The Blue Guidon The Newsletter of Andover and the Military
Spring 2022
Life Aboard Ship During the Buildup to the Suez War of 1956 By Richard G. “Dick” Bell ’50, Lt. j.g., USN
The background of this story is the successful 1952 coup by Col. Gamal Abdel Nasser that wrested political control of Egypt from the wreckage of the defunct Farouk regime. Egypt’s prime commercial asset was the Suez Canal, owned and operated not by the government, but by a private Egyptian stock corporation. The majority owners were, de facto, Britain and France. By treaty, law, and contract, the control, defense, and operation of the canal—as well as its revenue—were in foreign hands. Nasser sought to change that. This was in keeping with the powerful post–World War II anti-colonial movement. Britain had already lost India, and France had lost Algeria, with IndoChina’s fate a long time hanging in the balance at Dien Bien Phu, which finally fell in 1954. This issue was different: The oil that flowed via the Suez Canal was the lifeblood of the economies of Britain and France, and they were not going to surrender their access to it. They had heard enough of peaceful solutions suggested by John Foster Dulles, the U.N., and the rest. They were going to make Egypt fight for it, although they didn’t come out and say so. There would also be benefits for Israel if the country would commit to join them, which it did.
Threats of Violence, Talk of War Threats of violence and talk of war in the Middle East in the early summer of 1956 prompted the United States to beef up its Mediterranean battle fleet, the Sixth Fleet. Among other assets that were deployed were my ship, the USS Harlan R. Dickson (DD 708), and the three other destroyers of our division. I was a lieutenant junior grade USN and Dickson’s chief engineer. A qualified officer of the deck who stood regular underway watches, I was also the anti-submarine officer on duty and a command duty officer. We sailed from our home port of Newport, R.I., on short notice in mid-July, making landfall at Leghorn, Italy, on July 20. To get his way, Nasser would ultimately have to nationalize and take over the canal company. He made a careful estimate of what military strength would be brought against him—and guessed the U.S. would stay out of it. Thinking he could withstand the anticipated conflict, he decided to force the issue. He nationalized the Suez Canal and the Canal Company on July 26, 1952. There was no immediate explosion. The canal continued to operate in a very suspenseful state continued on page 2
Dick Bell aboard the USS Harlan R. Dickson (DD 708)