RE 26 FIELD REGT 1951-52
'I'LL CROSS THAT STREAM IN TWO!'
As Remembered By Geoff Evans
The following article appeared in the British press:
THE
GUARDS GO IN – AND MARCH OFF WITH A GENERAL Advancing through King Farouk’s orange groves on the tiny village of El Hamida earlier today, men of the Coldstream Guards, after a brief “battle”, accepted the surrender of 150 Egyptian police – including a general from Cairo and a colonel from a neighbouring area. The Guards were taking part in the biggest raid and search made by British troops in the Zone. As Meteor jets streamed over El Hamida at rooftop height to daunt would-be attackers, troops searched the trouble spot village from cellar to attic. But they failed to find a single man of the ‘liberation army’. Nevertheless they collected enough arms to equip a company according to the assistant Provost Marshal of the garrison, Major E.F. Robins The Egyptian general marched off by the Guards was one of four officers ‘captured’ when our troops cleared Egyptian police out of the smelly dirty police headquarters. He turned out to be an inspector from the Ministry of Interior in Cairo, Abdullah Mohammed Bey. Sitting on a bench in Tel el Kebir station he told me “The reason why there were so many police in a small village is that some of the King’s houses, property and cattle are here”. “There are many thieves, much trouble; therefore I come down from Cairo to make sure everything is all right. The normal police force of this village is twelve men and British officers are convinced that police supplied arms to students in recent fighting. They certainly fired on British troops today…………. |
All the following took place at the start of the above excursion. I was a signaller with the Artillery Observation Post. In case an artillery bombardment was required, we followed the Guards. Anyway, our officer came across an old dis-used grain silo which he thought may be useful as an observation post but then said we would go a little further. We came to a stream about 6ft wide and waded across it – I was carrying 2 heavy batteries on my back and with the water just over my knees and thick mud at the bottom, the going was very slow. When we got to the other side the two columns of Guards met on the other side of the village and sent up flares.
Immediately firing began from the village – bullets were whistling over my head and I thought straight away of that stream. But the officer decided that the silo would be the ideal spot. Either way, thanks to those bullets I cleared that stream in two strides!
About 5 years ago (2003) I made contact
with Fred Blades, Alan Foster & Peter Tamplin. Fred told me he was my co-signaller
at that time. I think the technical assistant was called Brian (from Brighton).
Anyway I would love to hear from anyone who was also on that excursion with
us.