Message URL: http://www.curezone.org/blogs/fm.asp?i=975619

A little piece of history I was involved with!!
(My Unusual Road of Life....)

This is a piece of history I participated in... Power Trumps politics every time!! But; Who has the power??

Date:   9/7/2007 8:36:17 PM ( 17 y ago)

This was another place on my road of life:  Read and comment if you have any questions; I told you I had some history...  I was there or here if you get the drift!!  No not the mutiny; Rather I was engaged with Her Majesty's Floating Forces...  Just so you know!!

Check out my pictures at the pool in Mombasa and at the British beach in Aden 1964; found in the CZ image section, blogs by Kerminator...

Now on to the story:  It was a warm equatorial morning when we first sighted the helo from HMS Centaur, with the UK bulls eye on the side of the Navy blue chopper...  It came from the north at 250ft above the calm sea...  When it got with in two miles; it promptly turned a 90 degree swing to port and completed a barrel roll...  The crew on the Destroyer USS Manley DD940, waved with joy to see our UK comrades in arms...  We had only seen a British Frigate some weeks before coming out of Mombasa headed south...  Little did we know that we would follow...    

This had been a lone cruise for our Destroyer.  We had spent Christmas in the Persian Gulf; then proceeded south to Mombasa Kenya.   Then we had landed and evacuated appox a hundred; NASA personnel and other people off the riot torn Zanzibar, the first week in January...  That is another story...  There are a couple of pics of some of these people; under images on the "Dar es Salaam" transfer...

Just a piece of history on my road way of life; enjoy...  You just never really know what tomorrow holds for you; Friend!!

The Tanganyika Rifles was the sole regiment in the Tanganyikan army, from 1961 to 1964.

With the independence of Tanganyika in December 1961, the two battalions of The King's African Rifles which had been raised in the colony were transferred to the newly independent nation. These were the 6th (Tanganyika Territory) Battalion (becoming the 1st Tanganyika Rifles) and the 26th (Tanganyika Territory) Battalion (becoming the 2nd Tanganyika Rifles).

[edit] Mutiny

Despite having become part of the Tanganyikan military, the bulk of the officers of the regiment were still British, as had been the case in the King's African Rifles. In January of 1964, following unrest in Zanzibar, the regiment mutinied. The 1st Battalion seized key points in Dar es Salaam on the 19th, deposing their officers and sending them to neighbouring Kenya; on the 20th, the 2nd Battalion, in Tabora, joined the mutiny. The entire country's military had now rebelled, with the High Commissioner briefly detained and most of the strategic points in the capital held by the mutineers.

After appeals from the President, Julius Nyerere, the United Kingdom dispatched an aircraft carrier, HMS Centaur from Aden, with a force from the garrison there, to stand off Dar es Salaam. On the British government receiving the request in writing from Nyerere, a company of Royal Marines from No. 45 Commando were landed by helicopter in Dar es Salaam on the 25th, assaulting and quickly capturing the barracks holding the 1st Battalion; many of the mutineers quickly surrendered after a guardroom was destroyed by an anti-tank missile.

After landings later that day, including a small number of armoured cars of the 16th/5th The Queen's Royal Lancers most of the remaining mutineers had likewise surrendered; the 2nd Battalion had not been engaged, but had offered to surrender after hearing of the events in Dar es Salaam; a party of Marines travelled there and secured the barracks the next day.

Within twenty-four hours of the initial landings, and a week of the mutiny, the men of the 1st battalion were dismissed and the regiment effectively ceased to exist. The regiment was never reformed; after the union of Tanganyika with Zanzibar later that year, the previously existing army was formally disbanded, and the Tanzania People's Defence Force was formed in September 1964, firmly under local civilian control. Many of the African officers of the 1st Battalion, and the officers and men of the 2nd, were incorporated into the new force.

[edit] External links

• Zanzibar Revolution & East African Mutinies - regiments.org

Authors and Contributors this page: T.F. Mills

Copyright Notice Page created 1 November 2004. Corrected and updated 22.04.2005 Disclaimers

Zanzibar Revolution & East African Mutinies 1964

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Causes

Chronology (except battles, which see below)

1961.12.09 Tanganyika became independent with two battalions of King's African Rifles becoming the Tanganyika Rifles 1962.10.09 Uganda became independent with one battalion of KAR becoming the Uganda Rifles 1963.12.10 Zanzibar became independent 1963.12.12 Kenya became independent with three battalions of KAR becoming the Kenya Rifles, and British troops (24 Bde) remaining for another year 1964.01.12 Zanzibar revolution deposed the Sultan, who fled to Tanganyika; Britain decided against intervention 1964.01.19 1st Bn Tanganyika Rifles mutinied and seized key points in Dar es Salaam, releasing their British officers to Kenya 1964.01.20 2nd Bn Tanganyika Rifles joined mutiny, placing the whole country's armed forces in rebellion; President Nyerere appealed to Britain for help, but forces in Kenya could not land at Dar es Salaam which was in rebel hands; instead 45 Commando set sail from Aden 1964.01.23 1st Bn Uganda Rifles and embryonic 2nd Bn mutinied, seizing its British officers; at invitation of Pres. Obote British forces from Kenya intervened later that day; 11th Bn Kenya Rifles mutinied at Lanet 1964.01.24 British special forces from Aden landed in Dar es Salaam and suppressed the Tanganyika mutiny (pursuit of escaped mutineers continued for several weeks); British forces captured all the mutineers at Lanet, ending the Kenya mutiny 1964.01.25 British forces captured all mutineers Jinja, ending the mutiny in Uganda 1964.04 British forces left Tanganyika, handing over security to a Nigerian battalion 1964.04.23 union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar as Tanzania was proclaimed 1964.10 Nigerian forces left Tanganyika 1964.12.10 last British troops left Kenya

• The Tanganyika Rifles - regiments.org
• East African Mutinies 1964 - Britain's Small Wars

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