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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Bombing Yemen as British as
Afternoon Tea</h1>
<div class="gmail-meta-data">
<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">January
14, 2024<br>
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<p><span><strong>The U.K. military’s latest bombing of
Yemen comes on the 60th anniversary of a forgotten
British campaign in the country, Mark Curtis
reports.</strong></span><span
id="gmail-more-105372"></span></p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_105388"
class="gmail-wp-caption">
<p><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-105388"
src="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/01-header-radfan-typhoon.jpg.webp"
alt="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img"
style="margin-right: 0px;" moz-do-not-send="true"
width="417" height="247"></p>
<p id="gmail-caption-attachment-105388"
class="gmail-wp-caption-text"><span>An RAF Typhoon
takes off from Akrotiri on Cyprus to bomb Yemen. <span>(MOD
via DeclassifiedUK)</span></span></p>
</div>
<p><span><a
href="https://consortiumnews.com/tag/mark-curtis/"
moz-do-not-send="true"><b>By <span>Mark Curtis</span></b></a><br>
<a
href="https://www.declassifieduk.org/raf-bombing-yemen-as-british-as-afternoon-tea/"
moz-do-not-send="true"><i>Declassified UK</i></a><br>
</span></p>
<p><span><span><strong>U.</strong></span>K. air strikes
on the Houthis in Yemen – who have dared to
challenge Western support for Israel over Gaza – are
taking place exactly 60 years after a brutal British
bombing campaign in the country. </span></p>
<p><span>The so-called Radfan revolt of early 1964 in
modern-day Yemen has long passed out of historical
memory. </span></p>
<p><span>We should remember it though, as evidence of
how British foreign policy is practised in reality –
and how we only truly find out about that reality
once government files are released decades later.</span></p>
<p><span><b>Independence on Our Terms</b></span></p>
<p><span>The Radfan is a mountainous area about 50 miles
north of Aden, Yemen’s major southern port. In the
early 1960s, it was part of a British colonial
creation – the Federation of South Arabia, a
grouping of sheikhdoms and sultanates established by
London. </span></p>
<p><span>The U.K. was prepared to grant independence to
South Arabia, but only on certain terms. Sir Kennedy
Trevaskis, the high commissioner in Aden, noted that
independence should “ensure that full power passed
decisively into friendly hands.” </span></p>
<p><span>This would leave the territory “dependent on
ourselves and subject to our influence.”</span></p>
<p><span>Much of the population refused to cooperate
with British plans, and not only politicised groups
in Aden. In January 1964 tribesmen in Radfan
launched raids on federation targets and British
convoys in the area. </span></p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_105394"
class="gmail-wp-caption">
<p><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-105394"
src="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Screenshot-2024-01-12-at-12.43.57-PM.png"
alt="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img"
style="margin-right: 0px;" moz-do-not-send="true"
width="417" height="262"></p>
<p id="gmail-caption-attachment-105394"
class="gmail-wp-caption-text"><span>Map of
Federation of South Arabia with arrow pointing to
Radfan. <span>(Wikimedia Commons, Public domain) </span></span></p>
</div>
<p><span>They were concerned about receiving declining
revenues as a result of British plans for a customs
union across the federation and were inspired by the
anti-colonialism of Egypt under Gamal Abdel Nasser,
the Arab nationalist leader in the Middle East. </span></p>
<p><span><b>‘Whatever Methods Necessary’</b></span></p>
<p><span>The response of the British authorities under
the Conservative government of Alec Douglas-Home was
ferocious. Colonial secretary Duncan Sandys called
in April 1964 for the “vigorous suppression” of the
revolt and that the U.K. military be authorised “to
use whatever methods are necessary.”</span></p>
<p><span>The only thing that concerned Sandys was to
“minimise adverse international criticism” —
indicating that propaganda operations, then as now,
were of utmost importance. </span></p>
<p><span><span>A political directive </span><a
href="https://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/a-study-in-contradictions-human-rights-and-british-counterinsurgency-in-aden-1962-64"
moz-do-not-send="true"><span>issued</span></a><span>
to British forces in April 1964 stated that U.K.
