Roald Dahl And The Suez Canal

Going Solo, Roald Dahl's memoir of his work in East Africa and his service in the RAF, covers much of the buildup to World War II. In the book mention is made of the Suez Canal. The Suez Canal plays a large role in the memoir as a sea level waterway running across the Isthmus of Suez in Egypt to connect the Mediterranean and the Red seas. Dahl states that, "The voyage from the Port of London to Mombasa would take two weeks and on the way we were going to call in at Marseilles, Malta, Port said, Suez port Sudan and Aden." (1). Without the Suez Canal this two-week trip would've taken twice the time. In fact, the Suez Canal is important because of its rate of transportation, its key location, and the price rates it dropped. The Suez was particularly important to the British because they had control over it during WWII. …show more content…
The Suez is considered to be the shortest link between the east and west. Amanda Brineyguest wrote in Connecting the Red Sea with the Mediterranean, "In addition to dramatically reducing transit time for trade worldwide, the Suez Canal is one of the world's most significant waterways as it supports 8% of the world's shipping traffic and almost 50 ships pass through the canal daily. " Prior to the canal being built, ships had to go around all of Africa which would come out to be over a 4-week trip. The canal shortened the trip allowing soldiers to get to their target quicker. This was a significant change which gave soldiers a huge advantage likewise how the canal allowed goods to be