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Search Aden Emergency - British Casualties

This database contains details of British casualties who were killed or died during the Aden Emergency. Details have been extracted from various war memorials, The Times newspaper, several books, the Aden veterans web site, and the ParaData web site. Although the Emergency covers the period 1963-1967 this database covers the lead up to the Emergency from 1955 until 1967.

Since they occupied Aden as a territory in 1839, British troops were subjected to attacks. From 1962, Britain was engaged in an escalating conflict in the protectorate. Using grenades, bombs and rifles supplied by regional and world powers, nationalist groups such as the National Liberation Front (NLF) and the Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen (FLOSY) targeted British troops and their families. By November 1967, the situation was untenable and Britain’s ‘permanent garrison East of Suez’ was abandoned.

The Aden Emergency covered two areas:

Radfan

The Radfan Mountains are located 60 miles north of Aden. The emirates and sheikhdoms in Aden had accepted British protection since the 1870 Turkish invasion of Yemen and its surrounding territories.

By 1964 the situation had turned for the worse. The new republican government in adjacent Yemen, backed by Egypt's President Nasser, was actively fermenting trouble in the Sultanate of Upper Yafa, which was one of the Western Aden Protectorate states that was refusing to join the Federation of Saudi Arabia.

It became clear that an campaign was being waged against the Federation of Saudi Arabia, mainly by the Yemen and Egyptian-backed Radfan tribesmen. Their main objective was to attempt to close the main road from Aden to Yemen's frontier town of Dhala.

However, the campaign mounted by British personnel, with Federation troops, quickly and effectively defeated the tribesmen.

South Arabia

This campaign is related to the Radfan Campaign, because both were attempts by Egyptian-inspired attempts to end the British presence in Aden and end the embryonic Federation of Saudi Arabia.

The terrorist campaign of 1964-67 was a rival affair between two groups attempting to gain control of the area, and ensure that the British did not retain a military presence after the planned independence of the Federation of Saudi Arabia; this was planned for no later that 1968.

This 3 year long campaign saw numerous terrorist attacks on both civilian and military targets. In both Rafan and Aden, the British Army suffered 90 personnel killed and 510 wounded.


The whitewashed Fort Husn el Abr, Aden, close to the
Saudi-Arabian border, where over 100 tribesmen and six lorry drivers
were brought last Monday after their small convoy of lorries had surrendered to Protectorate forces.
[ The Times Friday 25 May 1956, page 10]

Hover over a picture to enlarge it


Aden - Steamer Point, Main Road
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Aden - Queens Dragoon Gaurds at Sheikh Othman 1967
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Aden - General View of the Tanks
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Aden - Post Office Bay
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Aden - Watering Camels at Sheikh Othman
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Aden, Main Pass
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Aden - Steamer Point Barracks
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Aden - Pallonjee Dinshaw
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Aden - The Market at Lahej
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Aden - Horse and Carriages Sea Front
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Aden - Panoramic View No 1, Crater
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Aden - View of the Harbour
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Aden - Round the Crescent
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Aden - The Crescent
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Aden - The Maala Wharf
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Aden - Steamer Point, Post Office
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Aden - Grand Royal Hotel
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Aden, Sapper Bay
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Aden - Maaala, general View
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Aden - Steamer Point
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Aden - Steamer Point Crescent
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Aden - Camel Market
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Aden - Ferry Boat, 1950
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Aden from the sea
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Belvedere Helicopters, 26 Squadron, RAF 1963
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Bandaging a Wounded Man 1967
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RAF Armoured Cars in the Fort Atag Region 1957
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Database contains 235 records -
19 January, 2025

This database has been researched as much as possible but there are probably still anomalies and we would be grateful of any information to try and achieve a 100% accuracy aim.

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