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Auction: 16003 - Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals and Militaria
Lot: 21

SOLD BY ORDER OF THE RECIPIENT

Family Group
The Rare 1958 'Relief of Fort As Sarir' Aden M.M. to Major, late Corporal P.R.W. White, The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment), later Royal Army Ordnance Corps, Awarded the Military Medal for His Gallantry Whilst Under Continuous and Penetrating Fire in the Relief of the British Political Officer from the Besieged Fort As Sarir Upon the Heights of the Precipitous Jebel Jehaf Plateau, near Dhala, Aden in the Reduction of the Yemeni Uprising in the Emirate; His M.M. Was the Last Gallantry Medal Awarded to the Regiment
a) Military Medal, E.II.R. (23281863 Cpl. P.R.W. White. Buffs.), with Royal Mint, case of issue
b) General Service 1918-62, E.II.R., one clasp, Arabian Peninsula (23281863 Cpl. P.R. White. M.M. Buffs.)
c) General Service 1962-2007, E.II.R., one clasp, Borneo (23281863 Sgt. P.R.W. White. M.M. Queens Own Buffs.)
d) Pingat Jasa Malaysia Medal, with case of issue, the first two with edge digs, none obscuring naming, otherwise good very fine, mounted court-style as originally worn, together with the following related material:
- The recipient's punched metal identity tags and British Army Identity Card
- Album pages containing 51 photographs, a number of these including the recipient, images of country scenes and fellow soldiers
- The Certificates of Service and Skill At Arms books to the recipient
- The annotated field map used by the recipient during the M.M. action
- A number of letters, telegrams and newspaper cuttings related to the award of the M.M.
- Letters, group photographs and correspondence relating to the commission of the recipient
- A large 'A Coy. 2 Platoon The Buffs' flag from the Aden Tour, with battle honours 'Jebel Jihaf', 'Sha'ab', 'Turkish Road' and 'Twin Rocks' beside the Regimental emblems, produced by the recipient and his Platoon
- A bound booklet, Reflections, A Personal View of the Operations of 'A' Company 1st Bn. The Buffs to relieve the besieged Fort As Sarir, compiled by the recipient
- Twelve editions of The Dragon, together with a copy of The Infantryman, covering the period of the award of the M.M.
- A copy of The Buffs, 1948-67

Six: Sergeant G.R. Warner, Army Service Corps
1914-15 Star (1030 S.Q.M. Sjt. C.R. Warner. A.S.C.); British War and Victory Medals (1030 W.O.Cl.1. C.R. Warner. A.S.C.); Defence Medal; Meritorious Service Medal, G.V.R., 1st 'Field Marshal's bust' type (S-398. S.Q.M. Sjt: C.R. Warner. 454 Co: 46/N.Mid: D.Tn.: A.S.C.- T.F.); Territorial Force Efficiency Medal, E.VII.R., with Second Award Bar (1030. Sjt: C.R. Warner. N. & D.B.C. A.S.C.), very fine, mounted court-style as worn

The Volunteer Long Service Medal to the Great Grandfather of Major P.R.W. White
Volunteer Long Service Medal, V.R., unnamed as issued, edge bruise, very fine, mounted court-style (11)

M.M. London Gazette 25.11.1958 23281863 Corporal Peter Richard Warner White, The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment)
'For his determination and courage during the assault up the precipitous escarpment of the Jebel Jehaf plateau. Under continuous fire, he carried a wounded man down to a stretcher party and then returned to rally his half exhausted men and lead them to the head of the pass.'

