Reel 1: Preparing Army Scout helicopter on airfield. Lifting crated load. Aden rock in background? SRN5 hovercraft prepared on airfield. Army Air Corps Scout lands, and is serviced and refuelled. In flight views of arid moutainous terrain, then ground shots of Arab with camel and donkey, parked Beverley transport aircraft. Journey by Bedford truck with desert camouflage over windy mountain valley road.

Reel 2: Scout helicopter takes off from airfield (same background as Reel 1 - Aden). Pin-up calendar for Friday 5 August (ie 1966). Barracks area of Aden and beach by club building. Aerial views of Aden airfield, ie Khormaksar. Tankers and floating dry dock off-shore. Beach scenes.

Reel 3: Aerial views of arid mountains from helicopter.Army tent on rocky terrain. Fort. Back on coast, windy road. Aircraft carrier off-shore. Geometric church (?) with clocktower in front and Army Land Rovers.

Reel 4: Barracks in Aden. Wire-fencing to protect compound. Driving across Causeway. Poor focus tracking shots, passing checkpoint.

Reel 5: Beach scenes at Aden. Men in water, two armed soldiers on beach. Woman in bikini. Crabs on beach. Protective wall up mountainside (like Great Wall of China). Girls on beach. Stingray dragged along sand.

Reel 6: Swimming crawl in pool. Men in club. Mobil petrol station. Driving along Causeway.

Reel 7: Swimming pool. Diving board.

Amateur film shot by Corporal Timothy Gibb of 653 Squadron Army Air Corps records aerial and ground military action in Aden and Habilayan during 1966.

Notes

Summary: Corporal Timothy Gibb was killed in action, aged 23, in Aden in May 1967 when his helicopter crashed during a night patrol while he was serving with the Royal Mechanical and Electrical Engineers (REME). He had joined the Army in 1963 for a six year term.

Provenance: The film was discovered during a house clearance of his parents' property in Hartlepool, to whom it must have been returned as part of their son's effects and remained in the attic for the next 39 years. The film may therefore have been the last view Mr and Mrs John Gibb had of their son.