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Thread: Suez crisis

  1. #21
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    Default Re: Suez crisis

    Hi James.
    I bet it was a lot drier than in Port Macquarie over the last year.
    Des
    R510868
    Lest We Forget

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    Default Re: Suez crisis

    Hi --i was on the clyde prospector with bp and we could not get through--back from aus.
    Sailed the long way around and drydocked in the tyne just intime to get hitched.
    My father had grown crysanthemums in his greenhouse for the wedding and was
    pissed of because i was going to be late--not my fault but i made it.
    That one lasted 19 years and fell apart in canada--edmonton sailing prairie schooners.
    If i had been on the west coast i would have been back at sea--did a lot better on shore.
    Great memories--don

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  4. #23
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    Default Re: Suez crisis

    I've long wanted to write an article about the actions of the USN's Sixth Fleet during Suez. I heard/read anecdotal stories of USN fighters flying through British and French formations as they were heading to attack targets in Egypt. Also there are stories of the Brits threatening to shoot down a USN helicopter that got too close to one of the RN carriers and the French forcing a USN sub to surface. I've tried for twenty years to find and interview the USN fighters pilots involved, but have never been able to find any of them.

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    Default Re: Suez crisis

    I do know it was because of the US government that hostilities were stopped for going further. This was reported in the media at the time, so take it or leave it asthe truth.i was in Valletta at the time after coming through the canal northbound and in for the usual engine repairs. So was at probably the last meeting of big capital warships meeting and the heavy guns saluting each other , between the Meditteranean fleet and the US sixth fleet , a very impressive sight indeed Admiral Mountbatten was I believe in. Charge of the British fleet. Needless to say after one night ashore and the damage inflicted down the gut by the two navies , shore leave had to be staggered. However I doubt if this was due to political causes , just jolly jacks ashore. JS
    R575129

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    Default Re: Suez crisis

    Quote Originally Posted by AJCalhoun View Post
    I've long wanted to write an article about the actions of the USN's Sixth Fleet during Suez. I heard/read anecdotal stories of USN fighters flying through British and French formations as they were heading to attack targets in Egypt. Also there are stories of the Brits threatening to shoot down a USN helicopter that got too close to one of the RN carriers and the French forcing a USN sub to surface. I've tried for twenty years to find and interview the USN fighters pilots involved, but have never been able to find any of them.
    I am assuming you are talking about the 1956 event and not later ones, I never saw any USA planes in Suez during that event, but then again I wasn't privy to every action being taken. Any USA planes flying through formations of British and French planes may not have been noticed by myself, but may have been observed by others who were there, and would surely have created an international incident that could not have been hidden, I would tend to treat that aspect as anecdotal wishful thinking, pretty much like Tom Cruise winning the Battle of Britain single handed. As for the submarine story, that may or may not be factual as the French were very trigger happy and still smarting from their eviction escapades in Vietnam, I know the battleship 'Jean Barte' threatened to blow us out of the water if we didn't respond to her signals, and we were under British Naval escort at the time

    The only Americans we saw were on a troopship on the buoys after everything had ceased and were greeted with calls of 'Late Again' from our lads and the French, they had arrived from Germany on a British ship, I am not sure of the name but it could have been the 'Empire Fowey', but as said not sure. Anyway they arrived in time to see our lads coating the statue of Ferdinand de Lessops with grease and surrounding it with barbed wire to make it more difficult for the Egyptians to pull down, of course they (USA troops) may have had no idea who F de L was.

    Because of political interference from the USA threatening to cut off oil supplies to France and the UK the adventure came to a premature end even though the Canal itself had been secured. We must remember that the UK and Europe were still recovering economically from 6 years of hostilities, whilst the USA had grown immensely rich on the back of arms manufacture and supply, we were still paying back for their supposed Largesse until a few years ago (Lend lease was not a freebee) and their home way of life had hardly been affected, although we are aware of the great sacrifices they made in personnel. Therefore the USA was able to wave the big stick economically, one often wonders if they ever regretted their decision to interfere, we will never probably know

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    Default Re: Suez crisis

    Not an anti American statement but( the USA was able to wave the big stick economically) some things just never change.
    But if it had not been them joining the war , all be it late we would all be speaking German today.

    Just think of it a Britain full of German speaking Geordies, Scousers and Brummies

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  10. #27
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    Default Re: Suez crisis

    WE had to go around the Cape at that time, I remember the skipper saying that crude had just gone up a shilling a ton, that war cost Britain or should I say the people a lot.
    Much has been said about the Americans coming in late, but they suffered tremendous casualties, I have just read a book about the Bataan
    death march in the Philippines, horrendous, over 42 thousand died, all thanks to Macarthur the gutles wonder boy.
    Des
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    Default Re: Suez crisis

    My #25 was not decrying Americans it was in part trying to answer Mr Calhoun's question about the veracity of US pilots infiltrating by flying through squadrons of British/French Squadrons, as I just happened to be there at the time.

    As for troops shouting 'late again' it did happen, as again I was there, lets not forget that a lot of the troops would have served in WWII and been recalled as reservists and it would have been banter between squadies and GI's.

