1st Btn ROYAL DRAGOON GUARDS 1952-53
(Also known as the Black Eagles)
As Remembered By John W. Hooper
My job while I was in Egypt was to patrol the cables across the desert, we also had to guard the water filtration plants at the same time which ran alongside the Sweetwater Canal. I remember one day whilst I was there a donkey came down, all bloated and blown up and it was beginning to stink – so we put a bullet in it. It exploded and went on down the Sweetwater Canal. The locals were swimming in the Canal at the time where it was jammed up, but we had no choice, we just couldn’t put up with the smell.
Another job we had was to patrol the Treaty Road which I think was known as “Sten Gun Alley”
We normally didn’t go into Port Said but on two occasion we were told, while we were on patrol, to go into Port Said as there was a little bit of scuffling going on there. By the time we got there it was all over so we had a cup of chai and a sandwich, turned round and then went back to Fanara.
We used to go up to Kilo 99 for our driving instructions and very often we’d move a little bit further on. One day a camel dropped dead a little way away from us. The ‘porters’ descended on it and within 10 minutes it was only bones that were left, the sort of thing you only see once in a lifetime. On one of our trips back from Kilo 99 we spotted the Egyptian police had set up a road block, so we stopped, had a consultation and I had to make a decision as to whether we should go on or not as I was the commander of the armoured car. The decision that I made was to try and drive straight through and not stop. So we drove through and I praised the driver that was actually driving as he did a really good job. We went down the road, turned and contacted Headquarters. We were told to stay there and they would come out us. Whilst this was going on the Egyptian police pulled down their tent and inside was a vehicle and three more Egyptian policemen. By the time our unit had actually got to us the Egyptians were gone and we were all able to return to our camp.
Another job we had to do besides the cable patrols were road blocks. One day we were carrying out a road block not far from our camp and had stopped three vehicles. Our officer got up into the lorry, had a look and said “Let them go”. I asked if I could have a look. I got up in the back of the lorry as I knew there was a shutter. On opening the shutter I found motorbikes, bicyles and also fans from the hospital – all of course stolen. We sat the three drivers in the sand while had waited for the Military Police to arrive.
Our leisure place was the NAAFI Club in Fayid. I never went to the cinema as it was an open air cinema and the chances of a grenade or something else being thrown over the top was not uncommon even though the MP’s were always about and it was their job the guard us.
On the run up to Christmas 1953 we really thought we would not have a Christmas this year. The Egyptian army was on one side of the Irskine Line and we were on the other, but on Christmas Eve we woke up in the morning to find the Egyptian army was gone so we were able to return to camp for our Christmas which was a very good one indeed even though it was the first Christmas I had spent away from home.
We came home in February 1953 and the Life Guards took over from us. When they came in, the first person I saw was Peter Higgins from Castle Carey – a few years later I met this Life Guard in a pub in Castle Cary and we had a drink together.
I enjoyed my life with the 1st Btn Royal Dragoons even though
I had come from another regiment, the Queens Bays. I had been made up to Corporal
with the Queens Bays in Germany but I did not enjoy that posting.