troops “must take punitive measures that hurt the
rebels, thus leaving behind the memories that will
not quickly fade.” </span></span></p>
<p><span>The idea was “to make life so unpleasant for
the tribes that their morale is broken and they
submit.” </span></p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_105400"
class="gmail-wp-caption">
<p><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-105400"
src="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/47321377331_3b8f55c7bc_o.jpg"
alt="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img"
style="margin-right: 0px;" moz-do-not-send="true"
width="417" height="272"></p>
<p id="gmail-caption-attachment-105400"
class="gmail-wp-caption-text"><span>RAF Westland
Wessex helicopter in Aden during the Radfan
Campaign in 1964. <span>(Peter Bannister photo
via Flickr account of Dick Gilbert, CC BY 2.0)</span></span></p>
</div>
<p><span><span>Captain Brian Drohan, a scholar at the
U.S. military academy at West Point who has also
analysed the British declassified files, </span><a
href="https://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/a-study-in-contradictions-human-rights-and-british-counterinsurgency-in-aden-1962-64"
moz-do-not-send="true"><span>wrote</span></a><span>
that “the Radfan population felt the full force of
colonial coercion as British forces bombed
villages, slaughtered livestock, and destroyed
crops”.</span></span></p>
<p><span><b>‘Casualties to Women & Children’</b></span></p>
<p><span>One tactic was “ground proscription,” in which
certain areas in Radfan were designated as off
limits. </span></p>
<p><span>“All inhabitants, regardless of their status as
civilians or combatants, were required to leave,
turning virtually the entire population of a
proscribed area into refugees,” Drohan notes. </span></p>
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<p><span>British soldiers were ordered to confiscate
property, burn fodder and destroy grain stores and
livestock. Rules of engagement allowed commanders to
use aerial and artillery bombardment “to the maximum
extent necessary” when villages refused to
surrender. </span></p>
<p><span>In such circumstances, “casualties to women and
children must be accepted,” the U.K. directive
stated.</span></p>
<p><span><span>As part of a British army deployment,
which involved the Parachute regiment and marines,
a small SAS </span><a
href="https://britains-smallwars.com/campaigns/radfan/page.php?art_url=farrar-the-para"
moz-do-not-send="true"><span>team</span></a><span>
was also sent in April, assisted by ground attack
Hunter warplanes. The SAS killed some 25 rebels
but lost its commander and radio operator, whose
bodies had to be left behind. </span></span></p>
<p><span>These were decapitated and the heads displayed
in Yemen, an incident that caused anger and shock
throughout Britain.</span></p>
<p><span><b>Air Strikes</b></span></p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_105396"
class="gmail-wp-caption">
<p><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-105396"
src="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/47321380671_537b049564_c.jpg"
alt="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img"
style="margin-right: 0px;" moz-do-not-send="true"
width="417" height="273"></p>
<p id="gmail-caption-attachment-105396"
class="gmail-wp-caption-text"><span>Sortie in an RAF
Bristol Belvedere the Radfan Campaign in 1964. <span>(Peter
Bannister photo via Flickr account of Dick
Gilbert, CC BY 2.0)</span></span></p>
</div>
<p><span>Air strikes were approved in May and Trevaskis
suggested sending soldiers to “put the fear of death
into the villages” controlled by the rebels. </span></p>
<p><span>If this wasn’t enough to secure submission,
then Trevaskis said “it would be necessary to
deliver some gun attacks on livestock or men outside
the villages.”</span></p>
<p><span> </span><span>He added: </span></p>
<blockquote>
<p><span>“Since tribesmen have been regularly firing
at our aircraft and have hit several of them, we
might be able to claim that our aircraft were
shooting back of [sic] men who had fired at us
from the ground.”</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span>For the RAF, air proscription meant that
“villages may be attacked with cannon and grenades”
and allowed pilots to target cattle, goats, crops,
and people in proscribed areas, the files state.</span></p>
<p><span>British forces had been authorised by ministers
to “harass the means of livelihood” of villages in
order to bring the rebels to submission.</span></p>
<p><span>Livestock and crops were sources of wealth and
sustenance for the Radfani tribes. “Attacks against
these targets amounted to economic warfare waged
against entire communities with little attempt to
distinguish between civilian and combatant,” Drohan
notes. </span></p>