Major Peter Richard Warner White, M.M., born Nottingham, 16.6.1938; enlisted, The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment), 2.6.1956; promoted Lance Corporal and posted 1st Battalion The Buffs, serving with the Regiment in Germany, 1957; promoted Corporal and posted to 2 Platoon, 'A' Company and served with the Regiment in Aden, 28.1.1958-28.3.1959; discharged following 3 year engagement, 2.2.1959; joined the Kent Constabulary as Police Cadet; re-enlisted, 4.4.1960, serving with the Regiment in Hong Kong and Borneo before and after its amalgamation in 1961; suffered severe neck injury whilst playing rugby at Mons Officer Cadet School, commissioned Second Lieutenant, Royal Army Ordnance Corps on account of injury, Commissioning Parade, 8.12.1967, seniority from 24.5.1962; seniority as Lieutenant, 24.5.1965; Captain, 24.5.1968; promoted Major, 8.1.1974, Commander of the Recruit Training Unit, Deepcut Barracks; following retirement working in advertising, marketing and sales in Spain; successfully appointed and remains the Regimental Association Secretary of The Queen's Own Buffs The Royal West Kent Regiment.

The Siege at Fort As Sarir
Following his posting to the Aden Protectorate from 28.1.1958, the men of 'A' Company were provided with two weeks of acclimatisation and training before direct deployment to the Dhala Garrison, West Aden Protectorate. White was the Senior Corporal of 2 Platoon 'A' Company upon deployment, however due to illness to the Platoon Sergeant, White soon found himself the Acting Platoon Sergeant, although only nineteen and having enlisted just over 18 months prior. The Garrison at Dhala was situated upon a plateau at over 4,500 feet, with two camps set apart and a composite dirt landing strip, used for resupply. Overlooking the Garrison was the heights of the Jebel Jihaf to the west which rises to a total of approximately 7,600 feet. In the weeks prior to the uprising, the men of the Garrison had carried out normal duties, patrolling the local area and supporting the Emirate. 2 Platoon in fact had spent a day scaling the Jebel Jihaf just three weeks prior to the escalations. During March 1958, the Platoon Commander was also removed, leaving White as Acting Platoon Commander.
The Infantryman, August 1958 provides a greater background to the beginnings of the uprising:
'In mid-April the Political Offer moved to Jebel Jihaf in order to conduct certain negotiations. He established himself in As Sarir fort with a garrison of about 50 Government Guards.
Camel supply columns to As Sarir up the Turkish Road met sporadic opposition from dissidents but on 23rd April (1958) a more serious engagement took place. A Company of Levies escorting a camel train was opposed by a force which made it impossible to get the animal transport through. Essential stores were transferred to improvised manpacks and delivered.
From that time the situation deteriorated rapidly. From the Yemen, Haidera Bin Nasr, the ex-Emir of Dhala deposed in 1947 declared himself the head of a 'Liberation Army'. Yemeni troops were sent to Jihaf: local tribesmen judged Haider's to be the stronger side and joined him, and finally the Emir's own Tribal Guards followed suit. The Political Officer with his Government Guards were effectively besieged in As Sarir, and numerically strong forces barred the approaches from Dhala to Jihaf.
This general uprising, which by rapid snowball action took place in less than 48 hours created a dangerous situation not only on Jihaf, but in Dhala itself and on the frontier at Sana.
It was clear that a strong and quick action was demanded.'

The estimations in fact suggested that around 1,300 dissidents had surrounded the Political Officer, Fitzroy Somerset. A number of efforts were made to relieve Somerset but to no avail. One such effort reports:
'4 Company (Aden Protectorate Levies) tried yet again on the 27th, supported this time by two platoons of The Buffs under the company second-in-command, Captain Hamilton. They reverted to the old Turkish Road, having passed through Dhala soon after dawn, but when they came under fire on a mounting the ridge a little more than a mile out of Dhala, the decision was abruptly made to switch to an entirely different route, the one running due west from the airstrip north of Dhala, leaving The Buffs to maintain a semblance of aggression on the Turkish road. Under the spirited command of Corporal P.R.W. White, 2 Platoon thereupon dashed forward to relieve the leading platoon of the Levies on the bare and jagged hillside, and after some brisk bursts from the brens of The Buffs, some bombs from the mortars that had been rushed out of camp together with the remaining platoon of 'A' Company, and some gunfire from armoured cars, there was very little sign of opposition along the Turkish road. However, at about 2pm Hamilton was ordered to bring his force back to the camp.' [The Buffs 1948-67, Gregory Blaxland refers]

