The Battle of Ismailia | British Troops Fight Egyptian Auxiliary Police | January 1952

January 25th 1952.

Footage of the operation undertaken by British authorities stationed in Egypt to disloge Egyptian Auxiliary Police from a police station which also served as their barracks.

Source: Reuters News Archive.

The background to the battle was the sizeable presence of British troops in Egypt who were been used as a guarantee of security for the Suez Canal.

Although Egypt had been a nominally independent country since 1922 and the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty reaffirmed this, the continued presence of thousands of British troops on Egyptian soil after World War 2 generated a great deal of resentment.

Egyptians staged demonstrations, rioted and attacked British soldiers in a bid to have the treaty recinded and have the foreign forces removed from Egyptian soil.

The British authorities observed that the Egyptian Police did little to quell anti-British rioting in Ismailia in October 1951 and that the 600 auxiliary police did little to help quell attacks on British army personnel.  

The British government then requested that their Egyptian counterparts order the auxiliaries to disarm, but this did not happen.

In January 1952, the deadline of a final ultimatum went unheeded. (By January 23rd 1952, British casualties amounted to 33 dead and 69 wounded). General George Erskine was then charged with overseeing an operation to forcibly disarm the auxilliaries. Fuad Serag Eddin, the Egyptian minister of the interior urged the policemen not to surrender and, if necessary, fight for the dignity of the Egyptian people.

The police headquarters was surrounded by two platoons of infantrymen of the Royal Lancashire Fusiliers who had tanks, 200-pound guns and small arms at their disposal.

An initial incursion was foiled leading to 14 British casualties, but they re-grouped and eventually disloged the Egyptians in the process killing over 50 and injuring over 70. Between 200 and 300 eventually surrendered according to the British Embassy.

Anti-British violence and protests persisted.

In July 1952, a military coup removed King Farouk from power and in 1954 and agreement was signed between Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser and British Foreign Minister Anthony Eden which provided that British troops would be withdrawn by June 1956, with the British bases to be run jointly by British and Egyptian civilian technicians.

January 25th later became "Police Day" in Egypt and was made a public holiday in 2009.

Other Footage:

Pathe | Ismailia; Army Seize Police H.Q. (1952)
Ismailia; Army Seize Police H.Q. (1952)

Barricades Down In Ismalia (1952)
Barricades Down In Ismalia (1952)

Note:

"The Battle of Ismalia" may also refer to a large scale military engagement between the armies of Egypt and Israel during the final phase of the 1973 Arab-Israeli War.

A Brief Reflection on British Counter-Insurgency Campaigns since the End of the Second World War

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