Page 146 - Demo

146interpretations.%u2019 That said, individual desertion was always a factor of APL life, sometimes for Yemeni bribes, sometimes on account of grievance (poor pay principally), but most often because of tribal disputes or family feuds. However, desertion did not have the same connotations for a tribesman as it does for us; it almost always occurred in ones or twos, the deserters often returning voluntarily to their units, with their weapons (minus several rounds of ammunition) having settled their private scores. That is the tribal culture. Indeed, the years 1954 to 1957, during which the British and Arab Officers and men won the operational awards (there were other non8operational ones) listed at Table 1, represented probably the most successful campaigning period in the APL%u2019s entire history. Certainly, I have not identified a British Army Regiment that won eight Military Crosses and four Military Medals anywhere during this post8Korea period. During the same period the RAF Regiment lost a wing commander, a squadron leader and two flight lieutenants killed in action with the APL. There is no known compilation available for Arab Officers and men killed in action, although I personally knew of three Arab Officers and six or more soldiers KIA in 1956857 alone. There were many more than this and many wounded. However, as political change approached and political tensions rose, it was clear that %u2018Air Control%u2019 was no longer adequate in the Aden Protectorate. The intended new Federal State needed a National Army to face the growing Soviet and Egyptian8backed threat. Thus, i An earlier RAF Regt MC had been won in 1949 under RAF command. In 1959 under Army APL command, a further MC was awarded to an RAF Regt Officer and in 1958 a Queen%u2019s Commendation for Brave Conduct was awarded to another. ii The GM was awarded to a former RAF Regt APL Officer, who, as a Political Officer in 1963, deliberately threw himself onto a grenade thrown at Trevaskis, earning a posthumous Bar to his first GM %u2013 won in the Protectorate in 1956. &%u000b%u000f%u0003%u000f\%u0005 %u000e%u000b4%u0005'&6%u0005 %u0006%u0001 %u0006%u0001%&6%u0005 %u0018%u0001 %u0005%u0001%%u0014%u0005 %u0005%u000c%u0001 %u0005%u0001)%%u0005 %u0006%u000c%u000c%u0001 %u0001%%%u0005 %u0006%u0001 %u0018%u0001&6%%u0005 %u0015%u0001 %u0006%u0001%%u000f%u0001%u0005 %u0015%u0001 %u0001Table 1. Operational Awards to the APL %u2013 1954?57