What is in the book
On 26 July 1956, Egypt's President stood up in Alexandria and announced that the Suez Canal was now Egypt's. While he was still speaking, his officials were walking into the canal company's offices and taking charge.
Britain and France wanted it back. Their answer was a secret plan, agreed in a private house outside Paris and written down on paper: Israel would attack first, and Britain and France would step in as peacemakers. It went to the minute, right up to the moment it collapsed.
This Turbo History short tells the Suez Crisis straight, from a speech in Alexandria to the day the canal reopened under Egyptian control:
- The meeting at Sèvres, and why a civil servant, not a minister, signed for Britain
- A paratroop drop at the Mitla Pass, and one of the earliest helicopter assaults ever flown from ships
- How Egypt answered by sinking ships in its own canal
- Britain's first ever veto at the UN, cast against a resolution written by its closest ally
- The run on the pound, and the loan Washington would not back until the shooting stopped
- The Commons denial, set beside the paper signed at Sèvres
Britain did not lose a single battle. It lost the war anyway.
Read it in under an hour. Free on Kindle Unlimited.
These are not academic books. You will not find footnotes to chase, family trees to memorise, or ten pages on the logistics of a treaty. Every book ends with a page of proper ones to go to next if you want that depth. If you want the story and the big picture in an hour, you are home.
This book is free sometimes. Want to know when?
Suez Crisis goes free on Amazon from time to time, along with the rest of the series. Leave your email and we will tell you the moment it does.
More from the series
One figure or one event per book. Under an hour each.
