Comments by "Steve Valley" (@stevevalley7835) on "Escape of the Red Sea Flotilla: RAMB I, RAMB II and Eritrea." video.

The thought crossed my mind that, knowing the end was near, the RM launch an operation at the beginning of April 41, to form up a convoy of every RM ship in Massawa, steam them up the Red Sea and perform a precursor to the St Nazaire raid by stuffing every one of them into the canal and port facilities in Suez City and scuttling them. That would leave the Brits in Egypt entirely dependent on running the gauntlet between Sicily and Libya for every bit of supply. The trip would take about 3 days at best speed for the banana boats, so the RAF would do some damage, but as narrow and shallow as the canal is, it wouldn't take much to block it.
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@benwilson6145 with the canal full of scuttled ships, supplies would need to be unloaded at Suez City and taken overland, vs unloading in Alexandria. And with the port facilities at Suez City also full of scuttled ships, unloading is slower.
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@benwilson6145 Yes, I know where Suez City is. What I would do is steam all the ships into the canal. On each ship in sequence, cut power. Then, as the ship loses way, turn the bow into one bank or the other, let momentum carry the stern forward until the ship is crosswise to the canal, then scuttle it. After the 1973 war, it took from May through December to clear all the shipwrecks in the canal, and that was during peacetime, not during a war with periodic air raids on the salvage operations. The thing about using lighters and tugs to unload ships at Suez City is most of those vessels are in Alexandria, and they could not get to Suez City, because the canal is blocked. The biggest fly in the plan is, at the best speed of the Rambs, it would take three days to steam from Massawa to Suez, with the RAF and any Royal Navy elements in the area fighting them every inch of the way. It might be better to use only the six destroyers, because, with their speed, the amount of time the Brits would have to oppose the operation would be cut nearly in half.
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@benwilson6145 Well, take it up with Google Maps. Their map shows Port Tewfik, as you say, and the adjacent city is labeled Suez. I figure the approaches were mined during the war, but the Brits probably had a clear channel through the mines for their own traffic. A bit of prior planning, and reconnaissance by Italian frogmen, who were extremely good at their job, may reveal the clear path.
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