Operation Musketeer

By Yahia Al Shaer

The Other Side of the Coin

The detailed Story of the Egyptian Secret Resistance
in Port Said 1956 (Suez War)

وأســلمـى يـامـــصـر

الأســــرار العـسكرية ألكــامـلـة

لحرب المقاومة ألسـرية فـى بورسعـيد سنة 1956

وقياداتها وتفاصـيلها

واسرار تخطيط وتنفيذ عمليات الغـزو الأنجلو-فرنسى

بقلم

ألدكتور يـحـي ألــشـاعـر

أول ملخص لحرب بورسعيد سنة 1956 باللغة العربية فى الإنترنت

What Weaknesses did the Suez Crisis reveal in Britain?

by Robert Mahan

Courtesy of www.revise.it

The impacts of the 1956 Suez war are to bee seen in our daily life particularly in the western world until the present time, despite the fact, that near to 50 years had gone since the war ended.
The following article, written by Robert Mahan - a westerner - is worth reading, because is documents the mistakes done at that time and the lessons learned since then.
Time seems to be repeating itself once more and again.
The players on the international stage had changed the roles. quote "....

Suez was the first incident which showed that Britain was no longer the great power it was widely believed to be. Suez showed that Britain could not act independently of the US and it revealed the precarious nature of the British economy. It also showed the weakness of the special relationship, as the lack of American support undermined Britain. This contrasted with British participation with American forces during the Korean War and the joining of NATO.

The Suez crisis showed that Britain did not have the economy, the military capability or the political will to act as a great power.

Suez also showed weaknesses in the capabilities of the armed services and the fact that Britain was becoming increasingly overstreached with extensive commitments throughout the commonwealth. A diminishing military budget which although large at about 10% of gross domestic product (GDP) was still insufficient to seize the canal as soon as Nasser nationalised it, even with the help of an ally. The British army was badly armed with much outdated equipment from WWII and also had expensive badly designed new equipment such as the Champ which although intended to replace the US Jeep was four times more expensive less reliable and heavier. The navy and airforce were, however, much better prepared with sufficient planes and ships. Problems did arise owing to insufficient resources being within range of Suez and there was a shortage of transportation for the troops and planes

The British military was strategically unprepared for Suez having concentrated on problems such as strategic bombing or convoy protection in preparation for WWIII instead of operations such as dropping parachutists or landing soldiers which Suez required. Britain also faced problems as much equipment was unsuitable for parachute drops. It's national servicemen who made up a third of the army were also unprepared for war as most were poorly trained, also morale was very low as most never actually never expected to fight. However, discipline and efficiency in these units was usually reasonably good. These weaknesses and the long delay between nationalisation and deployment of troops showed that Britain's military was no longer on a par with those of powers such as the US, USSR or even (in some respects) France.

Once the war had started British military performance was impressive. Few Egyptian civilians were killed and most Egyptian planes were destroyed on the ground. Only seven allied strike aircraft were lost along with two French and one British members of the air-crew. This was not be as impressive as it first seems due to the fact that although on paper Egypt's air force was superior to Britains, Egypt lacked well-trained pilots and also anti-aircraft guns and operators resulting in an easy victory for the allies. Militarily Egypt was easily defeated with 22 British killed and 97 wounded out of the combined Anglo-French force of 22'000.

Britain was undermined by the Bulganin letter which threatened Russian 'rocket attacks' on London to which Britain was unable to respond with it's small nuclear force and lack of the Hydrogen bomb. However this threat was never taken seriously as it would entail immediate NATO retaliation . Militarily, despite some problems with deployment Britain was able to easily defeat Egypt which is not surprising due to the fact that at that time Egypt was a weak, third world nation. Suez exposed Britain's economy as being insufficient to support a sustained military operation without outside help.

The Suez crisis graphically illustrated Britain's economic weaknesses, the most important of these being the balance of payments deficit causing weakness in Sterling which combined with other financial pressures made Suez unsustainable. Sterling was on a fixed exchange rate (ER) at this time which meant that the government was obliged to intervene in the market for sterling by buying pounds using gold or foreign currency reserves to maintain the set ER. The Suez crisis caused a fall in confidence in Sterling and also added to overseas spending, causing an increase in the already large balance of payments deficit. This necessitated support selling of British reserves buying pounds to maintain the ER. This became necessary as many pounds were being sold and foreign currency was being bought increasing the supply of pounds without which increased demand would cause a fall in the ER. It was possible to allow the ER to float freely but this however would have meant the end of the economic policy followed since 1951 so was politically and economically undesirable. During the crisis this pressure on Sterling increased and proved to be a major factor contributing to the withdrawal as Britain had insufficient reserves to maintain the ER. The fact that Britain could no-longer support Sterling even for a limited period of time showed the extent of the economic decay which had occurred since WWII.

British inability to support Sterling meant that a loan was necessary from the IMF (International Monetary Fund) to supplement our depleted reserves. This was effectively controlled by the USA so Britain had to adopt a conciliatory position with regards to American demands. Weakness was also shown as rationing of petrol and other oil related products had to be reintroduced after the USA imposed an embargo preventing export of oil to Britain. This exacerbated problems being caused by the destruction of oil pipelines in the Middle East and the blocking of the canal, thus weakening Sterling still further making US support necessary. This support eventually came to the desperate British in the form of $561 million from the IMF and the possibility of $738 million more. A loan of $500 million was arranged with the Export/Import bank to finance the purchase of more products most notably oil from the USA.

Suez showed that Britain was for the first time economically incapable of acting independently. Britain had insufficient natural resources especially oil to be truly independent and the precarious balance of payments threatened Sterling on a regular basis undermining government economic policy. This proved to be a major problem in the future and was the main cause of British humiliation at Suez. The crisis showed that the military was still capable of acting effectively and independently though not on a par with the USA or USSR, however the economic strength to support the military in the wake of international opposition was no longer there resulting in the failure of the Suez expedition. This was known by the British government at the time and is illustrated by this quote from Selwyn Lloyd's memoirs published in 1978:

"At a later stage it was alleged that one result of Suez was to make us realise that we could not act independently. The fact was that we knew that all the time. We were very well aware of our economic weakness and of the strain on our resources of expenditure overseas affecting our balance of payments, We had, however to conceal that knowledge."

Suez meant that this policy failed an the susceptibility of Britain to outside economic pressure was revealed for all to see.
....." unquote

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