by Britain or Egypt. In July 1951, Maj Gen Lashmer Whistler, Commandant of the Sudan Defence Force, wrote in British Army Review, (Issue 6, July 1951) that at that point the SDF comprised four infantry/camel units, a signals regiment, an AA artillery regiment and other units. In March 1954 British troops in the Sudan consisted of one battalion stationed in Khartoum, reporting ultimately to the Governor-General. The Governor-General's military commander was the Major-General Commanding British Troops in the Sudan, who was also Commandant of the Sudan Defence Force. In this post from 1950 onward was Major General Reginald 'Cully' Scoons. The last British troops, 1st Battalion Royal Leicestershire Regiment, left the country on 16 August 1955. All of the British troops were gone by the end of August 1955. The Equatoria Corps mutinied at Torit on 18 August 1955, just before independence, prompting the formation of the Anyanya guerilla movement and the First Sudanese Civil War. No. 2 Company of the Equatoria Corps had been ordered to make ready to move to the north for ceremonies marking the exit of the last British troops, but instead of obeying, the troops mutinied, along with other Southern soldiers across the South in Juba, Yei, Yombo, and Maridi. Thousands of Northern troops were flown in to suppress the mutiny, and by the month's end, the Equatoria Corps had been "eliminated." Independence "In the aftermath of the 1954 Torit mutiny, Northern servicemen who had left the forces after the Second World War were allowed to return to the colours, and additional recruitment took place." On independence in 1956, the army was "regarded as a highly trained, competent... force, but its character changed in succeeding years." Army officers, however, had begun considering involvement in politics by the eve of independence. Numbers began expanding before independence, reaching 12,000 personnel by 1959, and leveled off at nearly 50,000 in 1972. After independence, the military -particularly the educated officer corps- became more and more politically involved; soldiers associated themselves with parties and movements across the political spectrum." On November 17, 1958, the army's two senior generals, Major General Ibrahim Abboud, the armed forces commander, and Ahmad Abd al Wahab, seized power in a military coup. "The coup in the Sudan, far from being a take-over.. by the army, was a hand-over to the army. It was a coup by courtesy.. in response to the demand for emergency measures.."