{"id":2788,"date":"2014-10-10T16:41:26","date_gmt":"2014-10-10T15:41:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.longkeshinsideout.co.uk\/?p=2788"},"modified":"2014-10-10T16:41:26","modified_gmt":"2014-10-10T15:41:26","slug":"book-review-mad-mitchs-tribal-law-aden-and-the-end-of-the-empire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.longkeshinsideout.co.uk\/?p=2788","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Mad Mitch’s Tribal Law: Aden and the End of the Empire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mad Mitch\u2019s Tribal Law: Aden and the End of the Empire
\nDr: Aaron Edwards<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>During the years of the conflict in Aden I was a schoolboy..moving from Primary\u00a0 to Grammar education in 1966.\u00a0 This was of course pre-conflict, as we in Northern Ireland know it,-although the fledgling UVF were making themselves known.\u00a0 On a worldwide stage the Vietnam War dominated the news and<\/p>\n

Dr: Aaron Edwards<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

was broadcast live into our living rooms.\u00a0 No teatime was complete without the latest bulletin from Saigon or Hanoi.\u00a0 By 1966 the little known colonial outpost in the Middle East-Aden-was starting to creep into our vocabulary.\u00a0 Aden, an area of South Yemen had been a Crown Colony since 1937 when it became separated from British India and had always been occupied by British forces.\u00a0 Aden had long been one of the most important trading ports in the Middle East and its situation meant that it was invaluable to trading between Britain and the Far East.\u00a0 Since it\u2019s inception in the late 30\u2019s Aden had always had sporadic bouts of upheaval and violence-mainly due to the numerous factions co\u2014habiting. \u00a0During the War Years there was an upsurge in violence directed at Jewish settlers who eventually would leave when the new state of Israel emerged from the British mandate of Palestine.
\n\"\"<\/a>By the early sixties again there were rumblings from the myriad of factions in Aden.\u00a0 There was by this time a growing number of anti-British guerrilla groups..all with varying political objectives.\u00a0 Out of this quagmire there basically emerged two main organisations.\u00a0 On the one hand you had the NLF\u2014the national Liberation Front, and on the other FLOSY\u2014Front for the Liberation of South Yemen.\u00a0 Both of these fanatical organisations not only fought the British but more often than not each other.\u00a0 Over the next couple of years both of these organisations waged a campaign of militancy ranging from street disorder and riots to shooting and grenade attacks against the British Forces.\u00a0 In December 1963 an attack occurred at Aden airport where a grenade was launched at troops injuring a number of them.\u00a0 This sparked the Aden Emergency..which would last until 1967.\u00a0 During that time the targets for the guerrillas were mainly off duty soldiers and policemen.\u00a0 Crater town was traditionally the old Arab quarter of Aden and it was here that most of the trouble and anti British activity occurred.\u00a0 By July the trouble had escalated and tension rose further during the Six Day War between Israel and Arab States in early June.\u00a0 In one incident 22 British soldiers were killed.\u00a0 By this stage it is estimated that there were at least 400 NLF and FLOSY guerrillas within Crater City.\u00a0 The escalating trouble became too much for the Police hence the introduction of British Troops to quell the unrest.\u00a0 On the 5th<\/sup> July 1967 the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders under the command of Lt. Colonel Colin Mitchell..who would later earn the sobriquet Mad Mitch because of his actions..marched into Crater..accompanied by fifteen regimental pipers, and took command of the area.\u00a0 By the next morning Mitchell had regained control of Crater and amazingly without loss of life.\u00a0 From then until the eventual withdrawal of British troops from Aden in November Mitchell managed to keep control.\u00a0 There were many stories of his hard line tactics\u2014some allegations of atrocities but during his tenure as a \u201cpeacekeeper\u201d in Crater there was only one fatality.\u00a0 After the withdrawal of British Forces from Aden the area was declared the Peoples Republic of South Yemen.\u00a0 Mitchell remained as a soldier for a few more years before entering politics in the early seventies and latterly taking up a position of a security expert in later years.
\n\"\"<\/a>The author has produced a wonderful book.\u00a0 His research is overwhelming and he has managed to present a fantastic addition to the British Military tomes.\u00a0 Edwards must have felt an affinity towards Mitchell such is the in-depth research and certainly at times we could be forgiven for thinking that they may have been close friends.\u00a0 Again this is testimony to the extraordinary amount of investigative studies involved.\u00a0 For the reader the book perfectly encapsulates an era of the rapidly diminishing British Empire…and the extent to which Britain would go to in clinging on to the last vestiges of times gone by.\u00a0 Edwards doesn\u2019t get bogged down in militaristic jargon\u2014he sets the scene extremely competently and paints a picture of a man-Mitchell-who was a profoundly proficient soldier with an impeccable background.\u00a0 Aden, of course\u2014apart from casting him in some quarters as a ruthless tyrant-was the catalyst for his notoriety\/fame.\u00a0 If he hadn\u2019t an ego, pre July 1967, Mitchell certainly developed one post Crater.\u00a0 He revelled in his new found eminence and the publicity that followed.\u00a0 It is interesting to find out that Mitchell was never decorated for his actions in quelling the situation in Crater.\u00a0 The notion is that despite orders to the contrary, he devised his own plan and carried it out disregarding the Top Brass.\u00a0 In normal circumstances he may have been awarded something like the OBE but an honourable mention is all he received.\u00a0 Within a very short period of leaving Aden Mitchell resigned from his officership within the British army.\u00a0 By mid 1968 he returned to civilian life.\u00a0 Two years later he was elected as a\u00a0 Conservative Member of Parliament for Aberdeenshire West.\u00a0 He served that constituency for four years before leaving politics.
\nAaron Edwards gives us a unique and fascinating insight into a controversial and grossly interesting character.\u00a0 Mitchell was the epitome of the British attitude of those times.\u00a0 He seen himself as the guardian\u2014both morally and literally\u2014for all that Britain stood for in those twilight years of a crumbling Empire.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Beano Niblock<\/p>\n

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