#ismailia

Monument to the Defense of the Suez Canal in Ismailia, Egypt

#Ismailia, Egypt January 1969:

Bombed hotels in Ismailia, Egypt in 1969. Empty streets and an occasional army vehicle driving past with troops somewhere to the border (Suez Canal). After several Israeli bombings and strafings, Ismailia is near empty and deserted. (AP Photo/Harry Koundakjian)

The PIAT at Ismailia

This still from a British Pathe newsreel about the battle for the Ismailia Governorate building and Egyptian Police barracks (Bureau Sanitaire) in January 1952, during an escalation of the tensions due to the British occupation of the Suez Canal Zone. This footage represents one of the last operational uses of the Projector, Infantry, Anti-Tank (PIAT). At the time it was beginning to be replaced by the US M20 3.5in ‘Super Bazooka’.

The British Army had garrisoned the Suez Canal Zone since the end of the Second World War and were subject to regular low level attacks. With increasing pressure from the Egyptian government to withdraw from the zone tensions rose further when the 1936 Anglo-Egyptian defence treaty was repealed. The British called on Egyptian police stationed in Ismailia, whom were allegedly responsible for some of the attacks on British troops, to surrender their weapons on 25th January 1952. The police refused and fighting around the police barracks broke out. 

The rest of the platoon are armed with a mix of Rifle No.4s and Sten MkVs (source)

Men of the 1st battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, along with elements of the 4th battalion, Royal Tank Regiment, surrounded the police barracks - with 800 police inside. In the still above men of the Lancashire Fusiliers await orders. There leaning against the wall is a platoon’s PIAT. It’s unclear if the PIAT was used during the fighting around the barracks, one of the weapon’s secondary roles was ‘house breaking’ essentially breaching holes in walls, but with armoured cars and Centurion tanks of the Royal Tank Regiment it is unclear if it would have been needed. 

The barracks were bombarded and attacked by the Lancashire Fusiliers suffering three killed and 13 casualties during an assault. Following another bombardment the Egyptian police suffered 41 killed, 73 wounded, and a further 886 surrendered. In 1955 the British army began pulling out of the Canal Zone but would soon return. The PIAT was officially declared obsolete in the summer of 1956, just as the Suez Crisis loomed. 

Sources: 

Ismailia; Army Seize Police H.Q. (1952), British Pathe, (source)

Suez Canal Zone, National Army Museum, (source)

Egypt (British Military Action, Ismailia), 31 January 1952 vol 495, UK Hansard, (source)