Jacques Massu conflict 1956 War
Egypt
In 1956, the 10th Parachute Division was sent to Egypt to take back the Suez canal during the Suez crisis. The 10th Parachute Division landed at Raswa. Raswa imposed the problem of a small drop zone surrounded by water, but Massu assured Andre Beaufre that this was not an insolvable problem for his men. 500 heavily armed paratroopers of the French 2nd Colonial Parachute Regiment (2ème RPC), hastily redeployed from combat in Algeria, jumped over the al-Raswa bridges from Nord Noratlas 2501 transports of the Escadrille de Transport (ET) 1/61 and ET 3/61, together with some combat engineers of the Guards Independent Parachute Company.: 60–1 Despite the loss of two soldiers, the western bridge was swiftly secured by the paras, and F4U Corsairs of the Aéronavale 14.F and 15.F flew a series of close-air-support missions, destroying several SU-100 tank destroyers. F-84Fs also hit two large oil storage tanks in Port Said, which went up in flames and covered most of the city in a thick cloud of smoke for the next several days. Egyptian resistance varied, with some positions fighting back until destroyed, while others were abandoned with little resistance. The French paratroopers stormed and took Port Said's waterworks that morning, an important objective to control in a city in the desert.: 60  Chateau-Jobert followed up this success by beginning an attack on Port Fuad.: 61  Derek Varble, the American military historian, later wrote "Air support and fierce French assaults transformed the fighting at Port Fuad into a rout".: 61  During the fighting in the Canal Zone, the French paratroopers often practiced their "no-prisoners'" code and executed Egyptian POWs.: 55
battle warfare struggle fighting combat