Battle of the Crater | |||||||
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Part of Aden Emergency | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
United Kingdom | NLF FLOSY | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Lt. Col. Colin Mitchell Maj. Ian Mackay Maj. Tony Shewan | Unknown | ||||||
Units involved | |||||||
45 Commando Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Queen's Dragoon Guards Royal Northumberland Fusiliers 60th Squadron, Royal Engineers 47th Light Artillery Regiment 15th Signal Regiment 60th Transport Squadron | unknown | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
unknown 1 helicopter | 400 | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
none | 11 killed |
The Battle of Crater or Operation Stirling Castle was an encounter in 1967 during the Aden Emergency. After the mutiny of the Arab Armed Police and ambush of British troops by them, the Crater district in Aden was abandoned by British troops. The British then decided to enter Crater and retrieve the bodies of dead British soldiers. [1]
The operation began on 3 July 1967 with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders commanded by Lt-Col Colin Mitchell ("Mad Mitch") performing a night invasion of Crater, which he termed Operation Stirling Castle, after the Argylls’ regimental headquarters. The enemy was taken totally by surprise, and effective resistance ceased. [2] [3] [4] A particular sign of Mitchell’s confidence was his decision to order the pipe band to march down the main street of Crater, playing regimental tunes, for which the Pipe major was mentioned in despatches. [5] British troops remained in Crater until the end of the Emergency.
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The Aden Protectorate was a British protectorate in southern Arabia. The protectorate evolved in the hinterland of the port of Aden and in the Hadhramaut after the conquest of Aden by the Bombay Presidency of British India in January 1839, and which continued until the 1960s. In 1940, it was divided for administrative purposes into the Western Protectorate and the Eastern Protectorate. The territory now forms part of the Republic of Yemen.
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The Aden Emergency, also known as the 14 October Revolution or as the Radfan Uprising, was an armed rebellion by the National Liberation Front (NLF) and the Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen (FLOSY) against the Federation of South Arabia, a British Protectorate of the United Kingdom, which led to the proclamation of the People's Republic of South Yemen.
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Crater, also Kraytar, is a district of the Aden Governorate, Yemen. Its official name is Seera. It is situated in a crater of an ancient volcano which forms the Shamsan Mountains. In 1991, the population was 70,319. As of 2003, the district had a population of 76,723 people.
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The National Liberation Front was a Marxist–Leninist paramilitary organization and a political party operating in the Federation of South Arabia, during the Aden Emergency. During the North Yemen Civil War, fighting spilled over into South Yemen as the British attempted to establish an autonomous colony known as the Federation of South Arabia. Following the exit of the British armed forces, the NLF seized power from its rival, the Arab nationalist Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen (FLOSY) (FLOSY). In the aftermath of the Emergency, the NLF renamed itself the National Front and eventually became the main force behind the creation of the Yemeni Socialist Party, which subsequently governed the country as a single-party Marxist–Leninist state.
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The Children's Party attack was an attack which took place during the Aden Emergency. Terrorists threw a grenade into a children's party being held at the RAF Khormaksar. One girl was killed and four children wounded.