The outbreak of the revolution of 23 July 1952

04The outbreak of the revolution of 23 July 1952

Hastening the date of the revolution

• The leadership committee had intended the revolution to come in 1955, so that the organisation could complete its building-up inside the various arms and units — no easy matter given the multiple security apparatuses and the fact that British and American intelligence never stopped searching for the Free Officers.
• After the Cairo Fire (January 1952) the committee turned to advancing the date by three years, and November 1952 was chosen for the outbreak.
• The chaos that followed the Fire until the revolution forced King Farouk to form four successive ministries without elections, all of them from people not belonging to parties.
• The decision of 16 July 1952 to dissolve the board of the officers' club was among the factors that hastened the date. The leadership committee, chaired by Nasser, held three successive meetings in July to study the situation — especially since the purpose of appointing Ismail Shireen as minister of war was to victimise the officers by every means: dismissal, arrest or displacement.
• An attempt was made to move the date to the night of 22 July, so that the new ministry (the Naguib Hilal ministry of 22/23 July), including the minister of war, would be destroyed before it took its constitutional oath. When that was not possible, the night of 23 July was fixed for the outbreak.

The First Proclamation

• At 7:30 in the morning of 23 July 1952 the First Proclamation of the revolution was broadcast from the Egyptian Radio House. It was read by Bakkbashy Anwar Sadat in the name of Major-General Muhammad Naguib, commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
• It stated that Egypt had passed through a grim period in its recent history of bribery, corruption and instability of government, and that these factors had strongly affected the army, while the bribed and the malicious men caused its defeat in the Palestine war.
• The proclamation declared that the army had taken its own affairs into the hands of men it trusts for their competence, character and patriotism, and that the whole of Egypt would receive the news with joy and welcome.
• All military units in Cairo and in the outlying regions hurried to declare their adherence to the revolution of the army, after the young officers belonging to the Free Officers and their sympathetic colleagues set the old commanders aside from their commands and took the reins themselves. The whole army came under the full control of the revolution's leadership, represented by Major-General Muhammad Naguib.
• From its first hours the revolution enjoyed overwhelming popular support with no precedent, and the crowds gathered around the radio sets to listen to the First Proclamation.