Trucial Oman Scouts
[5] There were also Yemeni soldiers assigned to the Trucial Oman Scouts from the Aden Protectorate Levies (APL), a British colonial militia based in South Yemen.
A Jordanian Regimental Sergeant Major, Daud Sidqi, and a Royal Air Force doctor, Flying Officer A.L.C.
The three Yemeni soldiers who had carried out the attack fled to Saudi Arabia, but were eventually returned to Sharjah to stand trial after the intervention of His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi.
The shootings revealed a key weakness in not screening the Yemeni soldiers from the APL before they joined the Trucial Oman Levies.
Two rifle squadrons deployed, along with troops from the Sultan of Muscat and Oman's personal guard, forcibly to evict a 15-man Saudi Arabian armed police garrison in an old fort and the village of Hamasa.
The dispute arose from Saudi Arabia's claim, first made in 1949, of sovereignty over a large part of Abu Dhabi territory where oil was suspected to be present and an area in a 20-mile circle around the centre of the Buraimi Oasis.
[6][7] The Aramco party was accompanied by Saudi guards and was met by Patrick Stobart, then the British political officer for the Trucial States.
The Saudis responded by extending their territorial claim to include the right to negotiate with the Sheikhs of the entire Buraimi/Al Ain Oasis and areas of the southern and western part of Abu Dhabi.
Lance Corporal Said Salem was awarded the Military Medal for driving a vehicle under heavy fire to deliver ammunition and retrieve wounded.
Sir George Middleton, the British Political Resident in the Trucial Coast, pinned the medal on Sergeant Major Hareb.
[12] The final defeat of the rebels took place in January 1959 in an action led by the British SAS that the Trucial Oman Scouts supported, along with the Sultan's Northern Frontier Regiment.
The move to use the TOS, seen as a purely internal force, to intervene in a neighbouring conflict led to criticism in the Trucial States, among both the Rulers and their people and a large number of recruits withdrew their applications.
[13][1] By 1965, the British Government was investing some £2 million annually in maintaining the Scouts, which ultimately reported to the Political Resident of the time.
Former TOS commander Freddie de Butts cites this relationship as a cause behind the formation of the Abu Dhabi Defence Force by Sheikh Shakhbut in 1965.
[1] The Mirgab Military base included a Medical Centre, Mechanical Transport Squadron, Signals Squadron and Quartermaster, with a dhobi and coffee shop owned and operated by an Emirati, Esa bin Mousa Al Amri, as well as a camp shop owned by a Mr Lalchand and managed by a Sikh gentleman by the name of Hari Singh Bhatia.
The TOS Training School and Depot for Arab Recruits was located in Manama, Ajman, while the Desert Regiment and Mortar Troop were based at Adhen.
[4] The formation of the United Arab Emirates in 1971 resulted in the Scouts being reassigned into the Federal military body, the Union Defence Force (UDF).
The Force was equipped with Scorpion light tanks, Ferret armoured cars, Land Rovers, eight 81mm Mortars, and two dhows.
The handover from the Trucial Oman Scouts to the Union Defence Force formally took place on 22 December 1971, when UAE Minister of Defence Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum visited all the Trucial Oman Scouts bases together with TOS Commanding Officer Freddie de Butts.
In February 1972, there was a brief border war between Bedu tribesmen from Kalba and Fujairah over a disputed area that only covered a quarter of an acre but included water wells and date palm trees.
