Operation Musketeer:The beginning of the ending

When Operation Musketeer was planned, the planners from UK and France wanted to invade the Canal Zone , which includes the cities of Port Said ,Ismalayia and Suez , Port Said as you all know in the north and Suez in the south , I just want to remind with geographical information :)

Now Operation Musketeer started with a huge attack from the British RAF and FAF on Egypt's airports and vital army bases in about 7 Egyptian cities as the Egyptian media then declared then on the 5 of November in one of the most longest day in the history of Port Said , Anglo-French invasion started by the paratroops

With the invasion the resistance and fighting from the Egyptian side started meanly the public or the people's resistance here I won't go in to much details about the resistance here because it is great and wonderful that I am preparing a series of posts about it aside of this series "be ready of it"

At the first light on November 6 1956 , the Air forces of both countries started an extensive raid over the city with an extensive bombing from the salvos off the shore ,Whole quarters were completely destroyed for example like "El- Monakha" quarter, the majority of the buildings in the famous "Arab" quarter were destroyed too over its inhabitants

At 12 AM  the invasion from land started with the embarking of the Commandos of NOS 42 and 40 Commando of the Royal Marines , they came in landing craft of WWII ,with an "H" Letter on their equipment "H" For "Hussars"

The embarking was covered by fires of the Salvos of offshore , the fires covered the landings and caused considerable damage to the Egyptian batteries and gun emplacements which made it impossible for the Egyptians to stop that invasion . Already there was huge black smoke that facilitated the embarking of both troops and tanks on the shore by hiding them

Not that only both French and British came closer from Quay De lessepes in the Canal and embarked their troops and tanks from the "Franja" quarter side from the quay , they took two points to start invading the city , the first point was in "Casino Palace" and the second one was in an intersection where they met by resistance

The English forces after that began to occupy the buildings in the areas they controlled from buildings after expelling the inhabitants ,they also occupied the schools,hospitals and small hotels in those areas.The paratroops which came in to El-Jamil Airport met with the forces on the shore and they went in to the city in front of them the tanks ,and over the tanks they put two flags

No the flags were neither the British nor the French

They were the Egyptian and Soviet flag "Green and Red"

A nice trick to fool the Egyptians in Port Said who thought that they really were Russian forces ,already last night the Soviet Union announced its famous warning that it would bomb Paris and London with every possible weapon it had including the nuclear weapons and that it would send members of the red army to Egypt to fight with the Egyptians and that was some Egyptians thought they were friendly troops and thus they went to welcome , and it was a bloody welcome as soon as the Egyptian civilians came cheering ,the tanks opened their fires and many Egyptians were killed in a cold blood ,that was very very mean . The tanks began to advance more and more in the city and they met resistance , a bitter despite the claims of the British , I mean the resistants and fedayeen were moving from a street to another ,even from a tree to another , yes many of them were killed , by they died defending their country , they died their heads high

Anyway the British troops began searching and hunting down the fedayeen in the city ,that they entered The Abbasi mosque searching for them where Women,children and elder were taking a shelter away from their damaged homes , inside the Mosque ,the soldiers killed many of the civilians inside the mosques searching for fadeyeens

Already in that day there was countless number of dead and injured from the civilians , the number of homeless people on the day reached over the 5 thousands

Port Said from the sea shore side sustained lot of damage ,added to the damage that happened to the city in previous 24 hours , the sum made from Port Said a disastrous zone in our modern definitions

On the 7th of November 1956

United Nations general assembly issued resolution No.1001 "ES-1"  ,resolution came fair to Egypt mostly thanks to Both Hammarkjold and Canadian minister of external affair Lester Pearson "who won a Nobel Prize for Peace in 1957 for his great efforts in to bring peace in that crisis",already Canada disapproval to the war threatened the union of the common wealth, the resolution established the United nations emergency force,again the ceasing fire order was repeated , already it was issued on the 4th of November before the invasion ,yet the fires didn't ceased in Port Said ,the British and french tanks made a siege over the town and started to fire in order to end any resistance , already the resistance was more and more organized as you will know later , the city was barely out of food stock , at the mid night ,the UN again issued its resolution by ceasing the fire immediately and no further advance order for the invaders but of course despite it didn't last long despite the pretend of respecting the resolution

 On the 8th of November the city and its people began to stand against the invaders ,shops closed its doors in front of them , workers refused to co-operate with them

From the 8th of November till the 20th of November the city saw a series of resistance operations ,not big ones ,but still prove that they didn't give up

ON the 21st of November the UN forces began to come to the city , with their arrival the people became very happy and life began partially to return again on a very narrow phase

On the first of December ,the Egyptian ladies of the Red crescent arrived from Cairo to transfer the injured to the hospitals in Cairo by train, the arrival of the UN troops continued that day and the following days too

On the 4 of December 1956 ,UN secretary Hammarkjold announced the approval of UK and France to withdraw ,already the British decision of withdrawal was taken before that before Eden's travel to Jamaica for a sick leave without any terms except the arrival of the UN forces

The End

On the Fifth of December 1956 ,  the first British troop left Egypt and it was "West Kent"

On the 9th of December 1956,the British and French citizens who were staying in the city left it ,for fear of revenge especially those who stood with the invaders and killed many Egyptians

From the 10th of December to the 15th of December ,the resistance groups made several successful operations

On the 17th of December, the British troops began to withdraw from inside the city partially , they made huge security measures for fear of the resistance I believe , next day on the 18th the Egyptian Police arrived to take control of the city

On the 20th of December , the UN took control of the Canal building in the city and the commander of the British troops left Egypt missing the Christmas in home I believe

ON the 22nd of December

The French troop withdraw from Port Fouad and left it to the UN troops in 10 AM, the British from another side made a 24 hour curfew on the city and spread 300 snipers over the roofs of the houses so they could withdraw without any resistance

On that day All the Navy pieces returned back to Malta and Cyprus ,and French Navy returned back to Marseille and Toulouse

In 4:45 PM ,The Yorkshire British troop left Port Said and Egypt declaring the failure of Musketeer military and politically

They wanted to invade the canal zone and all they stuck only in Port Said and could n't advance even to Ismalayia

The 22nd of December 1956 was the day the Anglo-French colonial Musketeer declared his end forever !!

Please read this experience from Britain small wars

The last thing I can say here is that day became a National day in our Egyptian Calendar under the Name of the Victory day

 

Resources of this part

• Dr.Yahia El-Shaer Website
• Portsaid online from the Historical Atlas for the glories of Port Said by Mr.Diaa El-Din El-kady
• Britain Small wars "I don't know how they consider this as a small war, I mean it was a turning point  !!"
• Wikipedia "Long live Wiki, Wiki ,Wiki forever"
• The Veto charade by Cameron Hunt Must Must read
• United Nations information System on the Question of Palestine

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