For 1,508 days, British forces in the Aden Protectorate battled to keep order in the last British Middle Eastern possession, among the last true bastions of Empire East of Suez. Here, 50 years on from the withdrawal, John Ash presents accounts from the battle against the insurgency.
Established in defiance of local leaders as a Crown Colony in the 1930s, the British holding in Aden, a small territory in what is today Yemen, had long been of significance to the expansion of the Empire. British shipping had called there since 1609 and from 1839 Aden Settlement became a province of British India. Aden’s commanding position in the Red Sea and its equidistance from India, Zanzibar, and later the Suez Canal meant it had been a useful base for trade and in the battle against piracy.
The advent of steam-propulsion and the completion of the Suez Canal meant the holding was a vital coal and water station and gradual expansion further added to the colony and its sprawling port city. During the Second World War, in addition to being a convenient anti-submarine command, Aden became a refuge for Jews in the region, and was later the launch point for the secretive Operation Magic Carpet, the airlifting of Jews into newly-founded Israel.
