The Grenadier Guards (3rd Battalion) in Egypt 1951-1954

The 3rd Battalion Grenadier Guards, Commanded by Lt Col P A S Robertson, were flown into the Suez Canal Zone (Fayid RAF Base) from Tripoli  (where the Battalion was then stationed) when the troubles with the Cairo Government began in 1951. The following is taken from a book by Military Historian Colonel Oliver Lindsay CBE, FRHistS,  entitled:  "Once a Grenadier - The Grenadier Guards 1945 - 1995"    by Leo Cooper Leo Cooper

We flew from El Adem to Fayid in the Canal Zone eventually to be billeted by Companies in whatever accommodation could be found for us adjacent to Tel-el-Kebir.  No 3 Company got the best, a disused NAAFI shop.  This didn't last long however and we were soon concentrated in a tented camp within the perimeter of the vast Ordnance Depot of Tel-el-Kebir.  It was very basic with no electric light until Senior Major Charles Earle, after a protracted and alcoholic lunch with the Depot Commander, got him to sign a release note for a vast generator that lit the whole Camp.

Had Tel-el-Kebir not been a Battle Honour, few would have heard of it.  This sprawling, impoverished town is adjacent to the Cairo-Ismailia railway and the Sweet Water Canal.  It has nothing of interest apart from a small pleasant Commonwealth Cemetery.  A Grenadier visiting Tel-el-Kebir (or TEK for short) precisely fifty years later, found the Egyptians were still not the friendliest of people.

In October 1951 Egypt unilaterally denounced the 1936 Treaty which still had 5 years to run, but even before this, terrorist activity was still growing, and it was encouraged by a violently extremist press.  'Liberation Squads' extorted subscriptions and forced thousands to stop working for the British Forces. The Middle East Base Installations were still regarded as a vital element in Imperial strategy.  The bases still depended on Egyptian labour to keep them functioning, on the Egyptian Port facilities and railways for transportation, on the Sweet Water Canal for their water supply and on the Egyptian Police for the maintenance of law and order.  The British Forces in the Canal Zone, which then amounted to little over two Infantry Brigades, were therefore lodgers in a foreign and unfriendly land.

There was no time for the 3rd Battalion to enjoy themselves.  Three days after their arrival they were given 48 hrs in which to draw up and issue all their equipment and move out to a Divisional five-day exercise south of Geneifa.  On their return to Tel-el-Kebir they had to take over twenty-eight different guards and duties for ten days, the principal one being the huge Ordnance Depot containing the major part of the ammunition and equipment for the Middle East Forces.  Its perimeter was 25 miles in length, necessitating 280 sentries on patrol per day and night and in watchtowers.  Despite searchlights, dogs and anti-personnel mines, equipment
was still stolen.

At the Abu Sultan camp every evening the outer perimeter track was swept by a vehicle pulling a mat so that a patrol within the wire could see any footprints. Egyptian thieves covered themselves in grease and rolled in the sand to camouflage themselves.  East Africans from Uganda and Kenya also guarded the camp, as did the smart Sudanese, who had served in the Egyptian Army.  On completing the ten days of guards 300 men were sent to Port Said to unload ships. The Adjutant, Captain H F Hamilton-Dalrymple, and RSM  R E Butler chose a ship working together influenced by the type of lunch they would be given.  However, Major Prescott told them to work on a refrigerated ship moving kippers, which was not so popular.  As a result of the Grenadiers working in the docks the average daily tonnage unloaded immediately shot up one ton to four tons per man. The ships Captains were delighted with the speed of 'turn-around' saving great sums in
harbour dues.

On 4th December 1951, a convoy under Captain W R H Brooks returning from the docks at Suez was fired upon by Egyptians, wounding Guardsman Plowman. The second period of guard duties was notable for Egyptians shooting at the searchlight posts, a bomb being planted in the Military Hospital which the Grenadiers were guarding, and a section of the railway was closed having been blown up.  On 21st December the filtration plant was attacked but the enemy was driven off by Sgt Miles.

The situation in Tel-el-Kebir deteriorated rapidly; a patrol of the Queens Own Cameroon Highlanders was ambushed. No 1 Company was deployed to support them, and amid a hail of fire shot an armed thug who approached the Brigade Commander.  Two days later at dawn the Battalion put a cordon around the village  of El-Hamada.  All 1st Guards Brigade was involved.   Launched at dawn on 16th January across the Sweet Water Canal from Tel-el Kebir; the operation took the Egyptians by surprise but it was thought that some seventy terrorists had left the hamlet beforehand.   Armoured cars of the Royal Dragoons and four tanks took up positions supported by 25-pounder field guns.   At 7am six Meteor jet fighters flew overhead, re-appearing over a period of several hours.
The Grenadiers were fired upon when they established the cordon.   Two Egyptians were shot dead trying to escape.  The 3rd Battalion then entered the village with bren and armoured troop carriers and began a house-to-house search.   Both Battalions took 170 Egyptian armed police prisoner. 162 rifles, sten guns andconsiderable quantities of ammunition were found at the Police Post which normally numbered only 20 policemen.   It was assumed that the weapons were for terrorists who called themselves the 'Liberation Army'.  The Principal subject was a police Major General.  He was promptly arrested.

