Tony Jeapes

Last updated

Anthony Showan Jeapes
Born (1935-03-06) 6 March 1935 (age 88)
New Malden, Surrey
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service/branch British Army
Years of service1955–1990
Rank Major general
Commands held South West District
Land Forces Northern Ireland
5th Airborne Brigade
22 Special Air Service Regiment
Battles/wars Malayan Emergency
Dhofar War
Awards Companion of the Order of the Bath
Officer of the Order of the British Empire
Military Cross

Major General Anthony (Tony) Showan Jeapes, CB , OBE , MC (born 6 March 1935) is a former British Army officer who commanded the 22 Special Air Service Regiment during the Dhofar Rebellion.

Contents

Early life and education

Born in New Malden, Surrey, he was educated at Raynes Park Grammar School and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, where he did his first parachute course. In February 1955 he was commissioned into the Dorset Regiment as a second lieutenant. [1]

SAS

In 1958 he joined the 22nd SAS Regiment in Malaya as a troop commander and in 1959 took part in the Jebel Akhdar campaign in Northern Oman, [2] [3] [4] for which he was awarded the Military Cross. [1]

Back in England, he ran selection for the SAS for a year and then went to Fort Bragg, North Carolina in 1961 as an exchange officer with the US 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne). [1]

After a short period in the UK with the now amalgamated Devonshire and Dorsets, he was sent to India as part of a small SAS training team in 1963, and with another to Kenya in 1964. He returned to attend the Army Staff College course at Shrivenham and Camberley, following which he was posted to 39 Infantry Brigade in Northern Ireland as brigade major. [1]

In December 1968, Jeapes returned to 22 SAS as squadron commander, joining D Squadron in Malaya. After a training period in Iran, he took his squadron to Dhofar in 1970 as the first full squadron to support the Sultan's Armed Forces (SAF) in their war against Communist led rebels in Southern Oman. [2] [5] The war was not going well for the SAF. He raised the first of six firqats, irregular units formed largely of ex-rebels, named the Firqat Salahadin, and recaptured the town of Sudh. [5] He then raised more firqats and lead operations on to the Jebel Qara to prove the need to establish a firm position on the Jebel. [4] The concept was accepted and the first permanent position was established by the SAS and SAF after the monsoon that year. [5]

Jeapes returned to the UK to attend the National Defence College, Latimer, and was then promoted lieutenant colonel to return to the Army Staff College as a member of the directing staff, where he led the Counter Revolutionary Warfare team. In 1972 he became the Commanding Officer of 22 SAS. He had an eventful tour of command. He led the counter-terrorism team in the Balcombe Street Siege [6] and he continued to take part in and oversee the Regiment's operations in the Dhofar War, being present at the final operation from Sarfait [2] which saw the defeat of the rebels and brought about the end of the six-year war. Finally, he set up the Regiment's rapid deployment to the campaign in Northern Ireland [6] [7] and directed their methods of operating there. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1977 Silver Jubilee and Birthday Honours. [8]

He was also seriously ill with brucellosis contracted on the Jebel and was given three months' sick leave, during which he wrote the draft of his book SAS Operation Oman. [9]

Career after the SAS

Jeapes's next job was as a member of the British Military Advisory Team to Bangladesh, setting up the syllabus for and teaching at the state's first joint services staff college. At the end of this he was promoted full colonel and deputy commandant of the School of Infantry at Warminster. He was promoted to brigadier immediately after. Following a short time at HQ UKLF, then at HQ CINCFLEET during the Falklands War, he was appointed in 1982 to command the 5th Infantry Brigade, which he converted during his tour to the 5th Airborne Brigade. [10]

In 1985 Jeapes was promoted major general and appointed Commander Land Forces Northern Ireland. [11] His task was to direct the tactical deployment and command the day-to-day operations of all Army, Royal Marines, Ulster Defence Regiment, and of course Special Forces, against the terrorists in cooperation with the uniformed and special branch members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary. It was a job in which he took great satisfaction and achieved a number of successes, for which he was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath. His final appointment, in 1987, was General Officer Commanding South West District, which included most of the Army's Arms Schools and the UK Mobile Force. [10]

Works

Jeapes's account of the Dhofar Rebellion, SAS Operation Oman, was written in 1977 but took three years to receive security clearance. It was eventually published in 1980 by William Kimber. Amended copies were published by HarperCollins in 1996 as SAS Secret War and again by Greenhill Books with the same title in paperback in 2005. It is distributed in the US by Battery Press.

