(Reel 1) After departing Little Aden from Salerno Camp (Coldstream Barracks), Hughes records northwards journey in protected convoy on road to Dhala in Land Rover with anti-roll bars and plated against land mines. Fair-haired guardsman is seventeen year old Alan Hughes. Arab children emerge as if from nowhere trying to sell wares. Convoy of 4-ton Bedford trucks and Land Rovers is protected by two Saladin armoured cars and passes Arab village previously "emptied" (destroyed) by British following enemy activity. Arrival at Thumier fortified airfield, perimeter fence of barbed wire enclosing sangars and sandbag-protected accommodation tents and underground pits for cover against enemy mortar attack. Coldstream flag flies over command post of Second Battalion. Royal Navy Wessex helicopters on the runway, and one Scout helicopter in the distance. Evening mortar fire by 1 Para to clear area beyond perimeter after rebel attack. Wessex helicopter lifts off with underslung load to supply outlying pickets (Cap Badge and Rattlesnake). Two Arabs, armed with French 1874 smooth bore rifles, wait by camels, unloaded for searching for hashish and arms. Two Saladins. Thumier during torrential downpour (depriving garrison of air cover). Airfield activity at Thumier: twin-engined Pioneer and Beaver land with light loads from Dhala; Hunter Mk V flies past; Blackburn Beverley lands, making use of reverse thrust on short strip, with Adjutant Captain Anthony Philippi in foreground. Military activity at Thumier: camp at dusk, men of 1 Para setting charges into fin of mortar for range, firing tracer rounds at night; mortar tube flashes at night and own mortars exploding during rebel attack. Soldiers in sandbagged picket by day (at risk from camel spiders and scorpions). T-shape cloth to indicate target area of rebels in caves for attack by two Hunters, which make repeated passes over airfield and vicinity, guided by Battalion Intelligence officer Major Mark Chetwynd-Talbot beside Yagi aerial. Officer of 1 Para.

(Reel 2) Soldiers of 2nd Battalion board 45 Commando, Royal Marines Landing Craft Tank HMS Anzio on 6 May 1965 for brief respite from land-based Internal Security duties. Dhow passes, similar to Arab vessels often stopped and searched for arms. Fair-haired Hughes poses for camera (to show his parents his loss of weight since posting to Aden). Soldiers have target practice from deck, firing 7.62mm SLRs at beer cans in sea. Major Jacot de Boinod, commanding HQ Company, takes aim. View of Aden from sea. Passenger jet airliner flies over Aden, despite hostilities. Soldiers of 2nd Battalion go ashore in landing craft from HMS Anzio near base of 45 Commando, near refinery at Little Aden.

Amateur film taken between October 1964 and October 1965 by Coldstream Guardsman Alan Hughes of operations in and around Thumier Airfield, and on board HMS Anzio, in the British protectorate of Aden during the Radfan War.

Notes

Summary: Reverend Alan Hughes recorded a voice-over to these two reels on audio tape (IWM reference SR 12530/1) and an interview (SR 12530/1-4) on 2 April 1992.