Sinking Eilat

Sinking Destroyer INS Eilat

Egyptian Navy Memorial Day

On September 1967, Captain Ahmed Fouad Hassan was assigned as Chief Commander of Port Said Naval Base, replacing Captain Talaat Nasr while Captain Samih Ibrahim remained as Chief of Staff.

For almost one week since mid-October 1967, INS Eilat kept entering the Egyptian national waters as a show of force in the Mediterranean off the coasts near Port Said. As a consequence, the Egyptian Navy fired a number of missiles using Soviet 183R class Komar boats at the Z-class destroyer Eilat, built for the Royal Navy before it was sold to Israel in 1955. 

October 21, 1967 was the final day of Destroyer INS Eilat as it went under water and the same day became Egyptian Navy Memorial Day.

Details can be read from different sources while not much pictures are available. Egypt Today (EGY), Wikipedia (Int’l), Global Security (USA) & Politics (ISR).

Missile Boats 501 & 504 Crew

Vague Points about sinking INS Eilat

Many writings about this subject were done. Still, some facts are not clarified till this moment as none of Egypt nor Israel has released any official documents which lead to misinterpretation and manipulation of some facts on the media.

Two attacks were done on the same target at different times. Was it only one ship INS Eilat that was sunk, or did it include INS Yafo the twin sister which disappeared from the Israeli Navy registers on same timing. Refer to this link Group 73 Historians for elaborated details.

A common mistake about Port Said Naval Base Commander. Captain Talaat Nasr was the Commander till September 1967 at the time of the battel by Torpido Boats July 1967 by Lieutenant Awni Azer. While Captain Ahmed Fouad was the Base Commander as of September 1967. The time of Missile Boats 501 & 504 attack and sunk of INS Eilat on October 1967. Refer to Youm Al-Karama film at 1:23:00. Check abstract.

Many people do not clearly distinguish between the operation of sinking destroyer Eilat (the Ship on 1967) carried out by Port Said Naval Base and attacks on Eilat (the Harbor on 1970) carried out three times by Navy Seals lead by Captain Reda Helmy who is the founder of Navy Special Force.

What was Captain Ahmed Fouad doing in Cairo at the time of attack on Eilat! This was to enforce permission to attack the destroyer which was patrolling outside Port Said for a whole week while all Port Said Naval Base requests to attack were denied. Latest denial was at 12:00 pm on October 21, 1967.

You can’t find any press releases nor writings about sinking destroyer Eilat by RADM Samih Ibrahim who was the Chief of Staff of Port Said Naval Base as Captain at that time.

The book written by RADM Mahmoud A. Fahmy named as “Pages of History صفحات من التاريخ” covering EGY Navy operations from 1967 till 1972 is seized from publishing till now.