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Aviation History
1946
1946 - 1298.PDF
FLIGHT JULY 4TH, 1946 Cairo Cameo Suez Canal and Three-Dimensional Defence : Cyprus as an Aircraft Carrier : More Passengers by Air than Ship By B. J. HURREN EARLY one morning, as a sweltering sun gave promiseof a grilling day, a burly Sudanese produced a news-paper in which the star news was the debate on the question of the defence of Egypt. I had come to Cairofrom London in a B.O.A.C. "Hythe" class flying boat, an exceedingly comfortable journey with one overnightstop at Augusta, Sicily, so that I was very up-to-date with English opinion. Let me say at once that this is not going to be a politicalreview, but that local Cairene opinion among informed men of affairs differs as much from current English thought aschalk from cheese. Far from deploring the movement, which is known loosely in England as the sell-out, herecompetent authorities regard the matter with approval. This statement of fact is at such variance with the generalview in England that a short discursion on the state of affairs here may be worth while, especially to those whocontemplate business affairs in the Near East. In the first place, it is essential to appreciate thetremendous change which has come over Egypt, and kindred states, in the past two decades. This change inoutlook is complete and permeates through all ranks and conditions of men. It derives not so much from aviationas from radio and the films. Egypt is to-day much more than a highly fertile geo-graphical zone. The zero line of the world's magnetic field passes directly through Egypt, roughly north and5outh, and this may be taken as symbolic. For modern Egypt is neither East nor West, neither Old nor New,but the compound mixture of something unique in the Past, revivalist in the Present, and certainly complexTomorrow. This ancient State, which for 5,000 years has borne theyoke of many a conqueror but has always in the end ejected the conqueror, by the chance of geography lies athwartthe arterial line of communication with the British Empire east of Greenwich. The Canal (and there is only one Canalto the English) has, therefore, been a governing point in British foreign policy and military strategy since Disraelimade a smart business deal, and the major part of British commerce was borne on its waters. The defence of thatCanal has, until recently, rested primarily on the Royal Navy, although a holding force of the Army was, by treatyagreement, kept at key points. The advent of air power altered the picture considerably in that it removed fromthe Navy much of the responsibility for defence ; for enemy aircraft could approach Suez without crossing the sea atall. Suez Canal and Air War In short, and somewhat unscientifically, the two-dimen-sional problem of defence that faced fin-de-siecle militarists has been replaced by a three-dimensional one. The SecondWorld War showed to our considerable discomfiture that the Suez Canal could be closed for weeks. (Indeed, theremarkable thing is that the Germans failed to intensify their attacks and close it completely by destroying thebanks where the Canal rises above the Sinai Desert, on its east side.) The fact, already proved, must be accepted that a deter- mined enemy could close the Canal easily by air assault. The Short Empire flying boat Caledonia moored at the Rod-el-Farag base. The photograph is taken from the porch of the reception house. The atom bomb merely simplifies the matter, since even the most rabid humanitarian could not object to atomizing a lot of sand, completely uninhabited, where the Canal is most vulnerable to air attack. Therefore, the expression "Defence of the Canal" is already an archaism, of interest to historians writing of the pre-Atomic Age. To-day, realistically, all the King's aircraft and all the King's men, to say nothing of the battleships, could not stave off bomb attacks calculated and designed to destroy Suez. So the answer to those, particularly in Australia, who naively ask what they were fighting for in the Western Desert, is that they were fight- ing in another era, a time when it was possible to defend the Canal in part, although even then the Canal was closed by enemy action. As, however, war secrecy forbade men- tion of that fact, there may be some excuse for the barren thinking that still remains on this subject. Where could attack come from? Not from the south, nor from the east, nor from the -west, under the present set-up. The only possible line of attack lies in the north, and could embrace the sector NW-NE. Right in the midst of this sector lies an important British possession, alack too often forgotten. I refer to the enchanting island of Cyprus which, like some enlarged Malta, provides an unsinkable aircraft carrier set as a bastion to the Canal some 300 miles to the south. Cyprus, clearly, could be reinforced by direct flight from England without any difficulty at all, and in a matter of a very few hours. It is, curiously and satisfyingly, of sum- s
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