📅 On This Day in Military History
1 event across history
British and French aircraft destroy the Egyptian Air Force on the ground, targeting airfields around Cairo, Alexandria, and the Canal Zone. The Egyptians, warned by Israeli radio intercepts that an attack was coming, had dispersed many aircraft — but the campaign still eliminates Egypt's air capability. Nasser orders the Suez Canal blocked by sinking 47 ships.
The air campaign demonstrated overwhelming Anglo-French air superiority but also the limits of airpower alone. Nasser's decision to block the Canal — transforming Egypt's defeat into a political weapon — proved strategically brilliant. The blocked Canal hurt European economies more than Egyptian ones, adding to pressure for a ceasefire.
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