I remember the bus having a lousy engine/gearbox and breaking down near Al Ittahad.
Also the army escort seemed a bit hopeless as I was well aware how easily bullets go through windows let alone grenades. Not much consolation that they might shoot the culprit afterwards!

When I got to university i joined the Officers Training Corps and got to drive the Saladins saracens and Ferrets straight away and went on to be trained in gunnery then being a commander. Even the weapons were similar, the SLR being an updated Belgian FN as depoloyed in Aden, and the SMG being the Sterling also as used in Aden.

Our Sergeant major had served in Aden, though I never let on that i had been brought up there.

Re photos, yes its about time I got mine scanned and submitted.

Email: gordon-clark@blueyonder.co.uk

Reading these posts reminds me of the last time that I was in Crater. I went to Aden for the last time in December 1965 for the Christmas holiday. I had my UK Driving Licence and I wanted to convert it into an Aden licence for the holidays so that I could drive Dad's car as well as a Honda 50 motor bike that Derek Johns had kindly lent to me. I was taken in a BP marked car by a local Adeni manager to the police station at the Aden end of the causeway where, after a suitable present was handed over to the police superintendent, I was asked some questions on the Aden highway code (yes, they did have one!) and was then given a piece of signed paper. I was then taken into an office in Crater to get my licence. This was scary! I stood there in the public area while my chaperone disappeared to get the licence, accompanied by another "present". The stares and looks I got were openly hostile and I must admit to having the heebie-jeebies! Bearing in mind the question about clothes, I was told to wear white shorts and a white shirt, and absolutely nothing military! Being a rising 18 year-old, I would otherwise have looked like a perfect British squaddie. I was very, very relived to get back into the car and get away! My chaperone thought it was quite funny - I guess that "protection" had been paid somewhere along the way!

Email: alan.budd@martindales.biz