Word: port
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...British and French had all but telegraphed their intention to make simultaneous airborne and seaborne landings at Port Said. Their execution was painfully slow. The invasion fleet, much of which had to make a three-day trip from Malta, spent at least 24 hours longer than necessary reaching Port Said-presumably they idled at sea during some hesitation in British diplomatic maneuverings. In the end, without simultaneous landings and without prior bombardment the British and French dropped in slightly over 1,000 paratroopers, who were left to take care of themselves for nearly 24 hours...
Surrender Reversed. Given so much time to brace itself, even a second-class army should have been able to wipe out an unsupported landing by two battalions of paratroopers. Instead, the Egyptian army left Port Said insufficiently garrisoned and such troops as were there, after a gallant but ineffective initial resistance, rapidly became disorganized. By afternoon of the first day of fighting General Mohammed Riad, governor of Port Said, was ready to talk surrender (a fact Anthony Eden announced to a cheering House of Commons). But when he telephoned Cairo for permission, he was told: No surrender; Port Said must...
Instead next morning allied planes and ships began to soften up Port Said for a seaborne landing. When the bombardment ended, commandos, more paratroopers and armor began to pour ashore. (One Royal Marine Commando, 500 strong, made the trip from ship to shore by helicopter, thereby scoring a first in the history of amphibious warfare.) Some headed down the canal, got within 20 miles of Ismailia before the cease-fire took effect. Others, supported by tanks, probed through the streets of Port Said slowly cleaning out stubbornly resisting remnants of the Egyptian army and the irregulars of Nasser...
Almost before the firing ceased, the British and French had frogmen down inspecting the hulls of the half-dozen ships scuttled by the Egyptians in Port Said harbor. Not until nine additional blockboats which had been scuttled further down the canal had been inspected could anyone be sure how long it would take to get shipping moving again (see BUSINESS...
...Prime Minister even proclaimed that Tiran, the ancient Yotvat, a small island in the Gulf of Aqaba dominating passage from the Red Sea to Israel's new port of Elath, belonged to its captors. To prove Israel's historic claims, Ben-Gurion paused in his rolling Hebrew periods and read out in the original Greek the historian Procopius' 6th century description of the island: "There the Hebrews have lived since ancient times and govern themselves...