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In 1956 the 10th Hussars went to Jordan for a year as part of the British Garrison. Tragically a RAF Valetta taking troops back to England in April 1957 crashed on takeoff from Aqaba and 23 soldiers from the regiment died.
The 10th Hussars were equipped with Centurion tanks. The port of Aqaba lies at the north-eastern point of the Red Sea where the frontiers of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Israel meet. The British Garrison had been stationed there since 1948. The 10th sailed from Southampton on the troopship Empire Ken on 14th February 1956 with stops at Algiers, Malta and Port Said. Exercises were held in the desert, mostly with wheeled K5 vehicles, as tank mileage was limited. One squadron was detached at Ma’an 80 miles inland. From May 1957, following the Suez Crisis, the garrison was withdrawn. Tragically, an air crash of an RAF Valetta shortly after take off from Aqaba on 17th April 1957 killed 23 men serving with the regiment and the air crew of three, after air turbulence snapped off a wing tip; this was the part of the advance party returning to Tidworth in England. The victims were buried in the British Military Cemetery in Habbaniya in Iraq. On 6th July 1957 the regiment sailed home from Aqaba in the troopship Devonshire through the Suez Canal, after calling at Aden and Mombasa due to uncertainties in the aftermath of the Suez Crisis. They then docked at Famagusta in Cyprus, before the onward voyage to Liverpool.
