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- A half-battalion size detachment was
maintained in Bahrain to deter Iraqi aggression towards Kuwait and Nos 1 and 3
Companies were sent under the command of the Battalion Second-in-Command, and
supported by elements of Headquarter Company. All up, it was 275 strong.
- In June 1961, Iraq looked like it was
preparing to invade Kuwait. The only troops immediately available was the
Bahrain Detachment, 42 Commando and a squadron of the 3rd Dragoon
Guards, and they were deployed to Kuwait on 1st July to secure the
airfield. Other troops were brought in from Aden and Kenya and by the 8th
July, 24 Infantry Brigade was complete in Kuwait and the Detachment returned
to Bahrain.
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- It is interesting to note that one man,
Guardsman David Yorke, returned to Kuwait 30 years later when, as Major David
Yorke, he was the Quartermaster of the 1st Battalion which took
part in the Gulf War in 1991.
- In September, 1961, the Bahrain Detachment
was deployed to Zanzibar where impending elections had led to rioting and
sixty-eight deaths. Men of the King’s African Rifles were deployed to restore
order, and it was these troops that the Bahrain Detachment relieved. Internal
Security duties were carried out and the Coldstream Detachment undertook
numerous cordon-and-search operations, roadblocks and many hours of routine
patrolling. They even took part in two amphibious operations. At the end of
October, an exercise was held to practice reinforcing the island and the
remainder of the 2nd Bn was flown in for a few days for this
purpose.
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- The detachment handed over to the 1st
Bn Gordon Highlanders in February 1962 and returned to Kenya where they
rejoined the Battalion prior to the move back to the UK in March.
