Helwan riots (1945)

A protest meeting was held on 20 August where a crowd of 1,500 men were addressed by various individuals. As the size of the crowd increased, the meeting became violent. The usually disciplined soldiers became a mob bent on trashing, looting and burning and their first objectives were the two Egyptian owned cinemas which were set alight. The mob then split up and further Egyptian premises, blocks of shops, motor cars, bungalows and book stalls were set alight. They also set fire to one of their own messes and broke down and looted the NAAFI store.^[2]

Major General Evered Poole of the 6th Armoured Division, flew in from Italy to address the troops, promising that immediate steps were to be taken to speed up the rate of repatriation. To tighten up on discipline and improve morale at Helwan, the housing of troops on a unit basis was instituted and a brigadier was appointed to command the depot.^[3] A public address system was installed to keep everybody in camp up to date on the latest news and free outdoor film-shows were implemented. On 26 August, the Director General Officer - Administration (DGQ-A Italy & Egypt), appointed a court of enquiry to investigate; their report detailed the frustration and despondency related to overcrowding which had been one major contributing factor, as had the failure of the airlift to repatriate the published number of troops per day.^[4] The first official statements on 24 and 31 May declared that the repatriation rate by air would be 500 a day. From 1 July, this figure was amended to 300 a day. The average daily number of men repatriated during the first twenty days of July was only 108. The court assessed the total cost of the damage at £22,768,431.^[2] By 25 January 1946, 101,676 men had been ferried back to South Africa.^[5] The last aircraft left Egypt on 26 February 1946 included Major General Poole; it arrived in Durban on 2 March 1946.^[6]

There were reports that the South African Government suppressed the news of these events and that they were prohibited from being published in local press reports.^[2]

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