VICTORY in HADES: the FORGOTTEN WARS of the OMAN, 1957-1959 and 1970-1976 S
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Scientia Militaria, South African Journal of Military Studies, Vol 12, Nr 3, 1982. http://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za VICTORY IN HADES: THE FORGOTTEN WARS OF THE OMAN, 1957-1959 AND 1970-1976 s. Monick* a nocturnal temperature of some 112 degrees Part 1 Farenheitat sea level. On the northern mountains It is generally conceded that the record of post- in winter the temperature drops so far below World War II Western or pro-Western govern- freezing point that it turns a metal water bottle ments in countering insurgency has been into a block of ice. Beyond the valleys the wind is marked by a long and sad succession of failures. incessant; turbulence renders air travel a sicken- The French endeavours to overcome insurgent ing experience. In the south the summer mon- forces in Indo-China and Algeria, those of the soon brings incessant rain from which there is no British with regard to Cyprus and Aden, the shelter in the mountains of Dhofar. Everywhere, American efforts in Vietnam, the Rhodesian and at all seasons, wounds fester with appalling Portuguese counter-offensives in the Zambezi speed. salient, have all ended in ignominous defeat; either through military inadequacy (as in Indo- China); or, more commonly, through political One's first impression of the Sultanate is much pressures totally nullifying military success (as the same as in South Arabia (now the People's was the case in Algeria, Aden, Cyprus, the Portu- Democratic Republic of Yemen - PDRY); viz. a guese Lusophone provinces in Africa, and Rho- narrow strip cut off from the interior by barren desia). There is, hO'Never,one extremely signifi- mountains, beyond which are wide gravel plains cant illustration of a highly successful COIN eventually merging with the sand dunes of the (counter-insurgency) campaign which has re- Empty Quarter (cf. Fig i). It is not entirely desert, ceived comparatively little attention; despite the however. The shores of the Gulf of Oman (the fact that it has been fought in one of the most Batina) are fringed with date palms; the great strategically crucial areas of the globe. This is mass of the Jebel Akhdar in the north is well the war in the Oman; or, more specifically, the watered and green on the plateau (and will play series of wars which marked the years a major role in the first part of this article) whilst 1957-1959 and 1970-1976. The wars are inland are the oasis towns of Nizwa, Ibri and Firq. unique in the annals of post-World War II military South-west, facing the Arabian Sea, is the pro- history, for reasons which will become apparent vince of Dhofar, which benefits from the mon- in the following article. soon and, like the Jebel Akhdar, is consequently green and fertile on the Jebel Qura. (Dhofar will playa leading role in Part 2 of this article.) Geo-Political Background The association with Hades, implicit in the title of this article, might perhaps strike the reader as The country is a political anachronism, and was somewhat perverse or fantastical; but not to so to an even greater extent in the 1950's. It is an those who have experienced the climatic and absolute monarchy in a world of 'popular' political environment of Oman; especially at the government, where political dialogue, when it time of the first campaign. The geographical exists, is traditionally violent. However, by an context in which the wars took place was the accident of geography the Sultanate, through its Sultanate of Oman which extends for some 500 control of the Musandam Peninsula, commands miles along the toe Arabian Peninsula and inland the Hormuz Strait, through which passes ap- into the edge of the Empty Quarter (cf. Fig i). proximately 50% of the non-Communist world's According to a Persian proverb, in Oman the supply of crude oil. Not surprisingly, therefore, sinner has a foretaste of what awaits him in successive British governments have concluded Hades. By day Oman's volcanic rock acquires that the protection of this Strait is vital to the the heat and airlessness of an oven, generating British economy. 1 Scientia Militaria, South African Journal of Military Studies, Vol 12, Nr 3, 1982. http://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za E III "U C III '"::l :E: v fi >, .0 "U V "U C III E E 0 u '"::l fi .!!l~ 'co .'::l (f) v ..c f- e III E 0 '0 :; 0 v fi ~ OJ v oi C C l!'l 'c v O'l c ~ 2 :; I C 0 r-- ::l c ~ 0 .~III c. 0..V III v E fi o ~ 11) .2 fi v .0 '0 ...: :; ~ 0 c 'e! III i.i: .