Operation Flamingo

The debacle of the Suez Intervention in Nov 1956 heralded the decline of Britains global influence, yet Aden was a strategic location for Britain; it was at the mouth of the Red Sea for the Royal Navy and a stopover for the RAF on its famous Changi Slip supply route to Far East bases. The Cape Town speech by Prime Minister Macmillan in Feb 1960 announcing the intention to withdraw from the region had been clumsy in its messaging and encouraged the very discontent that the planned withdrawal was seeking to avoid. The British had thus increased the RAF and Army presence from c 1961, in preparation for a secure, stable withdrawal.

The Yemen on the south Arabian peninsula, divided into North and South was unstable and following a Sep 1962 coup backed by Egypt in North Yemen, destabilisation to the south was increasing as a result of infiltration and arms supplies from the north. After an assassination attempt on the British governor and a separate incident at a school for British service families, a push to contain the dissidents throughout the Radfan area was conceived.

Its first phase was conducted under Operation Cap Badge.