<p><span>In one attack, a single Shackleton bomber
expended 600 20mm cannon rounds and dropped 60
aerial grenades. The pilot reported firing his
cannon at a herd of goats while dropping six aerial
grenades on another goat herd, 11 on cattle, eight
on “people” — without specifying civilian or
combatant — and an additional 14 on “people under
trees.” </span></p>
<p><span>In more than 600 sorties over Radfan, the RAF
fired 2,500 rockets and 200,000 cannon rounds.</span></p>
<p><span>There were no restrictions on using 20lb “anti
personnel bombs” – similar to what are now called
cluster bombs – although “the public relations
aspect” of these “will want very careful handling”,
the Ministry of Defence noted. </span></p>
<p><span>Thus defence secretary Peter Thorneycroft asked
the chief of the Air Staff to “ensure the secrecy of
the operation” to use these bombs.</span></p>
<p><span><b>Poverty</b></span></p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_105397"
class="gmail-wp-caption">
<p><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-105397"
src="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Aden-1967-twahi.jpg"
alt="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img"
style="margin-right: 0px;" moz-do-not-send="true"
width="417" height="275"></p>
<p id="gmail-caption-attachment-105397"
class="gmail-wp-caption-text"><span>Street riots in
Aden in 1967, in aftermath period of the U.K. 1964
Radfan campaign. <span>(<span lang="en">Al-Omari,
</span>Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)</span></span></p>
</div>
<p><span>As the files in so many other of Britain’s wars
in the Middle East show, U.K. planners were
perfectly aware of the plight of the people they
were attacking. </span></p>
<p><span>The Middle East commander in chief, Lt Gen Sir
Charles Harington, recognised that the Radfan
tribesmen “have been eking out a poor and primitive
existence for hundreds of years.” Their situation
was that “there is barely sufficient substance to
support the population, families seldom making more
than £50 a year profit.”</span><span> </span></p>
<p><span><span>“Therefore,” he noted, “the temptation
and indeed the necessity to look elsewhere for aid
is understandable” – which is what many people
did, turning to offers from Nasser’s Egypt and the
new republican government in North Yemen, against
whom the U.K. was also fighting a </span><a
href="https://www.declassifieduk.org/britains-covert-war-in-yemen/"
moz-do-not-send="true"><span>covert war</span></a><span>. </span></span></p>
<p><span>Harington also noted that if Britain “had given
more financial help” to the Radfanis in the past
“the temptation to go elsewhere for the price of
subversion might have been avoided.”</span></p>
<p><span><b>Bribes</b></span></p>
<p><span>Paying bribes to local tribal leaders was
another way to secure control over the population.
Sandys called for the high commissioner to pay
“personal subsidies” to key members of the council
of the Federation of South Arabia.</span></p>
<p><span>In January 1964, Trevaskis was given £50,000 to
pay such bribes. He was also provided with £15,000
“to help undermine the position of the People’s
Socialist Party in Aden,” the most important
political opposition to continued British rule in
the territory. </span></p>
<p><span>The high commissioner noted that this money
would help “to prevent their winning coming
elections.” In July 1964 ministers also approved
£500,000 for Trevaskis “to distribute to rulers
where this would help to prevent tribal revolts.”</span></p>
<p><span>With the advantages of airpower and artillery,
the British military captured its territorial
objectives by late July as Radfan tribes retreated
over the border into North Yemen. Having removed
them from their homes, U.K. forces occupied the
Radfan and continued enforcing proscription through
air and ground patrolling. </span></p>
<p><span><span>Official </span><a
href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6421a4ad2fdbff000fb023eb/20230330_UK_armed_forces_Operational_deaths_post_World_War_II-O.pdf"
moz-do-not-send="true"><span>figures</span></a><span>
are that Britain lost 13 soldiers during the
conflict. It is not known how many Radfanis were
killed.</span></span></p>
<p><span>The Federation of South Arabia went on to
become part of independent South Yemen in 1967,
after a protracted liberation war against British
forces. </span></p>
<p><span><b>Mark Curtis is the editor of </b><b><i>Declassified
UK</i></b><b>, and the author of five books and
many articles on UK foreign policy.</b></span></p>
<p><span><em><span>This article is from </span></em><a
href="https://www.declassifieduk.org/raf-bombing-yemen-as-british-as-afternoon-tea/"
moz-do-not-send="true"><span>Declassified UK</span><b>.</b></a></span></p>
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