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My Story by Jeff Brereton ( Part 3 ) 32 Squadron Greece

22-9-44 Left Bari for Brindisi where I embarked with eight other colleagues in a Motor Torpedo Boat for Greece. Also on the boat were a number S.A.S. personnel. We had to maintain complete silence on the boat as we were going to pass two islands still occupied by Germans and we had no idea of our ultimate landing place. We were put off on a beach during darkness in the early hours of the 24th of September and

the M.T.B. disappeared out to sea. The S.A.S. personnel set off in ones and twos and we were left until we could be picked up. It was not known how many of the enemy were in the vicinity and how well we would be received by the Greek Partisans. Fortunately the Beach was covered in sand dunes so we had plenty of cover. We were told that we had landed at Cape Katakalon in the Peloponnese The first person that we encountered was a Greek man from a nearby vineyard who gave us food. During the morning we observed a lorry coming towards us with a Partisan standing on the running board with a rifle and bandoliers of ammunition strapped on his shoulders. He motioned to us to get in the lorry quickly and we sped off along the dirt road arriving at an aircraft landing strip amongst some olive groves and grape vine plantations north of Pyrgos and some distance south of Patras. Our job was to organise local labour to fill in the bomb holes in order to make a landing strip for aircraft. The first aircraft to come had their ammunition bays full with food for us. We learnt that some of our aircraft had landed on a dried up river bed as a temporary holding place and that during the night heavy rains had flooded the area and water was up to the wings completely writing off the aircraft. A Canadian Pilot flew one of the aircraft out and on to our airstrip without parachute and brakes. He was a bit of a daredevil and sadly lost his life later flying into the sea of Sedhes Salonika.
The British Commander in the Peloponnese was Lord Jellico an officer in the S.A.S..
As the Germans had a Garrison in Patras Lord Jellico called on the Commander to
surrender his troops. The German Commander replied that as their were only R.A.F.
personnel in the Peloponnese he could not trust them to give him adequate protection against the Greek Partisans who had sworn to take no prisoners and seek revenge in killing as many Germans as they could for the atrocities that the Germans had inflicted on the villagers in the Peloponese. The return to the Peloponnese was to be an all R.A.F. expedition and apart from us the other personnel were to be from the R.A.F. Regiment who would not only provide our protection and have the task of guarding the Prisoners . The Partisans told us that they would creep up to any Prisoner of War Compound under cover of darkness and shoot every German they could find. The result being a Regiment of British Soldiers were flown in to take over. We were then able to fly on to Athens along the line of the Corinth Canal which was clearly visible at low level.
October 44 The rest of the Squadron joined us at Kalamaki landing on the beaches near the aerodrome having travelled from Italy by L.S.T.
Our stay at Kalamaki was short lived as the Partisans E. L. A .S. being the military arm of E.A .M. which was Communist led started to take over Athens and captured one of our Squadrons on another airfield. The British however supported the Royalists and so fighting took place between our Forces and E. L. A. S. As the Partisans were not looked upon as the legitimate authority it was considered safer to move the Squadron to Salonika which was in the hands of the Greek Military Forces.
10-11 -44 We flew into Sedhes and set up accommodation in the American Agricultural College. We received a very warm welcome by the local people and played football with local teams especially in the Paok Stadium in Salonika to try and ease a very difficult situation as it was still unknown as to whether contingents of the Greek forces might go over to E. L. A.S. We were in mid winter and experienced very icy conditions and heavy snow which blocked roads and grounded our aircraft at times. My memories of the Agricultural College was playing lots of Football as we had
a very good team and were in constant demand and drinking small bottles of milk to
which had been added a generous helping of Benedictine a very warming and welcome drink in the cold weather. We were warned about drinking the local aperitif Oyzo as we could soon experience a hangover which would reoccur if we drank water afterwards, so serious was it considered to be that it was said to be a Court Marshall Offence to be discovered drunk on it. The implication being if too many personnel were indisposed by it could seriously undermine the efficiency of the Squadron for
operational duties.

December 04 Civil War broke out in Athens

On one visit to Salonika two of my friends and I were befriended by a young Greek man Nicholas Moriatedes who took us home and introduced us to his family and as a consequence of the visit we were invited again to spend Christmas Day with them.
It was the first real Christmas dinner that we had had since leaving England complete with turkey and all the trimmings with non stop feasting all day .I recall going to the wine shop with Nicholas and collecting supplies of Samos and Mavrodaphne wine in large glass jugs. The weather turned so bad during the evening that it was considered too dangerous to walk the five miles back to our accommodation. Our hosts however had no intention of allowing us to leave and we spent most of the night merrymaking including joining in dancing with the neighbours on the floor above. Some days later we met Nicholas again with his friend Lakis and we went to a taverna where we sampled Oyzo and Merithas which I took a liking to. An invitation followed to go to a party at Lakis home and it was there that I met Marina her sister and friends. After that we were always invited to Marinas home in St. Sophia Square. As the situation with the Greek forces was still very delicate and the Greek Army was patrolling the streets we had to be very discreet in order not to put our Greek friends who were all Royalists to any risk, therefore we had to meet in someone's home and I always had to take my friends along with me. I remember in going to the football matches, Marina and her friends would walk on one side of the road and I and my friends the other and we followed onto the trolley bus at a discreet distance behind. On another occasion we went to the Cinema I and my friends went on our own and Marina and her friends followed on, we entered by separate doors and finished up sitting side by side and used the same procedure to return to Marinas home. All exciting cloak and dagger stuff we all felt like under cover agents and we all enjoyed it.
Marina and I were getting on so well together that it was some what of a shock to be told that the Squadrons job was over in Greece and that we were moving on. The squadron moves quickly and within a couple of days we were on board ship in Salonika just down on the promenade below St Sophia Square. There was an ironical twist to our leaving as the boat that we were leaving on developed engine trouble and a replacement piston had to be flown out from Alexandria. We remained on the boat whist the piston was fitted and all troops had to stand on the Port side to cause the ship to list over to enable the piston to be slid in position. It was the first instance of a terrible journey for the boat was an old Italian cargo ship which before the War operated along the Coast of Africa. The facilities on board were terrible and all we could do was sit or lie down on the wooden floors.
(In the 1950s the boat which had been used for transporting Greek people back home from Egypt sank in Alexandria Harbour with the loss of a great many lives)

Feb-45 Left Salonika for Palastine
(The Civil war ended when E.L.A.S. stopped fighting but broke out again in 1947 and
continued until 1949 ).

( Contiued in Part 4 )

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