Soldier J: Counter Insurgency in Aden

Book excerpt: In 1964 two different kinds of war were being waged simultaneously by the British in Aden. The inhabitants of the forbidding mountainous region of Radfan, in the north of the Republic of Yemen, were conducting guerrilla attacks against the British. Armed by the Egyptians and trained by the communist Yemenis, they were a formidable fighting force, and appeared invincible. The British had only one hope of beating them: to draft in an even more tenacious group of soldiers the SAS! Tasked with stopping the flow of weapons to the rebel tribesmen, Radforce was assembled form Aden's federal regular army together with various British forces including the legendary troopers of the SAS. After parachuting into the enemy territory at night, the SAS established concealed observation posts high in the mountains, from where they directed air strikes on the rebels moving through the sun-baked passes. At the same time, in an even more dangerous campaign, teams of two or three SAS men, disguised as Arabs, were infiltrating the souks and bazaars of the port of Aden to 'neutralise' leading members of the National Liberation Front with their renowned 'double tap' 0 firing their Browning high-power high-power handguns at close range as part of the daring 'Keeni Meeni' operations. Soldier J SAS: Counter-insurgency in Aden is the breathtaking story of how the SAS fought these two contrasting campaigns in the same place at the same time with exceptional tenacity, skill and courage.