Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A post-War ‘Aden’ B.E.M. for Gallantry pair awarded to Private A. D. Kent, 1st Battalion, The Royal Anglian Regiment, who on two separate occasions gave essential initial first aid and care to comrades who had been grievously wounded in terrorist explosions, keeping them alive during the crucial ‘golden hour’ until they could receive skilled medical care

British Empire Medal, (Military) E.II.R. (23921727 Pte. Anthony D. Kent, R. Anglian); General Service 1962-2007, 2 clasps, Radfan, South Arabia (23921727 Pte. A. D. Kent, B.E.M., 1. E. Anglian) nearly extremely fine (2) £600-£800

B.E.M. London Gazette 14 September 1965:
‘On 12 March 1965, Private Kent was with his platoon carrying out duties in aid of the civil power based on Sheikh Othman Police Station. Although trained as a stretcher bearer, he was a normal member of a rifle section. At about 2030 hours a terrorist rocket exploded in Platoon Headquarters wounding the Platoon Sergeant and the radio operator. The Platoon Sergeant, Sergeant Smith, received extremely severe facial injuries, the front of his face above the lower jaw being blown free and attached only by a skin flap. Private Kent immediately gave first aid to Sergeant Smith, who was bleeding profusely and for the next twenty-five minutes prevented him from either choking or bleeding to death. It is the opinion of Wing Commander E. R. Griffiths, the consultant in Orthopaedic Surgery at the RAF Hospital Steamer Point, who saw Smith on Admission, that the first aid treatment given by Private Kent was a major contribution towards Smith’s survival.
On 31 December 1964 Private Kent had also been present immediately after a mine exploded in the Wadi Taym, killing Private Fraser, gravely wounding Corporal Andrews and seriously injuring Private Barrell. On that occasion also, Private Kent administered first aid and treatment to both the living casualties until skilled medical assistance arrived.
Private Kent was eighteen in July 1964. On both these occasions the skill of this young soldier exercised under difficult and dangerous conditions undoubtedly helped save the lives of his comrades.’

Antony David ‘Tony’ Kent was born in Norwich in 1946. After leaving school he enlisted in the army and was able to join his local county regiment, which at that time was 1 East Anglian Regiment (being renamed 1st Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment from 1 July 1964). In January 1964 it departed from Felixstowe for a two-year residential tour in Aden as a garrison battalion. It was based at the modern Waterloo Barracks on the isthmus joining the mainland to Aden city, which was built in and around an extinct volcano (mostly surrounded by the sea). Kent was a member of 7th Platoon, ‘B’ Company, and was also trained for stretcher bearer duties during conventional war, which suggests that he was taught basic first aid skills and also became a member of the regimental band (which traditionally provided first-aid parties in battle).

The first manifestation of the serious trouble that was to ensue occurred, not in Aden itself, but in its hinterland, in the mountainous area known as the Radfan, through which the road from Aden passed on its way to the Emirate of Dhala, 80 miles to the north, where there was a British garrison. The Dhala area was close to the Yemen frontier and had always been turbulent. Sending convoys from Aden to Dhala required a two-day operation with an escort of armoured cars and infantry, who secured the hills overlooking the route by placing picquets. Service in the Aden hinterland resembled the years of skirmish and ambush on the North-West Frontier of India; the burning sun and lack of water, the craggy, scrub-covered hills, the wild tribesmen, each with his rifle, the wheeling hawks, the stone villages with every house built like a miniature fortress.

The 1st East Anglian Regiment became involved in the operations amid the towering peaks and fertile wadis of the Radfan mountains in early May 1964. Throughout the month and into June the force steadily drove the hostile tribesmen from the area, until only the final objective of the Force Commander remained to be captured, the Jebel Huriyah, which at 5,500 feet was the highest peak in the Radfan. On the night of 10-11 June 1st East Anglian scaled the heights of the great Jebel, their route up the jagged slopes lit by flares dropped by Shackleton bombers. By 04.50 hours they were on the summit, looking down at the lights of Aden city 40 miles to the south. The Regiment held the mountain-top for a week, until it returned to Aden on 18 June.

