloody good cook. The water usually consisted of Glenfiddich.
It is hard to imagine now that we had over 9,000 dependents living in Aden at the time. Thanks to our wonderful soldiers, not many of us got killed.
I have today stumbled upon an interesting web site which gives an interesting view of the last two years of Aden from a different viewpoint:
The Aden Emergency
Your last two photographs show the Esso filling station which was just round the corner from me (from the other side of Maalla Straight). I used it often. Then, one morning an RAF Sergeant (I think he was aircrew) was assassinated there whilst filling his car to go to work. I have a feeling that he was one of the first victims of the paid assassin(s) who hailed from the GDR. He managed to bump off quite a few people before he was caught and that was because a Swedish journalist actually saw him attack someone in the Crescent. He had easily escaped capture up until then for no one had thought of rounding up Europeans after an incident!
I was also on the roof of Bazara South one night on warden duty when there was a loud bang. A Claymore mine had just gone off inside a "civilian" block about 100 yards away. The occupants were an assortment of Aden Airways, civil servants and service personnel who should have known better. (We were restricted to six people in your flat during curfew but they were in a non-protected area and had no such limitation.) One of the hired servants for the party had placed the mine (a "jumping jack" mine) in the drinks cabinet. I seem to remember that most of the dead and the badly injured were wives. Rumour had it that one Wg Cdr's wife lost both of her legs.
Despite this, we were reasonably happy in Bazara South for we figured that the Cameronians were not very far away. We had a good relationship with our neighbours across the road. From time to time I would pop across to the ASD and speak to the Duty Sergeant. I would ask him to send two of his soldiers over to us when they came off patrol and we would feed and water them. This was usually after a Nairobi trip so they would enjoy fillet steak, mushrooms and all the trimmings - my wife was a bloody good cook. The water usually consisted of Glenfiddich.
It is hard to imagine now that we had over 9,000 dependents living in Aden at the time. Thanks to our wonderful soldiers, not many of us got killed.
I have today stumbled upon an interesting web site which gives an interesting view of the last two years of Aden from a different viewpoint:
The Aden Emergency
Brian - my memory of the Whirlwind was of a yellow helicopter, and Im pleased to have located photos of Whirlwind HAR 10s at Khormaksar during the period we are talking about. Re Twin Pins - on a day off I went for a long flight up the coast in one (mid 66) They were operated by 21 Squadron, which I think was the last RAF squadron to operate the Dakota.