The recipient's report provides a personal insight into the relief effort:
'It was obvious that ‘A’ Company were going to be pretty heavily involved before too long. At this point I was concerned that 2 Platoon, due to the fact that it was now commanded by a 19 year old Corporal with limited experience (Moi), would not get its fair share of any action. To that end I asked for an interview with the O.C., Major Semmence and explained my reservations and asked for someone else to be appointed to command the platoon. This seems to have fallen on deaf ears for a few hours later I along with the other Platoon Commanders was called to a briefing during which it was explained that Fort As Sarir was now running out of food and ammunition and that a relief force was to mounted the next day to escort a camel train of essential supplies. The escort to the supply column was to consist of two platoons from ‘A’ Company, No 1 Platoon commanded by Lt. Tom Williams and No 2 Platoon under me whose job it was to escort the supply column closely-so much for my request. In addition we had 4 Company of the A.P.L. who had tried twice before to effect a relief but by then their morale was pretty low. The chosen route for the column was the Turkish Road and at dawn the next day, supported by a troop of 13th/18th Hussars in their Ferrett armoured cars converged on Dhala at the start of the Turkish Road. The resupply train consisted of a motley collection of camels, mules and donkeys carrying everything from ammunition, wireless batteries, dry rations but also caged live chickens and a small herd of goats, not a very inspiring sight. The whole column was commanded by Captain Hamilton. Just to the northwest of Dhala was an open stretch of land some 1,000 metres wide and beyond this some higher ground in front of a sheer escarpment which overlooked the Turkish Road. At the head of this pass stood the large and formidable Fort Balas which was obviously in the hands of the dissidents. A platoon of APL had been deployed on this higher ground to secure the lower end of the Turkish Road but were under heavy fire from the escarpment above them and from Fort Balas at the head of the pass. Their position was clearly marked with red recognition panels forming a cross. They called for support and the 3” Mortar Section (2 Mortars) under Sgt. Dusty Miller were brought into action to range on the escarpment. The 3” ammunition being used was from USA and clearly marked “not to be used for overhead support”. The inevitable happened and the first mortar ranging round fell on the red recognition cross in the middle of the Platoon’s position. This was the last straw and they started to withdraw. My platoon was ordered to take over their position and to that end we, in extended line, ran across the intervening flat ground only to be met by the APL Platoon running in the opposite direction. We took over their position and brought fire to bear as effectively as we could on the escarpment and other areas from where fire was incoming.
On a lighter side, one of the men reported incoming fire from a wadi about 200 yds ahead of us, in fact one could hear the fire quite clearly. My 2” Mortar man Johnny Watkins was told to put some bombs down in the wadi. Delighted with the fact that he was going to at last use his much loved weapon but also to divest himself of some heavy 2” mortar Bombs that he and the rest of the platoon had been lugging around for days he immediately opened fire. Very accurate he was too and most of his bombs landed in the wadi. Suddenly, out of the wadi appeared at high speed the troop of Ferrett Armoured of 13th/18th Hussars. Most of their wireless aerials were now missing, thanks to Johnny Watkins, and they were not well pleased, but due to noise from other sources I could not hear their shouted pleasantries. Maybe it would have been better if they had shared their secret location with the rest of us.
Knowing as we did the strength of the dissidents was certainly over a thousand if not much higher I was beginning to doubt that my small number of men would have much impact as the escort to the resupply column and was not too sure how on earth it was going to be possible to get to the top of the Turkish Road, past Fort Balsa, which had to neutralised and onto Fort As Sarir. As far as the relief supply column was concerned, by this time most of the goats had long since disappeared over the hills to pastures new and no doubt much quieter as had quite a few of the laden camels and donkeys shedding their loads as they went. If it had not have been such a serious situation it would have been very funny indeed.
By now it was becoming obvious that this final effort to relieve Fort As Sarir was to be no more successful than the previous efforts. We were obviously heavily outnumbered fighting over ground that favoured the dissidents and under covering air strikes from the RAF we withdrew back to Dhala and from there back to the camp, luckily not to have suffered and casualties.'
The following morning, concerns had been raised that the next dissident move might be to cut off the airstrip, resulting in White's Platoon, with support from '1' Platoon being ordered to picquet the Twin Peaks, immediately to the right and half way up the Plateau. Reflections provides details 'Anyway we secured the Twin Peak area despite sporadic fire from the higher ground and we spent a very hot day in the blazing sun during which several small flights managed to land and take off. In the late afternoon we were ordered to withdraw and under covering fire from our friends the Venoms from Khormaksar we dashed back down the slopes and made our way back to camp.'

