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On arriving at Bickleigh Commando School, I felt down but was soon lifted by meeting up with all the old gang, Tom, John and the rest of the old Support Group. Many others from all the various Fighting Troops, who had trained with us were there. Like myself they had left family and friends in a hurry which somehow made my misery less important to me. Within a couple of weeks we were completely re-equipped with topical gear and fighting kit again, including the very latest in weapons. and within four weeks we were on our way yet again to Malta. It now became important to familiarise ourselves with the political conflicts involving Israel, England and France on the one side and America, Russia and the rest of the world on the other, in relation to the Middle East and the Suez Canal. The Israelis did have other reasons for going into what was to her a hostile country. It was like a game of Roulette to us, one minute we were going to go in the next we were not. We spent a few weeks honing up our fitness and training situations in Malta, and after a couple of false alarms we finally got the word it was a GO! The Armada of British ships, included various types of Landing Craft for troops and transport, supply ships carried food, fuel and ammunition and the the fighting ships of the Royal Navy. It was a great sight as it ploughed steadily through fairly calm seas at 4 to 5 knots, to ensure an accurate rendezvous with the French fleet at H hour ! The scene was already set, Israeli forces were already involved by action, attacking the Sinai Peninsula on October 29th. The next day, Britain and France issued a pre-arranged ultimatum calling for the disengagement by both sides and an Anglo-French occupation of the Canal Zone. Egyptian refusal was answered on October 31st by a British bombing raid which destroyed the Egyptian Air Force on the ground. The extent of the Anglo-French political miscalculations soon became clear as both the United States and Russia issued warnings. Russia threatened to go to Egypt's aid and two US-sponsored resolutions, calling for a cease-fire and an Israeli withdrawal, were passed by the United Nations in early November.
The next night there was another sighting which caused some action. All the fleet had orders to black out, when the lead ship in front of us started signalling with her lamp, at a strange silhouette which had appeared in our midst. The intruder refused to reply or identify herself, with patience exhausted a couple of well placed star shells, soon brought results and again was identified as an American, this time it was a frigate which had caught us up sooner than she had expected! (or maybe got lost on the way to Gibraltar).
Despite these intrusions and world-wide condemnation about the Anglo-French military operation, we continued and were under way for Suez. |