Personal life

In June 1959 he married Jennifer Clare White, by whom he has a son and a daughter. [1]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Who's Who 2010, A & C Black, 2010, ISBN   978-1-4081-1414-8
  2. 1 2 3 Harclerode (2002)
  3. Asher, (2008)
  4. 1 2 Strawson (1985)
  5. 1 2 3 Asher (2008)
  6. 1 2 Geraghty (2002)
  7. Wilson (2006)
  8. "No. 47234". The London Gazette (Supplement). 10 June 1977. p. 7085.
  9. Jeapes (1980)
  10. 1 2 "Army Commands" (PDF). Retrieved 2 July 2016.
  11. Urban (2001)

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Special Air Service</span> Special forces of the British Army

The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army. It was founded as a regiment in 1941 by David Stirling and in 1950, it was reconstituted as a corps. The unit specialises in a number of roles including counter-terrorism, hostage rescue, direct action and covert reconnaissance. Much of the information about the SAS is highly classified, and the unit is not commented on by either the British government or the Ministry of Defence due to the secrecy and sensitivity of its operations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Artists Rifles</span> Unit of the British Army Reserve

The 21 Special Air Service Regiment (Artists) (Reserve), historically known as The Artists Rifles is a regiment of the Army Reserve. Its name is abbreviated to 21 SAS(R).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sultan of Oman's Armed Forces</span> Combined armed forces of Oman

The Sultan of Oman's Armed Forces are the Royal Army of Oman, Royal Navy of Oman, Royal Air Force of Oman, Sultan's Special Force and other defense forces of the Sultanate of Oman. Since their formal establishment in the early 1950s, with British assistance SAF has twice overcome insurgencies which have threatened the integrity or social structure of the state, and more recently have contributed contingents or facilities to coalitions formed to protect Arab states of the Persian Gulf.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter de la Billière</span> British Army officer

General Sir Peter Edgar de la Cour de la Billière, is a former British Army officer who was Director SAS during the Iranian Embassy siege, and Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in Operation Granby.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Army of Oman</span> Land warfare branch of Omans military

The Royal Army of Oman is the ground forces component of the Sultan of Oman's Armed Forces. It was founded in 1907 as the Muscat Garrison. It has a current strength of 35,000 personnel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dhofar War</span> Civil war in the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman

The Dhofar War took place from 1963 to 1976 in the province of Dhofar against the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman. The war began with the formation of the Dhofar Liberation Front, a Marxist group which aimed to create an independent state in Dhofar, free from the rule of the Omani Sultan Said bin Taimur. The rebels also held the broader goals of Arab nationalism which included ending British influence in the Persian Gulf region. Omani and British goals, on the other hand, were to safeguard Oman from communism and halt the spread of communist ideology as part of the broader Cold War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">5th Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom)</span> Military unit

The 5th Parachute Brigade was an airborne forces formation of brigade strength, raised by the British Army during the Second World War. Created during 1943, the brigade was assigned to the 6th Airborne Division, serving alongside the 3rd Parachute Brigade and the 6th Airlanding Brigade.

The history of the British Army's Special Air Service (SAS) regiment of the British Army begins with its formation during the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War, and continues to the present day. It includes its early operations in North Africa, the Greek Islands, and the Invasion of Italy. The Special Air Service then returned to the United Kingdom and was formed into a brigade with two British, two French and one Belgian regiment, and went on to conduct operations in France, Italy again, the Low Countries and finally into Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Ratcliffe</span> British Army officer (born 1951)

Major Peter Ratcliffe, is a former British Army soldier and commissioned officer who served in the Parachute Regiment and the Special Air Service in a career of almost thirty years, during which he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for gallantry in action during the Gulf War. He is the author of the book The Eye of the Storm (2000).

General Sir Timothy May Creasey was a British Army officer who became General Officer Commanding of the British Army in Northern Ireland, as well as the commander of the Sultan of Oman's Armed Forces.

