UK ‘an hour away from war’: the battle for the airport

Not only did it involve the worst friendly-fire incident of the whole conflict, not only did it prompt an unusually bold UN initiative which continues to this day – but it also came very close to precipitating a wider war between Britain and Turkey.

“Apart from the lunacy at Suez, that was probably the nearest that Britain came to war with another nation since 1945,” wrote then-prime minister Harold Wilson in his 1979 book Final Term: The Labour Government 1974-1976. Asked about that statement on BBC Radio (The World This Weekend...