I knew nothing about Operation Cordage until I read about it in the paper the other day:


The ghosts of Suez
Before the invasion of Egypt, British military chiefs were drafting plans for action against Israel

* Keith Kyle
* guardian.co.uk, Thursday July 13 2006 00.11 BST
* The Guardian, Thursday July 13 2006

'I will not allow you to plunge this country into war merely to satisfy the anti-Jewish spleen of you people in the Foreign Office," Sir Anthony Eden rebuked Anthony Nutting, his Foreign Office minister of state, on October 13 1956, the day before two French plotters came to Chequers. Eden had been haunted by the possible consequences of bilateral treaties signed with Arab states on which British prestige and military facilities were founded. The state with which the Arabs were most likely to find themselves at war was Israel. There was an ever-present prospect that Britain, wanting to play the big man in the Middle East, would be expected to show her strength and back her allies. This could be exceedingly awkward - war with Israel would be divisive in the UK, terrible in the US. This was the first of the ghost issues, affecting the judgment of some of the players, that ran alongside the dramatic events of 1956.

Serious military planning was being devoted in Whitehall to war with Israel. The chiefs of staff endorsed an elaborate scheme called Operation Cordage on January 26 1956. The Israeli airforce was to be caught on its airfields and smashed by a substantial air contingent based on Cyprus, a naval blockade was to be imposed, and carrier-based planes would harass the Israeli forces from the air while commando raids would be undertaken along the coast. A scheme to seize Eilat, Israel's window on to the Red Sea, was added later. Under Operation Cordage, substantial British naval and air forces were kept at the ready. Once the Suez crisis was under way very much the same forces - though with a different command structure - were also assigned to Operation Musketeer, which was to be directed against Nasser.

This could be modelled in my middle east world. We have the bases in Jordan, Israel, and Cyprus.

With most of the British soldiers simpateting with the jewish cause and with the Jews having nothing to lose...

IŽd be much interested in the respective planeset.

How much had the piston-engined airplanes been replaced by jets concerning the Anglo-French forces?

I can imagine the Egyptian/Jordanian - and maybe the Israeli air forces - still relied on late-war prop designs.

IIRC, France navy used Corsairs 7, the Royal Navy the Wyvern but this one was a turboprop, IAF used Mustangs and Mosquitos, not sure about the Egyptian, maybe still some Fiat G.55??
Most of the planes were already jets. Seahawks, F84, Ouragans...

Cordage so far as we have information on it, was a British plan, essentially to preserve it's ally Jordan.

The British aircraft in 1955-56 would have been "an air campaign carried out by (RAF) Venoms based at Amman and Mafraq in Jordan", "A fighter wing of swept-wing aircraft (Sabres or Hunters) would be provided from Germany to operate from Cyprus", "targets would be attacked by carrier-based strike aircraft, which would later be used to cover the invasion operations.", "RAF bombers from Malta and Cyprus would attack the Egyptian airfields and military installations, initially at night and from high altitude"

So the RAF line up would be the DH Venom



Hawker Hunter



North American Sabre



and English Electric Canberra



Possibly, as it entered squadron service in February 1955, the Vickers Valiant



The Royal Navy lineup (HMS Eagle 1952 and HMS Ark Royal Feb 1955 supplemented by Albion, Bulwark, and Centaur) would be Supermarine Attacker (being superseded by the Hawker Sea Hawk)



Sea Venom



Wyvern/Gannet/Firefly AS6

The Chel Ha'Avir would have had Mustangs and Mosquitos obtained in the early 50s



Meteors



with the Dessault Ouragon arriving in 1955



and the Dessault Mystere arriving in 1956