After the British began to withdraw to a narrow strip along the Suez Canal in preparation for evacuating the city, the journalist approached Captain S., the official military leader of the secret resistance, who was sent from Cairo to lead us in our military actions against the British troops in the city. The journalist tried to convince him to blow up the statue, but the statue was more than just a bronze figure, it was a part of Egypt's history. S. opposed it but the journalist insisted on referring to Cairo for permission. Never the less, the time was not ripe for asking Cairo because we were still engaged in night attacks against the British, who were still occupying a part of Port Said. The request for authorization would have been peculiar as we were in a partisan war status. Cairo was never asked until the day after the departure of the troops.

On December 23rd 1956, at 08.30 hours, Captain S. came to our home and delivered a message to First lieutenant F. who was operating the secret wireless main unit, connecting us, the secret resistance, with Cairo. This unit was a large American military wireless type 284 SCR, which was hidden at our home in a large cloth cupboard in one of the bedrooms. The British Search and Direction Finder Car failed to spot it despite the fact that the British searched our house but it seems that we gave them an innocent impression!!!

The message addressed to Cairo had to be coded into the related day cipher and the Captain requested permission from the authorities to dynamite the De lesseps Statue

Cairo's approving answer never came. It was delayed for 1 1/2 days, because they DID NOT want it to be demolished and because of the negative international image to the western World, they were worried about repercussions from such a useless operation. Cairo was busy with other more important issues like having Egypt liberated once again despite UN soldiers in the city.

On the afternoon of December 24th, a message came from Cairo prohibiting the demolishing of the statue or any other European memorials or possessions in the city but it was too late

Captain (S.) took his individual decision to blow up the De Le Sepps Statue before the answer came from Cairo. If he hadn't of done it someone else would have, as the city was full of hidden weapons, grenades and explosives.

I got a call to hurry to the De lesseps Statue area, because the mobs were trying to pull down the statue. We drove to the scene - my elder brother had accompanied me - as we were known for our influence in the city and once the mob saw us coming, a near to hysterical applause and cheering filled the air, "Allah Akbar, down with the British, up with Egypt, long live Nasser, Allah Akbar".... There were cheers of all the hate on this earth It was all hypnotizing and it was a special time.

Before we left home, a comrade of mine in the underground gave me a black office attaché case and asked me to take it with me. The mob that grew in the mean time to about 300 persons saw me coming with the case in my hand and they anticipated that something would happen. The crowd gathered around us and joined us at the bottom of the statue, where many people not yet succeeded in pulling down the two slippery poles to which the Union Jack and the Tricolor were attached to ,until they had to use a Firemen ladder - many books mention that both French and British soldiers had attached the flags to de Lessepps's right hand a day earlier, prior to their departure. I am not sure here that any French soldier were there to do it because  there had been no French soldiers at Port Said, but it may have been one of  the embarking troops (before they all left from Port Fouad with General Massu) or one of the Anglo French guards at the Casino Palace, which was  General Stockwell´s Musketeer  HQ.

Other people were still trying to climb the statue, on the left side, by rope but it was greasy and difficult to climb. Meanwhile many others were trying to chop down the statue. It was all like an unreal movie film but all efforts were useless and in vain. I was in euphoria with the mob howling at me to blow up and demolish it and their fanaticism pushed and carried me like a straw in a boiling sea. It was not real this was a dream. The statue which I had visited hundreds of times in my years as a youngster, I was being pushed to dynamite it I had no other choice but to comply. Never the less, I climbed to the base of the Statue after using another rope, because someone else was using the ladder and blocking the way up... My Brother followed and climped as well, Meanwhile other persons were carrying on their useless efforts to pull down the Statue with marine ropes. I told the people to move away so that no person would be harmed or wounded because I had explosives to use. They started to applaud and cheer. They came down and many others joined their of euphoric chants. I had no idea about the strength of the structure. It was the first time in my life, as a trained commando, to try to blow up a statue. If it were a military target, it would have been much easier.

The Demolition, how it happened. The bronze Statue was huge and thick and the legs and feet had been filled with cement and fixed with irons poles to its rounded base. All together it took three attempts using TNT to pull it down, because where I miscalculated the relationship between TNT bricks to be used and the statue's strength during the first two attempts. The people witnessed the first two failures and they got very impatient and angry. On the first attempt I used 3 TNT bricks, which was too few for such an edifice, and all that resulted was a big explosion, a cloud of thick smoke and nothing else. The city reflected the echo of the explosion and the tension was so great that tempers began to rise. Some police, soldiers and many other citizens followed the sound and slowly the place, which was opposite to the Casino Place Palace where 45 Commando Royal Marines had landed from their helicopters some weeks ago, began to be filled with curious spectators. In the meantime, a fireman's ladder was brought to the scene. The police started to keep the people far from the statue to save them from any possible injury from flying debris. I still had some TNT bricks left in the black business case so I climbed up the ladder to the statue again.

