Page 141 - Demo

141 After the war, British Army officers were progressively replaced by officers of the RAF Regiment between 1946 and 1948. The new Force of 1,347 was thereafter commanded by an RAF Regiment group captain with a British Adjutant and the Senior Arab Officer (the bimbashi al?awal) plus one each junior RAF Technical and Equipment Officers. The Force Commander also controlled, at Force level, the APL Hospital (commanded by a Medical Branch wing commander) and No 10 (Armoured Car) Squadron, APL. The RAF Regiment inherited two Levy Wings, as the battalions were now called, with a third authorised, each of three rifle squadrons. At wing level, the Wing Commander and his Adjutant were British, plus an Arab Officer, a bimbashi. Similarly, each rifle squadron had only two British Officers, the OC and the 2 i/c. The four junior officers, and all other ranks were Arabs. An RAF8style badge was approved for the APL, depicting crossed ghambias, the traditional weapon of Southern Arabia, subtly different from the Iraqi khunjar, in that the latter is for simple stabbing, while the broader and rather more acutely curved ghambia blade is optimised for stabbing and then ripping in a single action! Uniquely however, No 10 (Armoured Car) Squadron, APL, apart from being the only armoured unit organic to any of the three RAF Associated Overseas Forces, was also wholly RAF Regiment8manned. In 1955 it became the first unit in the UK Forces to be equipped with the new Ferret Mark II armoured scout car, with a c30\Browning machine gun. This versatile, reliable short8wheelbase vehicle with heavy8duty tyres was the first truly useful armoured car for the mountainous volcanic terrain of much of the Protectorate, as well as for operation on sand. Unfortunately, their new Squadron Commander blotted his copybook on his first up8country foray when, en8route with his new unit of twenty8seven Ferrets to Shuqra, the tribal capital of the turbulent Fahdli to make a show of force, he lost most of them to the seashore quicksands near Zingibar, about 40 miles NE of Aden, half8