Visit to Leros Sun18th - Tues20th October
Spellbinder
Sun 1 Nov 2009 07:46
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Leros according to Eric Thompson.
At 0800 on 18th October, Jane, Peter and I
arrived in Leros hot or, to be more accurate, cold from Edinburgh via
Heathrow and Athens. The destination was of huge
personal significance to me for 66 years previously, my late
father's ship HMS INTREPID, a Fleet destroyer, had been dive-bombed by
German Stukas whilst at anchor in Lakri Bay. She was hit on 21 October and
capsized and sank the following day. The Greek destroyer
QUEEN OLGA which was anchored nearby was also hit in the attack but sank almost
immediately with the loss of most of her crew. The loss of the OLGA
was to the Greeks like the loss of the HOOD to the RN. At this time in
1943, the Anzio landings had taken place (covered by INTREPID) and the
Allies were fighting their way up Italy; the Italians had
already switched sides to join the Allies; and the Germans were attacking Leros
because Lakri was superb natural harbour and a strategically important Italian
naval base. British commandos had already taken the island and the
sinking of these two ships heralded the start of the short but bloody
battle of Leros in which the Germans triumphed. Much more importanly at this time in the war, I was
tucked-up in my late mother's womb kicking-and-struggling, with six weeks to go
before delivery.
With the loss of INTREPID and my
father being posted missing-in-action my mother, I presume, considered herself
to have been widowed and duly had me christened with my late father's name.
However, the Old Man was not to be dismissed so easily and turned-up later
thanks to the good offices of the Greek resistance, a Turkish merchant ship, a
Free French destroyer and an overland trip from Beyrout to Alexandria as a
result of which I became F G Thompson (Junior), a suffix I retained for
another 45 years. Like most war veterans, father never talked about his
experiences but nevertheless Leros was a name which had been in my head for 65
years and, thanks to the kindness of Henry in routing Spellbinder this
way, here I was.
As ever, Henry met us at the
small airport (15kg baggage limit in small aircraft) but as we had too much baggage and four bodies to transport (Martin was
on the same flight), Henry left Jane and me at a small taverna opposite the
airport where no English was spoken (Leros is not a tourist island) but which
had a memorial book to the war in which I found a photograph of INTREPID and
OLGA in flames. What an arrival. I had never seen a photograph of
INTREPID before and it was a strange feeling to know that father would have
been on board when that photograph was taken.
The Battle of Leros was of great
signifance to the locals for the Germans indiscriminately bombed one of the main
towns in a softening-up raid before launching the seaborne invasion which led to
hand to hand fighting and eventual defeat. Miraculously, no one was killed in
the civilian bombing as the locals had taken shelter in defensive tunnels dug by
the Italians - a war museum is now housed in one of the tunnels. In Lakri
we found a recently erected memorial to INTREPID where I signed the book of
remembrance. We also visited an Imperial War Graves Commission
cemetry in which 88 British servicemen lie buried, the six INTREPID dead lying
side by side: it made me count my blessings as I wondered how many of them had
children.
PS Alistair Maclean's novel "The
guns of Navarone" used Leros as the settring
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