Gamil Aerodrome, 1956

As part of the British & French 'intervention' in Egypt in 1956, 3 Para was dropped on Gamil, just to the west of Port Said.  I had long wanted to game aspects of this campaign and prepared this scenario for Little Cold Wars.  Back in May 2022 Russell & Pete turned up as my playtesters.  The Brits were up against the clock and also trying to minimise losses.

Being quite a short game, we managed to fit it in on the same day as the TF Smith game.  The British paras were mostly the Airfix WW2 figures with some conversions, the Egyptians were represented by my long-suffering Warpact Militia.  

The post-game discussion favoured my idea about expanding this scenario to include the French para landings and I'll report on this larger game in due course.

The airfield - with a familiar looking control tower.

The action opened with British air strikes - these continued almost without pause throughout the game. First up was this Sea Hawk.

After some sharp firefights the Brits soon controlled much of the airfield.

Part of the air effort was provided by Wyverns.

Not all of the air support was friendly.  Historically there was a 'blue on blue' incident involving a French Corsair.

The control tower under new management.

At one point an Egyptian MiG-15 appeared but was soon seen off by RN fighters.