Trucial Oman Levies
The Trucial Oman Scouts were established at Sharjah originally as the Trucial Oman Levies (TOL) in 1951. They were originally to be used as an internal security and rural gendarmerie, suppressing banditry and the slave trade, but became a military force after the arrival of a Saudi Arabian force in the Buraimi Oasis in September 1952. The TOL were commanded by a British Army Major, with the assistance of two Jordanian officers seconded from the Arab Legion. Its initial personnel consisted of 32 other ranks, also seconded from the Arab Legion. It was later expanded to 30 British officers in command positions with a handful of Arab officers. Its soldiers were locally recruited mostly from Abu Dhabi. 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, where three Yemeni soldiers of the TOL shot him dead. A Jordanian Regimental Sergeant Major, Daud Sidqi, and a British Royal Air Force medical doctor, Flying Officer A.L.C Duncan, were also killed in the attack. Two British NCOs, SGT Chinn and CPL Cruickstank, were wounded in the attack, but were able to drive away and get help. The three Yemeni soldiers who killed the British officers 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.
By 1955 the Trucial Oman Levies had 500 paramilitary personnel who were organized into 3 Rifle Squadrons. In 1956, the Trucial Oman Levies had 500 paramilitary personnel organized into 4 Rifle Squadrons including 1 Squadron based at the Al Buraimi Oasis.
The Trucial Oman Levies (TOL) fought a brief battle at the Al Buraimi Oasis on 26 October 1955. Two Field Squadrons deployed, along with troops from the Sultan of Muscat and Oman personal guard, to forcibly evict a 40-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 forcibly occupied the Buraimi Oasis following an armed clash in which three people were killed with 9 people killed in October 1955, including seven Saudi policemen/military personnel and two TOL soldiers. A particularly long and acrimonious disagreement involved claims over the Al Buraimi Oasis, disputed since the nineteenth century among tribes from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, and Oman. Although the tribes residing in the several settlements of the oasis were from Oman and Abu Dhabi, followers of the Wahhabi religious movement that originated in what is now Saudi Arabia had periodically occupied and exacted tribute from the area. Oil prospecting began on behalf of Saudi oil interests, and, in 1952, the Saudi Arabians sent a small constabulary force to assert control of the oasis. When arbitration efforts broke down in 1955, the British dispatched the Trucial Oman Scouts to expel the Saudi Arabian contingent. After a new round of negotiations, a settlement was reached whereby Saudi Arabia recognized claims of Abu Dhabi and Oman to the oasis. In return, Abu Dhabi agreed to grant Saudi Arabia a land corridor to the gulf and a share of a disputed oil field. Other disagreements over boundaries and water rights remained, however. The two TOL soldiers who were killed in action were Jundi (private) Obaid Mubarak al Katabi and Jundi Sayid al Hadhrami.
Three TOL soldiers were decorated for gallantry during this battle. Captain A. R. Steggles was awarded the Military Cross, for saving a wounded TOL soldier under heavy fire. Sergeant Mohammed Nakhaira was awarded the Military Medal for his "courage, cool nerve and leadership." Lance Corporal Said Salem was awarded the Military Medal for driving a vehicle under heavy fire to deliver ammunition and retrieve wounded. Lance Corporal Salem was wounded in the fighting, and showed "the highest standard of personal courage and devotion to duty."
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