~ V 11) 0.. fi V '0 fi 11) '0 E "U .., III V 11) ..c fi v III 1il :; fi 1il iii c'" Lfj 'c v ] 11) 0.. III 'i3 .3 "U E 'iii III ~ "U .!!l 11) c N ~ ::l ~ ::l E :E: 0 I :r: s 0.. '0 :E: .~~ .'::l '" (f) C ~ » v'c II ..c v :II:: f- 0.. Historical Background period of Iranian ivasion during the years 1741-1743), despatching naval expeditions to Oman was, until recently, the most remote and western India and the East African coast to harry inaccessible area of the Arab world. However, it the Portuguese. The Sultanate's power reached has not always been so detached from the its zenith in the 19th century, when its posses- mainstream of history. It was originally con- sions included Zanzibar, Mombasa and parts of quered by the Portuguese in 1508, but the Oma- southern Persia. In the 1860's, however, Oman's nis successfully revolted in 1650. In the 18th Indian Ocean empire fragmented with the ad- century it was a major sea power (apart from a vent of the steamship via the Suez Canal. Mus- 2 Scientia Militaria, South African Journal of Military Studies, Vol 12, Nr 3, 1982. http://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za cat's commercial and maritime power thence- forbade the inhabitants of the interior to visit forth rapidly declined (Muscat is the capital and coastal areas, and vice versa. The only surfaced principal port). The power of the Sultan often road consisted of a few kilometres between Mus- barely extended into the interior, which was cat and Matrah (Muscat's twin city). Medicines, autonomous under the rule of its own imams, and radios, music, dancing, spectacles, trousers, he was frequently referred to as the 'Sultan of cigarettes and - above all - books were all for- Muscat', or the 'Sultan of Muscat and Oman' bidden. This prohibition of books was sympto- Today only the name Oman is used. matic of the Sultan's particular dislike of educa- tion. On one occasion he told his British adviser: From the beginning of the 19th century the sul- 'This is why you lost India, because you edu- tans of Muscat and Oman had been feudatories cated the people'.2 As a result of this policy, even of the British Raj. In 1798 Britain signed a treaty in the late 1960's there were only three small of protection with the Sultan, as a direct re- primary schools. Hence, Omanis who wished to sponse to Napoleon's occupation of Egypt, study became political exiles; some, predictably, which presented a most serious threat to Bri- did so in the Soviet union and other Eastern bloc tain's sea routes to India. Thenceforward Britain states, others elsewhere in the Middle East. exerted a substantial measure of control over Medical services suffered from the same total Oman's affairs, although always stoutly maintain- lack of development as education. By the late ing that the Sultanate was a fully independent 1960's, in a population of approximately 750 000 state. British soldiers commanded the Sultan's (estimates vary between a million and half a forces (as they do to this day); whilst British million; no census has ever been taken), there civilians undertook the (usually unrewarding) was one hospital (belonging to an American task of advising his administration. At the time of Protestant Mission) to deal with a people ridden the first major war in the Oman (1957-1959) the with endemic diseases such as malaria, leprosy, ruler of Oman was the Sultan Said ibn Taimur, tubercolosis and trachoma and an infant mortal- who had ruled since 1932. It would not be unfair ity rate among the highest in the world. to describe him as an arch-reactionary of great Such an ultra-reactionary approach was, inevit- personal charm. When he had acceded to the ably, accompanied by rule of the most despotic throne the country had been desperately poor; character. In 1958 Sultan Said retired to live total revenues had barely increased from the premanently at his palace at Salalah, the capital £50 000 per annum of his father's time. However, of Dhofar province in the far southern corner of in the 1950's his income began to increase his Sultanate on the borders of South Yemen. slowly with British aid and payments from oil Thence he ruled by radio-telephone, never leav- concessions; the British persuaded him (with a ing his palace. He instilled such a fear within his great degree of reluctance on the Sultan's part) Omani subjects that very few dared to defy him to establish a development centre. The income or undertake any initiatives whatsoever in order of Oman rapidly escalated c;l.fter1968, when oil to improve their situation. The minor punish- was discovered in great quantities. However, ments for infringing the Sultan's prohibitions in- Sultan ibn Taimur loathed development of any cluded flogging and imprisonment.