Operation Shed - Background

Background

The Zanzibar Revolution had occurred on the 12 January 1964 and since then British forces had kept a presence in the area to safeguard European citizens. Since 30 January British forces had also been kept on standby to launch a military intervention in the event that the radical left-wing Umma Party staged a coup to overthrow President Abeid Karume's moderate Afro-Shirazi Party which controlled the governing Revolutionary Council. Operation Shed was the fourth British plan for this eventuality, following Operations Parthenon, Boris and Finery. Parthenon and Boris had been cancelled by the time that Shed was designed and Shed was to act as a supporting operation to Finery. Finery would have involved a helicopter assault by Royal Marines from the commando carrier HMS Bulwark. However, Bulwark was required for operations in the Middle East and so Finery could only be launched following 14 days notice. In addition, the merger of Zanzibar and Tanganyika to form Tanzania on 23 April had raised concerns in the British commanders that the Umma Party would launch a coup to prevent the merger which would limit their power. Shed was designed as a contingency plan to provide a quicker response if it seemed likely that the Umma Party could stage a coup quicker than Finery could be launched or if British citizens were in immediate danger.