The Royal Army Service Corps
in The Suez Canal Zone
'The Wagoner’s deliver the goods but pay a high price'

Since the end of WWll (and during it,) the Royal Army Service Corps has been involved in every conflict involving the British Army.   During the 1951-1954 ‘Emergency ’ in the Suez Canal Zone, 50 soldiers of the Corps gave their lives for Crown and Country, making it the highest casualty rate of any Corps/Regiment stationed in this theatre of operation during the time-frame mentioned.

At that time the choice of vehicles for delivery of supplies, ammunition and troops were the 3-ton Bedford OY's and QL's.  Both types of these vehicles were the workhorses of the British Army, highly reliable but unfortunately also highly vulnerable, due to the fact that they were slow and very lightly armoured.   Drivers were armed with a Sten gun, which was a close combat weapon suitable for house-to-house street fighting, but in the case of sniping or ambushes this weapon mostly proved completely useless.

Other drivers were killed or severely injured by being deliberately run off the road and into either a Wadi or the Sweet Water canal by much heavier Egyptian vehicles, added to this were the anti-tank and anti-personnel mines, usually disguised in the many piles of Camel dung that appeared in abundance along the main roads.  A warning appeared at regular intervals in all Company part 1 orders informing every driver of this hazard.  Only when clerks and off-duty drivers were roped in to ‘ride shotgun’ did things improve, this did not stop these incidents, but snipers were now within range of the escorts.  Ambushes, especially on the Tel-el-Kebir to Cairo road and the Tel-el-Kebir to Ismailia road usually brought in the Infantry and Armoured car units on search and destroy missions to
counteract these hit and run ambushes.

Brigadier D.J. Sutton, in his book ‘The Story of the Royal Army Service Corps and the Royal Corps of Transport 1945-1982’, published by Leo Cooper, London 1983, states,  "The British Military Hospital was located outside the Tel-el-Kebir Garrison boundaries on the Zag-a-Zig to Cairo road, just inside the Canal Zone Military boundary.  Being thus isolated from the Garrison, walking outside the hospital area was prohibited.   Transport was essential for all purposes, to and from 5 BOD for all supplies, the frequent twenty-mile run to Ismailia and the regular picking up of patients and other personnel from Tel-el-Kebir railway station.  As the tensions grew and the situation worsened between the British Forces and the Egyptians, armoured scout cars from the Garrison accompanied all vehicles going to and from the British Military Hospital, on other occasions, however, RASC Drivers (and Clerks) rode shotgun, armed with Rifles and pick-helves on their vehicles.   The RASC Drivers soon got to know the regular local lads who engaged in anti-British activities, concentrating on the movement between TEK and the hospital, and soon devised tactics to counter these activities."  Driver S H Jones who was an RASC Ambulance Driver attached to the RAMC (BMH TEK) typifies the type of dangers faced daily by Ambulance drivers.   Driver Jones ran the gauntlet of snipers, ambushes and mines planted by Egyptian terrorists in his many runs between the Hospital, the Railway station and TEK garrison.  He spent over two years facing these conditions.  The Red Cross visible on his ambulance obviously meant nothing to these thugs.

In the 1st Infantry Div Transport Column RASC, incidents involving ‘drive-by’ shootings on the Treaty Road by passing Egyptian vehicles, usually took place in the early morning, and by the time the Guard was called out they had gone.   Two incidents involving drivers of the column come to mind.  In the first incident a grenade was thrown through the window of a QL from a passing Egyptian vehicle, the QL driver calmly picked it up and threw it out of the cab window, earning him a Queen's Commendation.    The second incident involved an orchestra and show touring the Zone with a large amount of equipment.   Three QL's were required to move it between Garrisons when their show moved around, and on this occasion the rear vehicle that carried their piano and other props had a mechanical failure and pulled off to the side of the road.  By the time the convoy found out that the rear vehicle was missing and had notified the local RMP unit they were too late, the vehicle had been stripped and the driver was missing.  Sometime later his mutilated body was found in the Sweet Water canal.  There were many other incidents in which the Corps was involved, but despite this type of harassment, fuel, food and ammunition was delivered and troops were moved, these drivers did their jobs in the best traditions of the Royal Army Service Corps.

Aye, Jock Marrs

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