The Trucial Oman Scouts was a paramilitary force that the British raised in 1951 as the Trucial Oman Levies, to serve in the Trucial States. In 1956, the Levies were renamed the Trucial Oman Scouts. In 1971, upon the formation of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the scouts were handed to the United Arab Emirate's government and formed its Federal Union Defence Force (UDF) which is today renamed as the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces.
The Trucial Oman Scouts were a highly respected and impartial gendarmerie and were regarded as well trained, well paid, and efficient.
Trucial Oman Levies
The Trucial Oman Scouts were established at Sharjah, in a location adjacent to the RAF base, originally as the Trucial Oman Levies (TOL) in 1951, but renamed in 1956 by Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS), Field Marshal Templar. Substituting the word 'scout' for 'levies' was done to eliminate the impression that the force was conscripted, as well as to make the force sound more exotic and alluring.
The duties of the TOL as of 1951 were to (1) maintain peace and good order on the Trucial States; (2) prevent or suppress any traffic of slaves (but not slavery itself as this was considered an 'internal affair' by the British); and (3) provide an escort for any British political representative traveling in the Trucial States. Their duties were later expanded to include helping maintain law and order and preventing internal tribal conflicts from interfering with the work of oil companies seeking to explore for oil under concessions agreed with the Rulers. The Rulers of the Trucial States were not consulted regarding the formation or establishment of the force and only the Ruler of Sharjah, who rented out the base to be used by the Levies on a 10-year lease, was informed of their establishment.
The force was founded following consultation between the British Foreign Office and Brigadier John Bagot Glubb ('Glubb Pasha'), at the time the British commander of the Jordanian Arab Legion. Glubb suggested an annual budget of £40,000, the Foreign Office (FO) agreed a budget of £30,000 and the Levies was established under a British commander, Major Hankin Turvin, with two Arab officers and 32 other ranks seconded from the Arab Legion. It was later expanded to 30 British officers in command positions, with a handful of Arab officers. It recruited its soldiers locally, mostly from Abu Dhabi. By 1952 the force numbered some 200 men. There were also Yemeni soldiers assigned to the Trucial Oman Scouts from the Aden Protectorate Levies (APL), a British colonial militia based in South Yemen. It finally reached battalion strength.
In November 1952, some TOL soldiers were believed to be selling ammunition to the Saudis in Buraimi. Major Otto Thwaites, the commander of the TOL, went to Buraimi to investigate. There, three Yemeni soldiers of the TOL shot him dead. A Jordanian Regimental Sergeant Major, Daud Sidqi, and a Royal Air Force doctor, Flying Officer A.L.C. Duncan, were also killed in the attack, and two British NCOs, Sergeant Chinn and Corporal Cruickshank, were wounded but were able to drive away and get help. The three Yemeni soldiers who had carried out the attack fled to Saudi Arabia, but were eventually returned to Sharjah to stand trial after the intervention of His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi. The shootings revealed a key weakness in not screening the Yemeni soldiers from the APL before they joined the Trucial Oman Levies.
The first major achievement of the Levies was the cessation of both the slave trade into Saudi Arabia and abductions into slavery, especially in the area of the Buraimi Oasis, and by the end of 1951 this trade had reportedly ceased. By 1955, the Trucial Oman Levies had 500 personnel organized into three rifle squadrons. In 1956, the force was organised into four rifle squadrons, including one squadron based at Buraimi.
Buraimi Dispute
The Trucial Oman Levies fought a brief battle at the Al Buraimi Oasis on 26 October 1955. Two rifle squadrons deployed, along with troops from the Sultan of Muscat and Oman's personal guard, forcibly to evict a 15-man Saudi Arabian armed police garrison in an old fort and the village of Hamasa. The Saudi garrison had been based there since August 1952 when they occupied the Buraimi Oasis following an armed clash in which three people were killed.