The operation was completed by a cordon search of Tel-el-Kebir by the Battalion.  It was the biggest operation launched by the British Army until then. One Grenadier recalls: "My recollection of the operation was that having traversed the reed-strewn roofs of the shanty town in our search of weapons, we returned to camp bitten to death by fleas.  Gaiters at the ankle were useless and we soon reverted to puttee at the ankle and a pair of ladies stockings under our khaki drill trousers".  Within a week the terrorists had lost 12 killed and 15 wounded.

On 26 January 1952 an emergency platoon was urgently required to rewire a section of the Tel-el-Kebir perimeter.  During this rewiring, two Guardsmen, F.L Smith and A.N Smith, were killed by British mines.  They were buried at Moascar Military Cemetery.  By now the situation had deteriorated further.  A bloody affray in the Canal Zone between British Forces and Egyptian Police posts resulted in heavy Egyptian casualties.  Next day a number of British-owned buildings were set on fire amid anti-British violence.  At the Turf Club, the Canadian Trade Commissioner and nine British subjects were murdered by a mob.  Egypt was teetering on the edge of anarchy.  British re-enforcements were ordered to the Canal Zone.

At 10am on the 2nd of Feb 1952 the Battalion was ordered to move by 8.15 the following morning.   They left Tel-el-Kebir hoping never to return.  After further moves they ended up in a camp at Deversoir.  Training facilities in the Jebel Country were superb.  The Battalions operational role was to make a broad sweep  with the Royal Dragoons towards the Southwest and to enter Cairo, should it become necessary, from the South.  The group was known as 'Desforce', named  after the Commander of the Royals, General Sir Desmond Fitzpatrick, the Colonel of the Blues and Royals.

Much of the remainder of the year was taken up with guards.  The Egyptian thieves were both notorious and everywhere.  When the Grenadier jeeps drove through crowded villages pulling trailers it was necessary to look back because the thieves often cut the trailer canopies to steal the contents.  A Royal Military Police vehicle, sent to guard an aircraft, had two of its wheels stolen.

The Suez Canal continued to be strategically important, the Middle East Oil was worth fighting for if necessary, so troops which now amounted to over 2 Divisions, continued to guard both themselves and the massive stock-piles of equipment in Egypt.  The training continued to be first class - better than in Germany.  The free-running, realistic exercises increased in complexity and were undertaken anywhere - down to the Red Sea, over hills and through ravines and wadis. Moreover, Battalions trained alongside Artillery, Armour and Engineers.  This was seldom if ever, seen in training in England. Officers learnt to handle all arms.

By now a few families had reached the Canal Zone.  Some lived in houses resembling Nissen huts at El Ballah.  Families morale was fragile for they lived in a barbed wire, heavily guarded compound.  The families bungalows in Moascar were preferable.  The staple food for families was a skinny chicken from the market. Due to the uneasy internal security situations the Queen's Coronation celebrations in Egypt 1953 were very modest.  The Battalion sent a large detachment, under the Command of Major R.H Heywood-Lonsdale, to a Divisional parade on the RAF Airfield at Kasfareet on Coronation Day.

In February 1954, the Battalions tour at last came to an end and they returned to their families and friends in England. Chelsea barracks proved a welcome change from the dangers, trials, frustrations, excitements and boredom which they had endured in the Canal Zone for over two years.

For acknowledgements etc. please see: 'Dragoons and Grenadiers Supplement'.

Aye, Jock Marrs.

One thing that stands out in both extracts is that during the time-frame mentioned, the Suez Canal Zone was perhaps one of the most dangerous places for any British Serviceman to be posted to, no matter what rank or unit. From the end of 1951 until 1954, terrorists trained by the Egyptian Army, and in most cases parading as policemen, deliberately went out of their way to maim and kill British servicemen and civilians.  Despite this danger and harassment the members of both these Regiments, and indeed all those servicemen serving in the Canal Zone, carried out their assigned duties in the best traditions of the British Armed Forces.

This Website apologises for having to reduce in length excerpts from both books describing Active Service of both Regiments. Lack of space and the tremendous amount of information regarding unit active engagements at the present time being worked on, limits the length of each historical report. From what we have gleaned from these two books we wouldn't hesitate recommending them to any ex member of either Regiment or to anyone else who is a Modern Military History buff.

Jock Marrs and Richard Wooller

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