‘Forgotten Army’ of Suez and a fight for medals

I’VE written a book – Suez: The Hidden Truths – which details those turbulent years of the Suez Campaign of the early 1950s, when thousands of troops, many on National Service were sent to defend the canal zone, often facing appalling conditions.

Even though many of the men who died were only in their teens, we were inexplicably denied a medal. However, after a long campaign, this injustice has been righted.

Within this “Forgotten Army” hundreds perished and are buried in the sand at British Military cemeteries in Egypt.

Indeed, from this failed adventure, can anything be learned today in the context of Afghanistan?

As in the Suez conflict, brave men are dying once more.

From: David Pickett, Thorold Road, Ilford, Essex.

ERICH Schmidt was born in 1925 in the Hunsruck, in the present Federal Land of Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany. He was conscripted at the age of 17 and in 1944 was captured by the British Army in Normandy, France. He was interned in a POW Camp located in the Hull area of Yorkshire.

His daughter, Ulla Buettner, a friend of mine, has asked me to find out if I can obtain information about her father’s internment in the UK including any experiences and/or photos of him. I have two numbers from his time in the camp, the first is P/W B12184 and the second is POW 9/AP/2361. Erich died in 2004.

Erich worked on farms during his period in the Hull area as a POW and became proficient in English and generally appears to have had a successful stay in England.

If anyone has any details, they can email me at [email protected]