France Denies Report That French Pilots Aided Israel in Sinai

French aircraft, flown by French pilots in French uniform, played an important and even decisive part in the Israeli operation in the Sinai Peninsula, the Manchester Guardian reports today in a dispatch from its special correspondent James Morris. (The French Government said this afternoon that the report is “absolutely” false.”)

Mr. Morris went to Cyprus to file the story and evade Israeli censorship. He charged that censorship has “stifled” the story of French cooperation with Israel. Although the Israel Army’s Chief of Staff, Maj. Gen. Moshe Dayan, denied any French role in the action the Manchester Guardian dispatch says that there is “no doubt at all that French fighter pilots took part in the battle and it is suggested that the accuracy of their napalm bombing was one of the most important factors in the rout of the Egyptian Army.”

Until a few days ago, Mr. Morris writes, a line of Mystere jet fighters bearing French markings could be seen tucked away in a corner of Lydda Airfield. It is said however, that the French markings on the French Mysters which went into action were covered.

“One French officer talked to me very freely about his part in the campaign,” reports Mr. Morris. “He said there was very little opposition except flak. Most of our aircraft came back with a few flak holes in them, but for myself I saw only four MIG’s and they ran away. This was before the British and French attacked Egyptian airfields, he said, and he could not understand why the Egyptians had not put up a better fight,” the Guardian correspondent adds.

Morris comments that anyone who has wandered about the Sinai battlefield during the past week or two “must have been struck by the vast numbers of Egyptian lorries tanks and half-tracks disintegrated by the impact of napalm bombs. More often than not the bombs seem to have struck them smack in the middle, immediately-pulverizing everything combustible. It is possible that the Israelis themselves have supplies of napalm bombs, but it is said that most of this ghastly accuracy was the work of French flyers,” the correspondent continues.

He agrees that it was possible that some of the French aircraft used in the Sinai battle had been technically handed over to the Israelis. “Certainly the French pilots whom I met were waiting to be transported home in two French troop carrying aircraft standing at Lydda airport, which suggests that they were leaving their Mysteres behind. But it is irrefutable,” Morris concludes, “that French service pilots took part in the action from the beginning.”