    Yes we are well aware of the consequences of the USA not joining the Allies in WWII, but for them it was the 1941-45 (basically it was the 1942-45 war) war, for Europe it was the 1939-45 war and if Pearl Harbour had not have happened then the USA in all likelyhood would not have joined in. Don't forget that the USA had thousands of troops and materiel amassed on the Canadian border ready to take over that country had the UK succumbed to Hitler, but that was to protect its own interests as Hitler would have claimed all the then Dominions of the UK. So many things are forgotten in narratives, we hear so little about reverse lend lease, anti British sentiment in the Senate, Spanish support for Germany (still smarting from the Armada days), sometimes its difficult to know who your friends are, just observations.

  12. #29
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    Default Re: Suez crisis

    I am an American citizen by choice and proud to be one.* In the almost sixty years I have lived here, I have never heard a disparaging*word said to me, or about the country of my birth. England. On the contrary, I am sick and tired of people saying, "I just love your accent".* I wish I could be like the "Cunard Yanks" and develop a full American accent after spending two evenings ashore off the Cunard Queens, and I still can't do it after almost sixty years. At best I have a mid-Atlantic accent.

    The Yanks have an idealist love affair with England, except a minority third and fourth generation Irish American, mostly from Boston, whose ancestors came to the states during the potato famine; though over these three or four generations the Irish blood has disappeared through marriage*with "foreigners"; all that remains in many, in the case of the male line, is*an Irish family name and who have never been to Ireland.

    The first thing I remember*about the Americans, was standing on the pavement*with my chum watching tanks go by in a convoy and the soldiers standing up in the turret tossing handfuls*of candies and gum to us kids'

    The second thing, my mother used her spare bedrooms as bed and breakfast*rooms. My stepfather, who was one of the few people that treated me with love and kindness, developed terminal lung cancer.* During the last months of his life, their savings were depleted,*and my mother had to pawn the jewelry my stepfather had given her over the years.* He died, my mother*was bereaved and upset because she was going to lose the jewelry. I was a catering boy on a Port ship and away and not much I could do financially making ten pounds a month (before tax).

    An American serviceman and his English girlfriend were steady visitors to my mother's B and B, asked what was going on, found out about the jewelry and out of his own pocket, redeemed them and gave them to my mother. Top that for having a huge heart.

    Quite frankly like y'all, I visited a number of countries and other than the States, I never found any that really like the English, I remember as a catering boy in Oz, hearing us called Pommy bastards. and 20 odd years later, as an American and spending six months every year, for 13 years, in Oz, not much had changed.* The native-born Ozzie had no love for the English, perhaps in these last 20 years, attitudes have changed. By the tone on this site, nothing much has changed.

    I found it quite not so bad, but still resentful, in South*Africa and Canada.* But things were reversed in New Zealand, they didn't care for the yanks or the Ozzie's and favored the Brits.* Surprising what you find out when you have a screwed-up accent.

    As for being late coming into WWII:* The population of the US is a mix of many races, as the UK is becoming.* In 1940 the majority ethnic breakdown was slightly more of German descent than British descent.* Those of German descent, knowing nothing of day to day living in Germany, thought Hitler was doing wonderful things for Germany and were proud that Germany was becoming a leading country in Europe after struggling through the post years and depression of WWI.* They did not want anything to do with going to war against Germany.* And neither did a large balance of the other Americans, particularly*those who lost sons in WWI.

    It was viewed then as a European war.* The President cannot declare war, that is a function of congress. And any politician, at that time, who voted for war, would lose his seat. Roosevelt*could not declare war.* Roosevelt did what he could within the constitution, and most of that subrosa, until the Japs bombed Pearl Harbour and Hitler signed*a pact with Japan, then he could go to congress and propose declaring*war on Japan, Germany and Italy. And so congress declared*war. And the rest is history.

    I, by the way have quite a few German Friends, German Nationals not Nazi Germans, nor American German, most born long after WWII ended, a few the same age as me and kids at that time.

    I'm sure this will not change any of the biased members' views, and I do say thank you to the ones that give an historical accuracy to their opinions

    Rodney.
    Rodney David Richard Mills
    R602188 Gravesend


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    Default Re: Suez crisis

    Rodders, as always a good posting from you.

    I often wonder had Japan not bombed Pearl harbor if at some further point USA would have declared war on Germany?
    Had they looked ahead and saw what Europe may have become, could that have been a catalyst for declaring War, we will never know now.

    As to nationalities being welcomed, when we first came to Oz we were considered to be 'newies', but soon settled in. To become a Pommy B***d meant you had been accepted. We have never experienced any form of discrimination from any source.

    The nation now has people from some 187 different countries and most have assimilated in one way or another.
    Having an Oz passport is the answer, where as maybe a UK one may raise an eyebrow we have found the Oz one welcome every where, even in Russia in 2017. Even in Ireland where my wife is from I was told I could live there at any time if I wished.

    But much is to do with attitude, mix in with the locals where ever you go and you will be fine mate.

    However no matter how many times I may go back to London I always feel like an intruder even though I was born there.
    the place has changed so much in so many ways it is hard to recall what it was once like.
    Happy daze John in Oz.

    Life is too short to blend in.

    John Strange R737787
    World Traveller

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