September 1964 and the months that followed found the 1st Battalion Royal Anglians, as they had become, carrying out internal security tasks in Aden city, with its Companies rotating on detachment at Dhala and at another frontier outpost to the east, Mukeiras. The Battalion spent two more periods in the Radfan before the end of the year. During the second, 7 Platoon was tasked to patrol the well-populated, fertile Wadi Taym, and suffered three casualties from a land mine on the last day of 1964. Private Fraser was killed and Corporal Andrews and Private Barrell severely wounded. The 18 year-old Kent distinguished himself by giving first aid and caring for the two wounded men until qualified medical personnel arrived.

As the Egyptian-backed anti-British terrorist campaign began to build up in 1965, the Battalion had the following responsibilities for the first three months: manning joint military/police headquarters, providing foot patrols, four pairs of mobile patrols, a platoon at immediate notice, and cordons and searches of highly insalubrious areas in Crater and Sheikh Othman, a totally Arab town on the mainland through which the road to Dhala passed. One of the terrorists’ main aims was to eliminate the local Special Branch and undermine the police force through murder, intimidation and infiltration. This effort was effective, and it caused the flow of information and intelligence to dry up.

On the evening of 12 March, a Belgian-made Blindicide improved bazooka was used to fire a HEAT (High Explosive Anti-Tank) rocket-propelled grenade capable of punching through a metre of concrete and then releasing a shower of molten copper fragments. The target was Sheikh Othman police station, now a lone fortified outpost in a totally hostile area. Most of the local police had either been killed, had resigned or been forced to flee, so the station was in effect an army base. Whoever fired the Blindicide knew the internal layout of the police station, because they targeted the Operations Room. The personnel on duty in the Operations Room at the time were all from 7 Platoon headquarters of 'B' Company. The explosion seriously wounded the Platoon Sergeant, Sergeant Smith, and destroyed the wireless and the landline telephones. Private Elba-Porter, the platoon signaller, was wounded in the face and shoulder. Though temporarily blinded in one eye, he fetched another radio set and continued to pass orders so that effective counter-measures could be taken. 120 locals were rounded up for search and questioning. Private Kent, who was close to but not inside the Operations Room at the time of the explosion, saved the life of Sergeant Smith by rendering immediate first aid, then keeping him alive as he was put into a vehicle to be driven down the isthmus and through the city to the RAF hospital at Steamer Point.

On 2 April 1965 the Battalion's area of responsibility was defined as Crater, Khormaksar and Sheikh Othman. As the terror built up, so the duties increased. One night in bed in three became the norm and that night often meant going off-duty at 23.00 hours, in bed at midnight, and on duty again at 07.00 the next morning. To keep the seething alleys of Crater quiet, a Company was deployed there each night with assault pioneers, mobile searchlights and Land-Rover patrols. This force had to find two road-blocks on the two entrances into Crater, observation posts on roof tops, foot patrols in the streets, and a reserve to deal with incidents as they occurred. By day, road-blocks, vehicle checks and mobile patrols were provided by this company. Another Company was usually committed to static guards, and the third, if available, formed the Battalion reserve. Between February and September 1965, in Crater, 8,000 vehicles and 35,000 locals were searched, for a yield of twelve grenades, one mine and six pistols.

The Battalion had a break from fighting urban terrorists in Aden, returning to the Radfan for the last time from 28 July to 22 August. The Battalion positions came under attack twice from machine-gun and rocket fire. Returning to Aden, the Battalion found itself plunged into intensive operations following the murders in Crater of a British Police Superintendent and the Speaker of the Legislative Council. A dawn-to-dusk curfew (effectively a lockdown, as a standing night curfew was already in effect) was enforced on 2 September 1965, nineteen days before the Battalion was due to leave Aden. The number of men this required, plus other duties, together with all the arrangements for the move, imposed a great burden until the Battalion handed over its duties on 21 September. The Companies moved straight from their operational tasks onto the aircraft which would fly them home.

The 1st Battalion had endured an extremely arduous tour in Aden, being almost constantly on operations, which, as the GOC said in his farewell message, had given them a knowledge and experience of internal security duties which was second to none. From these duties, they morphed into the very different role of a mechanised battalion in the British Army of the Rhine.