- published: 14 Feb 2016
- views: 620
Ahmed Hamdi (20 May 1929 - 14 October 1973) was an Egyptian engineer. He also was a general of the third army of Egypt, during the Yom Kippur war. He was killed while crossing the Suez Canal with his soldiers and was awarded the Sinai star posthumously.
He was a graduate of the Faculty of Engineering at Cairo University. In 1951 he joined the Egyptian Air Force, and then transferred to the engineering force in 1954. He travelled to the Soviet Union, where he passed a training for leaders at the High Military Academy Frunze. In the war of 1956 he was known as "the pure hand", because he detonated thousands of land-bombs, before they exploded. He exploded the El Ferdan Railway Bridge, in order to prevent Israeli soldiers from passing upon it.
He had installed watching points upon steel towers, on the western bank of the Suez Canal, beneath the trees, in order to watch Israeli troops' movements, while there were no means or sand hills, to permit this watching. He had chosen the location of these towers himself.