Yellow Fleet

Common card · No. 369904

From 1967 to 1975, 15 ships and their crews were trapped in the Suez Canal after the Six-Day War between Israel and Egypt. The stranded ships, which belonged to eight countries (West Germany, Sweden, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, Poland, Bulgaria, and Czechoslovakia), were nicknamed the Yellow Fleet after the desert sand that coated them. During the war, Egypt blocked both ends of the canal to prevent its use by Israel. Scuttled ships, sea mines, and other debris continued to block transport through the canal until the wake of the Yom Kippur War, after which the blockade was lifted. In 1975, the Canal was reopened, enabling the ships to leave after eight years of being stranded. By that time only two ships were capable of moving under their own power.

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