By Jim Buchanan
45 Commando Royal Marines RM21884

I joined in Aden early in 1964.   The Commandos operate the trickle drafting system and I arrived alone in Little Aden camp to find it almost deserted, as the bulk of the unit was away in Tanganyika quelling a mutiny by the Tanganyikan Army.
 

Radfan Map

Shortly after, at the beginning of May I went up country with X Company on Operation Nutcracker, the first of three campaigns in the Radfan with 45 Commando.  I was at this time a Vickers machine gunner and remember carrying the heavy water-cooled barrel of this beast along the Wadi Boran and up a Jebel we called 'Coca Cola' ridge.  We climbed this during the night to get above the dissidents who were ensconced in caves and sangars on the slopes below.   After some fierce fighting over several days we dislodged all the bad guys.

It was during this action that a troop from 22 SAS was ambushed and took some losses including their troop commander. A few days later we moved on to capture another Jebel named 'Cap Badge’ and again we did this under the cover of darkness on a Jebel over 1,000 feet high.  We then moved down into the Danabah Basin, considered the main rebel stronghold.

During this time the Parachute Reg. lost two men killed and about ten injured whilst clearing the village of Habil Sabaha, and this was later renamed by us Brits as Pegasus Village.

Dhala Camp 1964	Jim with a Wombat	Paddys Field.	Kurhabar pass
Sheik Othman	105 howitzer	Mobat	Crater
	Para gunner's Radfan	Convoy escort

There were a further two Radfan tours at the end of May and in July.  In between these we were either at our camp in Little Aden next to the BP oil refinery or at Habilayn/Thumier a little way up country.

During the second and third campaigns I saw action again with X Coy. at Arnold’s Spur, Bakri Ridge, Paddy's Field, the Wadi Taym, Wadi Misrah and Wadi Dhubsan.

It was in the Wadi Dhubsan that I saw one of our Scout helicopters, containing the CO of 3 Para being shot down and crashing close to my position.  Here we also lost a young Marine, Dave Wilson, hit in the chest by a sniper.

Dhala Camp	Clearing mines	Bullet hole	Terrorist Sniper
Vickers	Desert shower	Dhala piquet	105 gunners
Mortar Pit	Saladin	Mined Landrover	Thumier

The main campaigns were over by the end of July and we settled into an IS role with rotating duty in Aden town and stays in Dhala camp.   Dhala was only about ten miles from the Yemen border and we dealt with frequent incursions of Yemeni/Egyptian-trained dissidents.  At Dhala we came under fire most nights from snipers and hit and run mortar attacks. For the later part of my tour I was employed as a Wombat gunner and a sometime mortar man.  I remember it was during this period that the Wombat replaced the earlier Mobat and the 81mm mortar was replacing the 3-inch mortar. We also saw the introduction of the GPMG to replace our trusty Vickers.

Dhala camp	Recce troop	Ferret	Friendlies
Vickers	Pegasus Villiage	Wadi Taym	Wadi Dhubsan

I returned again to Aden some years later with 40 Commando on the Commando Carrier HMS Albion to cover the withdrawal.

I carried my camera everywhere and came back with a pile of photos; however, over the years and a number of moves most of these have been lost or were thrown away.

The experience of Aden had a profound effect on me and I can say that I grew from a boy to a man in that short period.  I, however, did enjoy my time there as like all young men I thought that I was invincible and to me it was all a 'Boys Own' adventure. I had made some great friends there and am still in contact with some of them.

Jim Buchanan

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