Sherman, Set the Way-Back Machine for…
Vamp
Most people familiar with the Suez Crisis only remember it as a tentative alliance between the French and British militaries to secure the canal, though in truth, it was never closed as the British feared it would be. British military planners favored a larger, well-prepared and heavily armed invasion force while the French considered the Egyptian military a weak foe that would fall easily (a prediction that would ultimately prove true) and preferred a quick, lightning strike.
Johan’s campaign reflects the truth that the military actions to retake the Canal were actually two operations. The French and British governments, it was discovered, had cooperated with the Israeli military. The Israeli part of the effort was called Operation: KADESH, while the European alliance’s end of it was the now-famous Operation: MUSKETEER. A tangled web, indeed, but it accurately portrays the forces in play during what was called (at the time) ‘the shortest war in history’.
The seas in the Eastern Med were crowded ones, too. The French Aeronavale’ had two carriers in the region, the Arromanches (formerly the HMS Colossus) loaded with 14F and 15F’s F4U Corsairs, both squadrons are flyable in the game so feel free to strafe airfields and soft targets with that beast. Someone should work on an Aeronavale’ skin for the TBM/TBF Avenger as they were in the area aboard theLafayette (formerly the USS Langley). There was also one covert French Air Force F-84F (Johan’s favorite plane of the campaign) unit operating in the area that you get to fly.
Be sure not to miss flying a few missions in the glorious rendition of the Israeli F-51D Mustangs, courtesy of USAFMTL and company. This is radial-engined combat at its finest and is without comparison. You’ll need “The Wrench’s” IDF skins to complete the ensemble, but I haven’t been this thrilled with a World War II aircraft since Jane’s WWII Fighters. I tested this one while the wife and kids were Christmas shopping. The Merlin engine sounds will shake your bookcases.
Sea Hawk
My personal favorite flyable aircraft in the entire campaign is the Fleet Air Arm’s FGA.6 Sea Hawk. A beautiful aircraft with absolutely gorgeous lines, it performed the bulk of the Royal Navy’s strikes on the Egyptian military. You get a real appreciation for how truly tiny these first few combat jets were. One omission that would have been cool to have is the Sea Venom, the Royal Navy’s first radar-equipped fighter. The Venom is there, of course, but in RAF livery, operating from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus along with the Canberra bomber.
There are two Royal Navy carriers steaming around in the Med that you can fly from, the HMS Eagle and the HMS Bulwark, each operating a separate squadron of Sea Hawks. While the sim won’t recreate the failure of the port launch catapult aboard the Eagle a week before the invasion, and the eventual failure of the starboard one that render the carrier useless after a week of launches, you can accurately render the severe beating the Egyptian forces suffered at the hands of the Allied forces.
