Library Reference Number: 065
Incidents in the Immediate Post WW2 Period
I joined No.8 Squadron based at RAF Khormaksar, Aden, in early January 1950. The role of the Squadron then, of peace keeping and policing to maintain law and order amongst the many different tribes widely spread in the mountainous territory of the Western and Eastern Aden Protectorates, was little changed from the role it carried out in the 1920's and 1930's. Equipped with the infamous Bristol Brigand (a twin engine light bomber) it achieved this role in the following manner.
The local Political Officer having failed to persuade an unruly tribe to mend its ways, the Air Force would be requested to 'teach
it a lesson'. Firstly, an aeroplane would be dispatched to drop leaflets on the tribe's principal town or village to warn the
tribesmen that if they didn't comply with the government's wishes by a certain time and date, their town or village would be
destroyed. Having failed to meet these requirements by the due date, a reconnaissance flight would check out the town and its area,
usually to find its inhabitants streaming out from it carrying all their worldly goods to take refuge in the surrounding hills and
mountains. An 'all clear' would then be sent to the Squadron and a couple of Brigands armed with 20 mm canon and rocket projectiles
would be sent to use the sun dried, brick built buildings as target practice. It wouldn't take much to reduce these structures to
rubble and, in the process; the tribesmen would take pot shots at the low flying Brigands with their antiquated rifles from their
selected viewpoints on the hillsides. On completion of the 'attack', and before the dust had settled, the tribes folk could be seen
making their ways back to their demolished houses. There would be no further trouble from this particular tribe for some months
whilst they were busy rebuilding their homes and, strangely enough, there wouldn't appear to be any animosity towards the government
for having taken this action. It would seem to have been an honourable settlement of a dispute!
During my time on 8 Squadron I partook in two interesting operations. The first was in the former Italian Somaliland in East Africa. During WW2 the Somalis had virtually been promised independence if they helped the Allies in subjugating their Italian overlords. At the war's end, the United Nations in their wisdom decided to give back this country to the Italians. Needless to say, trouble was expected and, in February 1950, a detachment of four Brigands from 8 with another four from 84 (then based at Habbaniya in Iraq) was sent to Mogadishu, the Somalia capital, to cover the withdrawal of the British occupying forces whilst the Italians took over. Our task was made easy by the Somalis' inherent fear of being strafed by aircraft, having had experience of it from the Italian colonisers. We only had to fly low over an unruly gathering to cause it to disperse. The transition of government took place reasonably smoothly and we returned to Aden, via Nairobi where we had a wonderful week in the high altitude coolness of this lovely city.
The second operation took place during the three months of June, July and August 1951. A Dr. Mohammed Mussadecq had taken over the Persian government and one of his first actions was to nationalise the oil industry. This endangered the lives of thousands of British oil workers and their families. It was considered that implementation of a British operational plan to occupy the oil field at Abadan and to evacuate or safeguard our countrymen might result in an intervention by the Russians and possible military action. Accordingly a detachment of Brigands from 8 Squadron and one of Vampires from 6 Squadron (based in the Canal Zone in Egypt) were sent to RAF Shaibah in Iraq, just across the river Shat al Arab from Abadan. Our first operation was to drop leaflets over Teheran and other Persian towns warning Persians that should any harm come to British nationals then they could expect reprisals. From then onwards we maintained an operational readiness role and carried out reconnaissance flights looking especially for any signs of Russian armoured fighting vehicles. To the best of my knowledge we didn't see any. We kept up this tedious role and endured the inhospitable Shaibah date ripening' climate (still no air conditioning at that time) until such time as a compromise was reached between the Persian and British governments and the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and we were able to return to Aden.