Invasion

The transports lumbered off the ground at Cyprus in the purple-streaked dawn, and two and a half hours later dropped the paratroopers over the northern mouth of the Suez Canal. The Britons aimed at Port Said, the French for Port Fuad, across the canal's mouth. From the first instant of combat, it became apparent that the Anglo-French could not hope for a quick victory without bloodshed. The Egyptians had littered the drop areas with barbed wire and oil drums, were ready with a desperate and (one of the invaders reported) "bloody good" reception committee.

In the first flash of conflict, casualties were considerable among British and French as well as Egyptians. Back in Cyprus, beaming, well-starched Invasion Chief Sir Charles Keightley admitted that the Egyptian army was still "a cohesive force," but he was ready with Step Two in his "limited operation." The invasion fleets had already steamed out for Port Said from Cyprus.

Tuesday at dawn, 24 hours after the airborne troops hit the silk, a force of 30,000 British commandos and French commando units, with tanks, stormed ashore and into Port Said and Port Fuad.

The tank-led assault troops moved briskly through the suburbs, and by afternoon claimed capture of both Port Said and Port Fuad. Soon a column was moving southward along the Canal Zone to occupy Ismailia, hoping to be in possession of as much as possible of the 20-mile-wide Canal Zone before the ceasefire ordered for Tuesday at midnight.

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