I had no other choice but to use the rest of the TNT hoping that 6 bricks were enough but this second explosion was not enough to demolish it and all that resulted was creating thicker smoke, louder sound and a 2 foot big hole in it's right leg. The round copper base had heaved a little bit and the statue was leaning forward slightly but the loud explosion was good enough to raise the anger and hate in the hearts of the gathering crowds

The mobs were getting increasingly angry and impatient. I ran to Captain S. my commander, who was watching from his small car parked nearby and asked for more explosives. He gave me a box similar to the black office attaché case full of TNT blocks (12 bricks). I had to bring it down before somebody else brought would think of using a Plendicide (Swedish Bazooka), which we had more than enough available in the hides.

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The hatred from the populace to blow it up came in patriotic chants, aggression, and shouts to hurry, etc. They were angry but they were very disciplined. They knew me well enough from earlier days. In the meantime, more people had come to the area and joined the crowds that totalled over 400 persons, including many police officers, who knew that they could not stop the flood of anger and would have to watch like everybody else. Many people had small arms still in their hands and they were not removed from the mob yet. It was a critical and dangerous situation for anyone who would dare to try to intervene.

Knowing that the crowd's patience was gone, I had to hurry my work so I asked my elder brother Abdel-Monem, a former Navy soldier, to join me to save time by helping me in placing the 12 TNT explosive bricks around its legs. We came back to the base with another guy, an Egyptian Para corporal, and used the firemen's ladder to climb upwards. Once up, they helped me in placing the 12 TNT bricks. Meanwhile, I connected the fuses to direct the explosion in the desired direction and so that it must fall down. I calculated the needed length sufficient enough to leave the Statue to reach a safe distance and then gave the sign for everyone to leave so that I could light the fuse, and for the foremen to remove the ladder. On my signal we hurried down and ran for shelter.
 

 

The UN Soldiers Some UN soldiers watched from afar but once they saw the growing masses they pulled back to avoid any possible confrontation with them. This was the typical UNECF attitude throughout their stay ( Not sea, Not hear, Not say ). In dignity it fell down In dignity it fell down into a cargo pontoon. There was a very loud explosion and a large black cloud enclosed the statue. It was like a Hollywood film as the Statue leaned forward, turned upwards again and fell in dignity into a cargo pontoon into the canal. Now it is interesting to know that there was there by chance a sort of cargo pontoon that was used to transport goods and had been docked by the side of the Statue's base, which coincidentally had been used by the British as a landing platform to facilitate their embarking the day before, and The statue of De lesseps fell in dignity onto the pontoon, face down.

The aftermathThe mob began to applaud hysterically and cheering filled the air again  with the rattling noise of many machine guns firing.  We - my Brother and I - retreated back and disappeared.... and I had mixed feelings in my heart. T his had been a special moment..... not only for me, but also for my brother and Captain S. !!!

Cairo refused the authorization ... !!!

Together with Captain S., we left the scenary back to our home,to check for Cairo response and authorization. NIL... , Cairo and the authorities have refused to authorise the demolition and had PROHIBITED causing any damage to the statue or to any other foreign statue in the city... !!!! - There was still one more statues in the city... "The Newzealand memorial of Unknown soldier" - which was unfortunately demolished by the mobs, after they had observed what had happened to De LeSeppss statuecut orders,

In addition to withholding the permission, Cairo issued clear cut orders to Captain S. and to the underground resistance groups, to explicilty care that NO HARM would happen to any foreign citizen in the city, - particularly europeans and americans if any - , their belongings or homes... !!!

The message from Cairo, addressed to Captain S., included other instructions, to the local police, to comply with the abovementioned orders

A gesture of good will !!A later Port Said Governor, a former police general (who happened to be a previous underground fighter while he was Lieutenant) wanted to re-erect the statue again as a gesture of good will to the new Franco-Egyptian relationship and comply with a request from the French De lesseps Club, who wanted to turn the area around the Statue into a tourist attraction. His efforts were denied by some narrow-minded people, including Captain S., that simply objected and still object the idea. The Statue lays in peace in the courtyard of the shipyard in Port Fouad, where the former offices of La Companie Maritime de Suez du Canal had been.

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