Trouble in Ismialia
An Armoured Car Commanders Experience
By Cpl. James Collender Royal Dragoons
Cpl. James Collender was a Cpl. in the Royal dragoons, and was stationed in the Suez Canal Zone from 1950 -to 1953, he, his Armoured car, the men he commanded from his unit in the Royal Dragoons, were amongst the first on the scene when the police headquarters in Ismailia, was taken over by armed Police Irregulars, sent in from Cairo, and hell-bent in causing trouble in the city of Ismialia. This is the story of Cpl. Collander, and those under his command.
I remember it was the night before the attack on the Police Station I was on Patrol by the Great Bitter Lake. I was in charge of a Daimler Armoured Car, and a Daimler Scout Car, when I got a Call in the 19 Set to head for the Police Station in Ish and that a couple of Land Rovers being driven by Military Police had been attacked , and the vehicles and men had been taken into the Police Compound.
We arrived at the police Station and I went and saw the Land Rovers and MP bodies in them behind locked gates. I called back to my Regimental Headquarters and explained the situation and was asked if I could get to the vehicles and pull them out. I told them that I could not so was told to station our vehicles across from the gates with our guns trained on the Police Station.
Within about 10 minutes a car with some very senior officers arrived and called for the senior Police Officer through a Loud Hailer, and the Police basically told them to Sod off ! I was told to stay parked opposite the Police Station with all weapons trained on them. and await instructions. Within a very short time Tanks from the 4th Royal Tank Regiment arrived , with vehicles loaded with Infantry. More Armoured cars arrived to give support, as the senior officers tried to talk to the Police who were firmly barricaded in the Police Station, into releasing the Land Rovers, and the bodies of the Military Policemen, but failed.
We were then told that if we got nowhere there would be an attack on the Police station at 7 am in the morning, this was put off until 10am. During the attack shells were fired at the Police building and after a while the Infantry went in to secure the building. I saw an officer shot when he tried to hook up a Landrover in order to tow it out and saw some of the Infantry get shot and I do not know if they were killed or wounded at the scene I was told that 39 police bodies were recovered from that particular building, including one police woman, later I heard it was 169, but I have always wondered because right next to the police station was a prison, and that had been hit.
As far as patrols are concerned we did them night and day and our vehicles were shot at quite a few times, and we managed to capture a few terrorists, and killed some more. We had a hull-down position on the treaty Road to try and stop the Oil Tankers running guns to the terrorists. But we only allowed to put empty barrels across the road, and they used to smash these like toys and we were not allowed to fire shells at them. so it was a complete bloody waste of time.
Cpl.
James Collender
Royal
Dragoons
