Suez by Jackson Robert

Author:Jackson, Robert
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lume Books
Published: 2019-12-13T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten – The Airborne Assault

The airborne unit selected to spearhead the British invasion task force was the 3rd Parachute Battalion, commanded by Colonel Paul Crook. Its objective was Gamil, the airfield on the outskirts of Port Said. The choice of a single battalion was dictated by the fact that the Cyprus airfields could not accommodate sufficient transport aircraft to carry a force of more than battalion strength, in this case 668 men and their equipment. The plan was for the remainder of the 16th Parachute Brigade to follow on either by air or sea once the objective had been secured.

It could hardly be said that the Brigade was experienced in this type of operation. The last time British paratroops had carried out a major drop under combat conditions had been in March 1945, during the Rhine crossing at Wesel. The standard of their weapons also left much to be desired; they carried normal British infantry equipment, which meant that most of their arms and ammunition had to be dropped separately in containers. Only the despised Sten gun (which was prone to jamming and often thankfully discarded in action when the paratroops seized better-class enemy weapons) was small and light enough to be carried during the drop, but even this practice had been vetoed for fear that the gun might become entangled in the parachute harness or interfere with the static line and cause an accident. This lack of small-arms support and the consequent inability to return any fire from the ground meant that the paratroops would be at the mercy of the defenders on the way down, a state of affairs that filled many with misgivings, although morale remained generally good. Even when the men were on the ground, there would be a further delay while they broke open their weapons containers, and cover on the airfield was likely to be sparse. It was clear that a great deal was going to depend on the supporting Allied strike aircraft.

The men were to be lifted into action by two types of RAF transport aircraft: the four-engined Handley Page Hastings and the twin-engined Vickers Valetta. Neither was particularly suited to the task, having only a single side-exit door, but the planned re-equipment of RAF Transport Command, despite the fact that both the Army and the RAF had long advocated the establishment of a strong strategic airborne reserve and the provision of aircraft capable of ferrying it to any destination worldwide at a few hours’ notice, had received lower priority than the re-equipment of the other operational Commands. In 1956, the emphasis was on nuclear strategy, with its associated building up of the V-Force, and on the modernisation of Fighter Command.

The fact that the Hastings and Valetta both had side-loading freight doors meant the type of equipment which could be transported and air-dropped in support of the paratroops was severely restricted. There was no possibility at all of dropping heavy guns and transport; even ammunition and supplies, which in the case of

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