IN the first of a new series, Reuben Duffy explores the role of Scots in Operation Stirling Castle in Aden

WHEN we think of Scotland’s imperial ventures, images of Tobacco lords, ships sailing for Panama and kilted redcoats fighting Yankee rebels spring to mind. Less prominent are images of kilted Scottish soldiers driving jeeps and brandishing machine guns. But it is precisely this that occurred in Aden during the Radfan Uprising in the 1960s.

Situated on the coast of modern Yemen near the gateway to the Red Sea, the city of Aden was first colonised by the British in 1839 and continually occupied so as to guard the approach to India.

In the 1960s, anti-colonial movements around the globe forced the retreat of Britain’s Empire. The city of Aden was no exception.

Aden had been freed from formal colonial rule in 1963 and absorbed into the Federation of South Arabia; nominally an independent country but in reality a British-puppet state. The National Liberation Front (NLF) and Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen (FLOSY) rose against the British, fighting them as well as each other for control of the city.

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The British authorities had difficulty supressing the uprising and as the conflict drew on, they only grew weaker.

In June 1967 an NLF-supported mutiny spread throughout the South Arabian Army and the Adeni police, with mutineers killing 22 British soldiers and the British being completely driven out of the district of Crater by the rebels. It appeared for the citizens of Crater that the British withdrawal had come early.

However, 55 years ago on the morning of July 1 1967, the residents of Crater awoke at dawn to a peculiar sound; that of bagpipes. On the orders of Lt Col Colin “Mad Mitch” Campbell Mitchell, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders marched back into Crater to reoccupy it. The action was termed Operation: Stirling Castle and is infamous as the “Last Battle of the British Empire”.

Given that the British were due to withdraw from Aden entirely in only a few months, retaking territory was not high on the agenda. Indeed, the Government and army high command wanted to avoid any unnecessary confrontation to make the withdrawal easier.

Mitchell disagreed and was aghast at how badly the army’s reputation had been damaged by the mutiny and the humiliation that followed being thrown out of Crater. He identified the primary aim of the operation as to restore prestige to the army and he was more than willing to act independently of high command to achieve this aim.

The Argylls retook Crater with zero casualties and much media attention. They then imposed an authoritarian regime of martial law on Crater, termed “Argyll law”.

Argyll law was brutal and there were several allegations of abuse from soldiers. Mitchell categorised the conduct of the Argylls bluntly saying to television crews filming “if anyone starts any trouble, they’ll get their head blown off”.

The oral testimony of one veteran alluded to abuse, saying that if he revealed what exactly had occurred in Crater some veterans of the battalion “would be done for murder”. The same soldier also alluded to torture, speaking of hearing the sound of skulls cracking emanating from the basement of the Argyll headquarters in Crater, as suspected rebels were “interrogated”.

Other incidents included a shopkeeper who remarked that one of his employees was badly beaten for disobeying the Argyll imposed curfew. Such brutal methods were the conclusion of Mitchell’s aim to show the strength of the British army in the face of armed rebellion.

MANY contemporary officers defended Argyll Law as necessary, painting Mitchell as a heroic figure acting in the dual best interest of the army and of the locals. Much of the press and many MPs joined in this heroisation of Mitchell, making Mitchell appear as a modern day imperial hero restoring order and prestige.

The British Army high command were not impressed by the action, seeing it as an unnecessary provocation at a time when Britain was seeking to wind down its overseas empire. Denis Healy, the Labour Defence Secretary at the time, viewed the operation as a mistake and potentially inflammatory.

But whilst he won disapproval from Whitehall, Mitchell won accolades and fame from the British public. Indeed, he resigned his commission and went on to lead a public campaign to save the Argylls from proposed defence cuts in 1968. He was later elected in the 1970 election, representing West Aberdeenshire as a Conservative for four years, becoming involved with the right-wing of British politics. He later retired after one term to pursue a failed commercial venture before later leading the Halo Trust, a charity that assists in removing land mines from former warzones.

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Given that Britain withdrew only four months after Mitchell’s men marched into Crater, Operation: Stirling Castle appears entirely unnecessary. Indeed, Mitchell’s argument that he launched the operation to restore the army’s reputation should be appreciated for its honesty.

Ultimately Operation: Stirling Castle was a throwback to classical 19th Century imperialism, where colonial powers could not and would not be made to look weak before the populations they ruled. The resolution that the Argylls had to occupy Crater to restore the army’s prestige is one that has deep roots in the imperialist psyche, of Scotland, Britain and many other imperial powers.

But the operation also has another meaning for Scots. Too often, Empire is relegated to the 17th and 18th centuries of Scottish history, confined to Darien and the slave trade. To imagine kilted Scottish soldiers enforcing imperial rule in full view of television cameras is alien to many.

Operation: Stirling Castle illustrates just how recently Scots were involved in the imperial project and how at ease conceptions of “Scottishness” were with Empire. The black and white images of kilted soldiers aiming machine guns at civilians should serve as sober reminders of just how recent our country sought to rule the world and just how at ease this desire was with our sense of identity.