Lieutenant General Sir John Peter Barry Condliffe Watts was a British Army officer who became Chief of Defence Staff for the Sultan of Oman's Armed Forces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jebel Akhdar War</span> 1950s rebellion in Oman

The Jebel Akhdar War, also known as the Jebel Akhdar Rebellion or the Oman War, broke out in 1954 and again in 1957 in Oman, as an effort by the local Omanis in the interior of Oman led by their elected Imam, Ghalib al-Hinai, to protect the Imamate of Oman from the occupation plans of Said bin Taimur sultan of Muscat and Oman, backed by the British government, who were eager to gain access to the oil wells in the interior lands of Oman. Sultan Said received direct financing to raise an armed force to occupy the Imamate of Oman from Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC), a consortium of oil companies that was majorly owned by what is known today as Royal Dutch Shell, Total, ExxonMobil and British Petroleum (BP); the latter was majority-owned by the British government.

Major General John David Carew Graham, was a British Army officer who was instrumental in the installation of Qaboos bin Said as Sultan of Oman in the 1970 Omani coup d'état.

Brigadier Andrew Christopher "Andy" Massey OBE was a British Army officer who served in Oman, Dhofar and Northern Ireland. He was a commander of the 22 SAS Regiment before retiring as a Brigadier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Operation Simba</span>

Operation Simba, and the subsequent fighting around high ground near Sarfait, was the longest running conflict of the Dhofar Rebellion. On 17 April 1972, a battalion of the Sultan of Oman's Armed Forces (SAF) landed by helicopter to establish a position on a dominating ridge at Sarfait, near the border with the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY). The aim was to interdict the supply lines used by the guerillas of the PFLOAG from the PDRY to the interior of Dhofar, which ran along the narrow coastal plain beneath the foot of the escarpment at the southern end of the ridge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sultan's Special Force</span> Military unit

The Sultan's Special Force (SSF) — Arabic: قوات السلطان الخاصة, transliterated:Qawat al-Sultaniya al-Khasah is a separate force branch within the Sultan's Armed Forces (SAF) and although equipped to carry out land defense operations, it is not part of the Royal Army of Oman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern Frontier Regiment (Oman)</span> Military unit

The Northern Frontier Regiment (NFR) was formed in March 1957 and was one of the first two properly constituted infantry regiments that Sultan Said bin Taimur of Oman formed. The regiment's crest is two crossed drawn traditional Khanjar daggers pointing downwards, with scrolls carrying the regimental title in Arabic i.e. Kateeba al Hudood al Shamleeah. Members of the Regiment who served in Dhofar are entitled to wear the General Service Medal Oman, its ribbon design illustrated on the right.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1970 Omani coup d'état</span> 1970 overthrow of the Sultan of Oman, Said bin Taimur, by his son, Qaboos bin Said

The 1970 Omani coup d'état was the overthrow of Sultan of Oman Said bin Taimur by his son Qaboos bin Said in Oman on 23 July 1970. Occurring in the midst of the Dhofar War, the palace coup was executed with the support of the British and saw Sultan Said bin Taimur deposed and sent into exile to the United Kingdom. The coup was a pivotal moment in modern Omani history as Qaboos swiftly set in motion numerous wide-ranging modernization reforms in the kingdom, transforming Oman from an underdeveloped backwater into a country on par with many Western nations in terms of political stability and economic development. At the time of his death in January 2020, Sultan Qaboos was the longest-serving ruler in the Middle East.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jebel Regiment (Oman)</span> Military unit

The Jebel Regiment (JR) was formed in October 1970 and was one of the extra two properly constituted infantry regiments that Sultan Qaboos of Oman formed to augment the Omani Army in its operations in Dhofar. The regiment's crest is two crossed traditionally embossed Martini–Henry Rifles overlain vertically with a single traditional Khanjar dagger sheathed, with scrolls carrying the regimental title in Arabic. Members of the Regiment who served in Dhofar are entitled to wear the General Service Medal Oman, its ribbon design illustrated on the right.

Brigadier Jack Spencer Fletcher, was a British Army officer who played a key part in the Dhofar Rebellion.

References

Military offices
Preceded by General Officer Commanding South West District
19871990
Succeeded by