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.

John Hunt, Carrfield, Bamber Bridge, Preston, Lancs.