Assault on Jebel Jihaf
With the days of siege mounting, the Fort running low on supplies and with fears that they might be overrun, the decision was taken that a full assault be made to relieve the Political Officer and his Guard from dawn, 30th April. Due to the scale of the terrain, the decision was taken that Route B along the Turkish Road should be used as a deception force, advancing 2 hours prior to the main force along Route A to Shima. For the deception force, the brief was simple: draw the maximum number of enemy forces from Jebel Jihaf, allowing the main effort to scale the escarpment via Route A to establish and hold a small initial bridge head.
Following the deception force setting out prior to dawn '...Lt. Col. Bancroft established his Tac. H.Q. and fire control centre near the foot of the escarpment West of the airstrip, with 75mm. gun and M.M.G. positions some 800 yards in rear. An R.A.P. was established on the airstrip next to a waiting Pembroke aircraft. Assault troops moved to their F.U.P. and awaited the preliminary Shackleton bombing scheduled for 0700 hrs. The preliminary bombing was, to say the least, disappointing as to scale and effort. No apparent damage was caused to enemy already in position, though possibly the ruse whereby aircraft continued to make dummy runs after the last bombs had fallen, may have discouraged reinforcements moving to the area.' [ibid]
With the bombing completed, the first troops of '3' Company, Aden Protectorate Levies under the command of Major Boucher-Myers began their ascent at 0800 hrs. The ascent and engagements of The Buffs is recalled in The Buffs, 1948-67:
'Semmence began his advance at 9a.m. with Lieutenant Williams's 1 Platoon leading, followed by Company Headquarters, then 2 Platoon, the section of mortars, the section of machine-guns, and 3 Platoon. For some forty minutes they toiled steadily on under a glaring sun in a long drawn single file, with the slope getting slowly steeper, the spurs on either side growing starker and more menacing. Suddenly they were under fire from the left-hand spur. There was no cover on the rubble strewn slope. The leading platoons hurried on towards the shelter of boulders deeper in the pass. Semmence estimated that around twenty five rifles were aimed at them. To quote his report, "The first volley was a little high, therefore fire was accurate and strike could be observed all around us. Rocks were being smashed, a 10lbs. mortar bomb being carried by hand was split by a bullet, a rifle butt was splintered, a pack perforated and so forth." Four men were hit, all private soldiers, one in 1 Platoon, two in 2, and one (by a ricochet) with the Machine-Gun Platoon. But there was no panic, no hugging the ground for cover that did not exist, even if some loads were jettisoned under the impact of crisis. After urging and turmoil the leading platoons reached the shelter of boulder and rocky outcrop, while the support weapon sections and 3 Platoon found cover further back. 2 Platoon were caught in the worst predicament, and they would have probably suffered more seriously if it had not been for the exertions of young Corporal White, acting sergeant and inspiration of the platoon, who not only kept the men moving but himself tended the wounded and carried one back to the bearer party, still under fire, before returning to bring further encouragement to his men...The company bren-gunners also blazed away, but the enemy could still retaliate and when a bren group of 2 Platoon ran for a better fire position they seemed, in the vivid phrase of an eye-witness, "to be skipping bullets all the way"'.
Once again the personal account of White gives greater insight to the advance:
'We then started our advance, once again in single file, the men were very heavily burdened not just with their own equipment, extra personal ammunition and whatever water containers that could be had but in addition each man had to carry a liner of machine gun ammunition or two 3” mortar bombs. This in an increasing heat that reached 40 degrees plus.
The first part of the advance went fairly well but we soon caught up with the tail end of 3 Coy APL who were experiencing increasingly heavy resistance. About half an hour into our advance we came under fire from the top of the cliffs on both our left and right initially without effect but then the fire became more accurate, and in single file heavily burdened and with no cover whatsoever the advance became progressively more difficult. Finally the advance stopped due to the resistance encountered at the head of the pass, where at one point the dissidents were throwing boulders down onto the Levies. At one point 3 Coy APL was reduced to 21 effectives due to wounded and those who had run out of ammunition. More and more wounded Levies were making their way down through our position, some in a pretty dire state, one had been shot through both legs and was making has way down on his bottom, another had a severe head wounds and so on and there was no sign of a stretcher party. The fire on my platoon soon became very effective, we had absolutely no cover so must have looked like sitting ducks. Within a short space of time four were wounded, one from 1 Pln, Pte Keith (Ginger) Marsh who was to later die of his injuries. In my platoon Pte. Eric Els was shot across his chest leaving a vivid groove from one side to the next and Pte. Winchester was shot in the leg, not once but twice. They were both in considerable pain. Both Lt Reid and I carried tubes of Morphine with needles the size of knitting needles. I gave both men a shot of morphine which I am sure caused as much pain initially as did their wounds, and applied dressings. We were now at an absolute standstill and with no sign of any stretcher bearers I suggested to Lt. Jimmy Reid that I took one of our wounded down and brought back the much needed stretcher bearers and medics. This he agreed and as it was not possible to take Els, who may well have suffered from several broken ribs due to the shot across his chest, I took Winchester in a fireman’s lift and made my way back down the track and eventually made contact with a stretcher bearer party. One took Winchester and the other followed me up to the position where I had last seen the platoon. The column had just started the slow advance again but by this time the sheer weight of the extra burden of Mortar Bombs and Machine Gun liners of ammunition was beginning to tell and within a short time several men began to show signs of heat exhaustion. They were told to drop their extra loads which helped then enormously but two, who had long since stopped sweating, a sure sign in that high temperature of dehydration, needed medical attention and became non effective albeit for a relatively short time.'
Eventually, around 2pm the men of 2 Platoon reached the head of the pass. 'High Peak' was the final objective for the men of 2 Platoon, was '...so steep it was a scramble on all fours to get to the top.' With the bridgehead secure, 1 Platoon following 1 Platoon charging the dissidents under bayonet, Fort As Sarir was relieved around 0615hrs by 3 Company Aden Protectorate Levies. With the operation a success, the R.A.F. Dakota's successfully dropped '...some supplies, mostly water but some beer which was very welcome...this included blankets which were of some significance as we were wearing only thin khaki drill shirt and trousers and being over 8,000 feet above sea level the night was desperately cold. Another unforgettable experience.'
White's actions in the operations are summed up with the following 'Corporal White, a cheery 20-year-old who had signed a three year regular engagement to remain with the battalion, had shown inspiring leadership to the end, just as he had done during the abortive advance up the Turkish Road and on a subsequent occasion when he had to drive off snipers from the hill that had been picketed to protect the airstrip. He was in due course rewarded with the Military Medal.' [ibid].

