IS THIS IN MY JOB DESCRIPTION? Our
Very Own JS II Tank Americans in Egypt were warned days in advance of a possible conflict and had been advised by the Embassy to leave the country. Naturally enough, very few heeded this good advice and when the air, land and sea attacks began, about 2300 Americans- tourists and residents- were still there and woefully unprepared for an emergency evacuation. For Americans in Cairo, the war began in the early hours of November 1, We were awaken at the Marine House by the drone of fighter bombers, the distant thudding of bombs and the nearer banging of AA batteries on the outskirts of the city. We off duty marines rushed to the roof top or our house and watched AA bursts dot the sky, but hopelessly behind and below the carrier based jets. It was the start of a day to remember. For besides dealing with the problems of a war breaking out about our heads, we had to evacuate more than 2000 American citizens. Among whom was the prettiest American girl in Cairo, a lady the writer was fated to marry 43 years later. By 0900 two or three thousand people were milling around in front of the embassy, blocking traffic, and sending the police into a whistle blowing, arm waving delirium. They were mainly US citizens, and their pets and children's nannies and piles of luggage. Compounding the confusion were several hundred frightened nationals of a score of other countries literally fighting to get in to the US Embassy grounds and hopefully on our evacuation buses. It was a scene of utter bedlam There were only 8 Marines, and a scaled down embassy staff numbering about 50 to deal with the chaos of evacuation, a burn of 75 years worth of classified documents, preparing the embassy for possible mob assaults, and managing all the complications of dealing with a host government fighting for its existence. (I must mention the animals. Every American family owned at least one pet, and many people brought them all to the embassy that morning, in spite of having been told to leave them at home. They ranged from lizards through birds to donkeys (1). All of them, dogs, cats, birds, and donkey, were left behind, and had to be roped and staked out- by the marines, naturally - on the embassy lawn. There must have been at least a hundred and fifty of all sorts of livestock left in the care of the embassy.) As a thoughtful addition to the general commotion that day, the Egyptian government in a moment of pique withdrew our police protection. The black uniformed cops climbed into their truck just as a mob was forming half a bock away. I remember one waggish cop pointing toward the mob, grinning, and sawing a forefinger back and forth across his throat. But all that is another tale. Before we off duty marines finished dressing that morning we heard the clatter and rumble of tracked vehicles in the streets. To our astonishment, these turned out to be Egypt's new Soviet supplied tanks. When western aid was halted following Nasser's nationalization of the Suez Canal Egypt turned to the Soviet Union. They, of course, leapt at the chance of gaining a foothold in the Middle East. When Nasser asked for military aid, the Soviets obliged, quickly rushing in all types of military hand wear, including their latest main battle tanks. The monster machines chewing up the pavement in Garden City included Joseph Stalin Is, the newest tank in the Soviet arsenal. General Nasser wisely refused to commit his newly equipped armored divisions to the unequal battles then being waged, and chose instead to hide these forces in Cairo, under the trees along the shady streets of Garden City and Zemalik. As we watched the clanking parade passing our house, one enormous JS II broke ranks, pulled over and halted under the trees next to our wall. The meter wide treads flattened the sidewalk and nudged a dent in the brick base of our wall of iron palings. As we watched fascinated by this huge machine- half again as big as any tank in the West- the hatches flew open and out popped the crew, one after the other, smallish men who kept coming out like dwarfs from a circus car. Finally there were 6 or 7 of them lined up in front of a nervous, yelling sergeant. They gave us surly looks as we gathered near the gate and watched the show while we waited for the embassy cars. At that point the average Egyptian had no idea who was attacking their country. For all these poor fellows knew, the planes over head might have been ours! Little wonder they glared at us. Later that day, when we were ordered back to the Marine House for meals we found that the tank crew had gotten out a couple of tents in the mean time, and erected them up on the side walk. They appeared to be settling in for a long stay. It was clear at the outset that the sergeant instructed his men to refrain from consorting with the foreigners. They may have given us dirty looks, and mumbled insults, but our house boys had soon enough meandered out to talk with the tankers and inform them that we were the US Marines who guarded the American Embassy. Very quickly the tankers rigged up a few blankets and tried their best to hide from view what they thought were the most important components of their tank. They knew better than we did at that point, that their Soviet tank was new and innovative. One thing that did impress us was the enormous gun jutting from the inverted frying pan turret of that big tank. Nothing could conceal that 120 mm muzzle. It looked like a telephone pole! Our NCOIC lost no time telling the Army attaches at the embassy that this JS II was parked almost in our yard. I'm unsure what he was told in detail, but soon enough the marines off duty were working hard to break through the reserve of the Egyptian tankers and befriend them. It began by inviting them inside our yard to put up their tents on the lawn. We allowed them to draw water from our taps; soon they were accepting cigarettes, and within another 24 hours all of them including the hard bitten sergeant were drinking beer with us, eating from our kitchen and all of us loudly condemning the Brits, French and Israelis for their cowardly attack. In point of fact, we all were sympathetic toward the Egyptians, who were, and remain extremely kind and generous people, and our condemnations were genuine enough. This friendly fraternization continued, and soon the crew were so disarmed that they no longer bothered to keep one of their number posted on guard by the tank while the rest of the crew lounged and drank in the Marine House bar. It was on the second or third night that a fellow from one of the attaché offices came with a Minox camera and flash. It was the work of a minute or two for the Army Attaché's man, assisted by one of the Marines, to climb into the tank and photograph the interior. Insofar as I recall, the Marines never learned the outcome of the photo session. I assume the attaches got the pictures they wanted. While it wasn't any part of our job to spy on the host country, the opportunity to photograph the JS II was simply was too good to pass up. In the ordinary course of an Embassy Guard's duties any activity remotely suggestive of intelligence gathering always has been strictly forbidden. For nothing would endanger the MSG presence faster than suspicion by a host government that the Marines were engaged in espionage. For myself, I never felt we had spied against the Egyptians. This happened during the Cold War and the Soviet Union, whose tanks these were, was our opponent. At any rate, that thought always eases my conscience whenever I recall Egypt, the Suez war, those hungry soldiers, and their bloody great tank squatting on our front steps. Neil
R. Huff |
