Page 122 - The History of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps 1962–2021

THE HISTORY OF THE ROYAL ARMY VETERINARY CORPS 1962 – 2021
CHAPTER 7
Dhofar Campaign 1962 – 1976: Hearts and Minds...and Animals
“The value of winning the ‘Hearts and Minds’ of the local population was quickly recognised, and this is where a select band of RAVC Officers came in”.1
The Dhofar War was a classic of its type. Every principle of counter-insurgency operations built up by the British, and other armies, over the previous fifty years in campaigns around the world, often by trial and error, was employed. It was probably only the third campaign after Greece in the 1940s and Malaya in the 1950s and early 1960s to be won against a Communist armed insurrection.2
By helping the Sultan of Oman’s security forces, the SAF (the Sultan’s Armed Forces), to defeat a Communist-backed insurgency in the south of the country, the British troops played a vital role in winning this crucial war at a decisive time. Through the 1960s and 1970s Communism was sweeping the globe and, while the Americans were committed to the very visible war in Vietnam, the British went under the radar in Dhofar. Veiled in Cold War secrecy, this conflict received little publicity at the time, or since, but its political signif- icance in the relationship between the Western and Arab worlds must never be underestimated.
The beauty and the beasts
In his 2006 book, In the Service of the Sultan: A First-Hand Account of the Dhofar Insurgency, Ian Gardiner describes his Arabia as “...that entrancing, fascinating, hauntingly beautiful country.” As a fresh-faced Royal Marine Officer, Gardiner was to take responsibility for a company of Omani soldiers in a country that, in 1970, was steeped in poverty and still Medieval in many respects having no infrastructure or plan to introduce one.
The ‘haunting’ beauty of the place is enhanced by a unique climate that gives Oman an advantage over other parts of South Arabia of similar elevation. The Southern limestone slopes of the Jebal Qara, which is deeply intersected by narrow wadis, has an average rainfall of 500 – 700mm
which falls mostly during the monsoon period of mid Jun – mid September. But the cyclonic rains are also known to drive in during April/May and October/November. Seventy per cent of the Jebal Qara is suitable for grazing which amounts to 375,000 acres of land with great agricultural potential making farming and animal husbandry an economic and social activity.
This is a land whose plains supplied the British Troops with fresh vegetables during the Mesopotamia campaign of World War One and whose hills (Jebal) harbour the Arabian Forests of renown; a land where girls are circumcised at a tender age, where men folk blow down cows’ vaginas before milking; it is a land where the Queen of Sheba is renowned to have lived; it is a land where the strong may survive and the weak perish.3 This rare and exotic land was where the Corps was asked to provide a presence in the early 1970s – more precisely, and remarkably, to provide a presence in Dhofar Province in the Sultanate of Oman.
Supporting the Sultan
Dhofar is Oman’s southern province, bordering Yemen. From the early 1960s, the Dhofar Liberation Front (DLF) had fought modernisation, but from 1967, following the British withdrawal from Aden, the insurgency expanded and took a different form. The Chinese-backed Peoples Front for the Liberation of the Occupied Arab Gulf (PFLOAG) wanted to destroy the old tribal structures and replace them with a Communist form of governance.
By spring 1970, the Dhofari insurgents operating out of Yemen completely dominated Dhofar Province. The Sultan of Oman, Said Bin Taimur – then leader of Muscat and Oman – had no real plan to deal with the insurgents or the root cause of the insurgency, and it was clear the war was being lost.
Oman’s tie to the UK resulted from a series
1 Andrew Higgins, With the SAS and Other Animals, ‘A Vet’s experiences during the Dhofar War 1974’ Pen & Sword 2011.
2 Major General Tony Jeapes, SAS Secret War London Harper Collins 2000 pp11-12.
3 Chiron Calling duplicated edition No 2 dated September 1973.
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