Clear up around Sha'ab
Following the successful relief of Fort As Sarir, the troops remained on the plateau with the intention of clearing any insurgents which remained in the subsequent days. The focus was on the strategic but extremely difficult to cordon village of Sha'ab, where it was long suspected a source of arms existed. Initially situated upon a ridge overlooking the village, the troops soon drew the attention of dissidents from a large sangar, which was eventually cleared by a detachment of Government Guards. Searching for rebellious tribesman and munitions on the plateau in crags and hidden in villages was a difficult task, although the men of White's Platoon successfully dispatched two armed tribesman from a reported range of 1,900 yards. White recalls 'It was obvious the dissidents had a heavy machine gun somewhere in or close to the village as its slow rate of fire could be easily heard...I scanned the far ridge from which some fire was incoming with my binoculars, I saw quite clearly a group of armed dissidents emerge from cover and appeared to be observing the company's main position which was well above us...I gave the section a fire order, and ensured that they could identify the target. I instructed that no one to open fire until I did. Unfortunately my radio operator, L/Cpl Sid Woolsgrove, one of the best shots in the battalion, was very disappointed not to be able to test his marksmanship as I had told him that as soon as we engaged he was to try and send a contact report to company HQ. His eagerness proved too much and he fired just after I did, the muzzle of his rifle being just inches from my right ear. I still suffer from his eagerness to this day with impaired hearing. Anyway the section fired effectively albeit at a long range and through the binoculars I could see what appeared to be two bodies lying on the ground...we returned to the area. At a distance I managed to identify the area where the dissidents had been seen and pointed it out to the O.C.. There were still a few dissidents in the same position but interestingly they were sitting around a pile of rocks which was obviously a new grave and that feature had not been there that morning. The OC asked the FOO if he could get the 75mm Mountain Howitzers ranged onto the feature. Amazingly the very first ranging shot fell in the centre of the group of dissidents and fire was brought down and the target neutralised.'

