Today in Maritime History — 26 July
1956 — Suez Crisis Kicks Off
The Suez Crisis, is also known as the Second Arab–Israeli war, the Tripartite Aggression, and the Sinai War, depending on who you like to buy your weapons from.
It kicked off with Egyptian president Nasser nationalising the canal. See, the canal used to be owned by French interests and the Egyptian state in a neat little 56/44 split. Let’s just say that the Egyptians were as good with their finances as the Greeks were with EU subsidies and they had to sell. The Brits jumped at the opportunity, desperate to prove that they were still relevant in a world that was shaking its opium habit and had filled its spice rack.
At the same time, Israel was sh*tting bricks at the thought of such a good friend and neighbour acquiring prime real-estate. The 3 Amigos, as they are officially known, got together and decided to invade; first, Israel, followed by the two Cordials. The fact that both the US and the Soviet Union warned against this did not seem to be a pretty obvious no-no for the two geopolitical has-beens who were keen to relive glories past now that they had buried the hatchet between them.
The Egyptian forces were defeated but not before leaving a massive turd in the pool, or 40 sunken ships in the canal, rendering it useless. US President Eisenhower promised to go Biblical on the British financial system so Prime Minister Eden withdrew the UK forces and then himself from running the country (and, possibly, his garden). Nasser’s balls grew a few sizes.
The canal stayed closed until March 1957. The incident marked the beginning of the end for Great Britain as a major power, and showed the Soviets that, if you are big and pushy enough, you can invade whoever you want. So, Hungary it was.
Swimmingly yours,
Dim
PS. I am not a historian, nor do I play one on the internet. This is meant to be a bit of light relief and an encouragement for you to donate to The Mission to Seafarers. If you find yourself salivating over the prospect of dates, annotations, references, footnotes, and further reading, you may want to run away now.
