BBC DRAMA TO SHINE
IT was a sweltering outpost of the British Empire, filled with glamorous young women and military men – and horrific danger round every corner.
The Crown Colony of Aden was once seen as a plum posting for troops and their families with its hot climate, trips to the beach, partying and cash to burn.
There was whisky, steak from Australia, fake snow at Christmas and even the odd whiff of scandal.
But by the mid-Sixties the Brits were under increasing attack from Arab nationalists, with lethal bombings, shootings and grenade attacks.
The Aden Emergency, which lasted from 1963 to 67, cost 200 lives and finally led to the UK pulling out of one of its last remaining colonies.
The conflict on the south coast of the Arabian peninsula, in what is now Yemen, has faded from history.
As a veteran who nearly died in one attack told the Sunday Mirror: “It has become a forgotten war.”
But tonight a new six-part BBC1 drama series will begin to shine a spotlight on the Aden violence.
INJURIES
The Last Post, set in 1965, tells the story of soldiers and their families amid the growing unrest.
The stellar cast includes Call The Midwife’s Jessica Raine, who plays a feisty lieutenant’s wife, and War and Peace’s Jessie Buckley as the bride of a military policeman.
But Tony and Judith Holland lived the real Last Post life, and for them the dangers were only too vivid.
The couple were in their mid-twenties when RAF corporal Tony was posted to Aden in March 1966.
They lived a dream life for several months, until the attacks grew more frequent and murderous.
Servicemen were killed on patrol or guard duty, and their wives and children targeted at home.
Finally Tony himself became a victim when he was blown up by a rocket.
It left him with massive multiple injuries.
He was saved from death by his RAF beret, which provided just enough cushioning to stop a piece of shrapnel piercing his brain.
But he spent a year in different hospitals and three months having psychiatric treatment. He was medically discharged and is haunted by harrowing flashbacks.
Describing the attack, as he patrolled past the flat where his family lived, he said: “As the boys coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan will tell you, if there are no locals about or no taxi drivers, something’s going to happen. That night the place was deserted.
“It’s 50 years ago but it seems just like yesterday. I was almost under- neath our bedroom window when I heard missiles being launched from the mountain. In those days we didn’t have tin hats or flak jackets, we just went out in a shortsleeved shirt, a pair of shorts, boots and a beret.
“The blast was like somebody had opened the most incredible furnace. It blew me over.
“All I could think was I couldn’t hear. I was shouting, ‘I’m hit, I’m hit, I’m hit’ and there was blood everywhere. I