Raising the Flag
After a full 13 days in the field, White and his men enjoyed their first meal in the safety of Dhala Garrison. The men decided some commemoration was in order as recalled:
'After a break and rest of two days, during which our platoon, proud of their achievements, and justifiably so too, made a platoon flag and accorded themselves four battle honours to commemorate our four actions, Turkish Road, on 27th April, for the ill-fated attempt to get the relief column through to Fort As Sarir, Twin Rocks on 29th, when the platoon held off snipers throughout the day to secure the small airfield, for the assault on the Jebel Jihaf on 30th April to relieve Fort As Sarir and for the long range action near the village of Sha’ab on. The platoon always carried this flag throughout the rest of the tour and when the National Service members of the platoon, some 90%, came to the end of their service it was given to Pte. Keith Gisby, who had made the flag in the first place. When Keith died his widow passed it on to me.'
The matter of the Operations was in fact raised in the House of Commons, 27.5.1958, with the question posed:
'Mr. Wigg asked the Secretary of State for War whether he will make a statement on the operations at present being undertaken in the Aden Protectorate. Mr. Amery as my right Hon. Friend the Colonial Secretary explained on 1st May, some 1,500 dissidents instigated, bribed and armed by the Yemeni authorities, recently attacked a Government fort 1199 at Assarir in the Dhala area of the West Aden Province. It has been reported that some regular Yemeni troops and Yemeni tribesmen also took part in the attack but the numbers are uncertain. A force consisting of three companies drawn from the Buffs, the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry and the Aden Protectorate Levies, supported by aircraft of the Royal Air Force, was sent to relieve the fort. Its attack was launched on the 30th of April and, despite strong resistance, the fort was relieved. By the next day we had regained control of the area and a large convoy passed into it without incident. The casualty figures are not complete, but we have been notified of 23 wounded among our own forces. Enemy casualties are estimated to be between 50 and 75. Since then our troops have been engaged in mopping up dissidents in the Jebel Jihaf, and in patrolling the frontier. One of these patrols came under fire
yesterday by heavy machine guns from posts which had been established illegally on the Protectorate side of the frontier. This led to the counter action which was reported in the Press today.' [http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1958/may/07/operations-aden-protectorate]

Six M.M.'s recorded as awarded to British personnel for the campaign in Aden Protectorate and the Sultanates of Muscat and Oman.

White's M.M. was the last gallantry award to The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment).

A D.S.O., two M.C.'s and two M.M.'s were awarded for the Assualt of Fort As Sarir.

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