Category: War in the Aegean and Adriatic

TESAPSIDES, Byron. Allied Submarine Operations in Greece 1941-1944. 416p., illus. Thessaloniki, author, 2012. ISBN: 9789609345057.

Essentially transcriptions of the patrol logs arranged alphabetically by country and name. While the vast majority are RN, the contribution of Dutch, Greek, French, Polish, and Italian boats are covered.

The Dodecanese Campaign of 1943. A bitter little war of regular and irregular forces with substantial naval involvement.

For most of 1944 the 40th and 43rd Royal Marine Commandos harried the German held Dalmatian Islands and later took part in the Montenegrin Campaign. The author served throughout this period until wounded.

CHAPMAN, A. J. The War of the Motor Gun Boats: One Man’s Personal War at Sea with the Coastal Forces, 1943-1945. 176p., illus. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Maritime, 2013. ISBN: 1783462248.

Tony Chapman was born in Southampton in 1924 and joined up as soon as he could. Within hours of being posted to his first Motor Gun Boat as a Telegraphist, he was involved in an epic Coastal Forces engagement when his flotilla took on a force of thirty E-boats. His flotilla operated in the Mediterranean and Aegean where the MGBs played a key role. Daily life is vividly described. They operated in the Levant and on combined operations in the Aegean with the Greek Sacred Regiment of Commandos. The culmination of their efforts was when his boat, ML838, took the surrender of the Island of Kos in 1945.

GUARD, J. S. Improvise and Dare: War in the Aegean 1943–1945. xxiii, 257p., bibliog., illus., index. Lewes: Book Guild, 1997. ISBN: 1857761707.

An attempt at a full history of this little war, by a former Naval Attaché at Ankara.

HOLLAND, Jeffrey. The Aegean Mission: Allied Operations in the Dodecanese 1943. xx, 194p., illus. New York: Greenwood, 1988. ISBN: 0313262837.

An interesting background account with little naval material.  Good on the battles for Kos and Leros.      

Coastal Force Actions. Supplement to the London Gazette of Friday, 15 October 1948, Number 38432, pp.5493–5511.

A miscellany of despatches; from Admiral Harwood, C-in-C Levant referring to an action off Sicily on 15-16 February 1943, with enclosures from Lieutenants Giles and Hennessy; a despatch from Admiral Pridham-Wippell, FOC Dover, on the sinking of a supply ship in a Channel convoy on 26-27 September 1943, with enclosures from Lieutenants Ward, Larive, and Rooper; from Admiral Tovey, C-in-C The Nore on an action with E-boats in the Channel on 18 November 1943; and a despatch from Admiral John Cunningham, C-in-C Mediterranean Station on an action against a convoy on 11-12 October 1944 near Vir in the Adriatic, with enclosures from Captain Stevens, Commander McIlWraith of Mediterranean Coastal Forces, and Lt. Commander Bligh who fought the action. Includes four plans. Reprinted in 2014 in a collection of nine despatches edited by John Grehan as  The War at Sea in the Mediterranean 1940-1944  and published by Pen & Sword Maritime (ISBN: 1783462221).

Naval Operations in the Aegean Between the 7th September, 1943 and 28th November, 1943. Supplement to the London Gazette of Friday, 8 October 1948, Number 38426, pp.5371–5379.

A despatch from Admiral Willis, C-in-C Levant. Reprinted in 2014 in a collection of nine despatches edited by John Grehan as  The War at Sea in the Mediterranean 1940-1944  and published by Pen & Sword Maritime (ISBN: 1783462221).

MOSS, W. Stanley. Ill Met By Moonlight. 192p., illus. London: Harrap, 1950.

A light, enjoyable account of an Allied commando raid on the island of Crete in 1944 when British-led fighters kidnapped the commanding German General and spirited him off the island to Cairo.

Memories and anecdotes based largely on taped interviews. Events are recalled after 50 years which by turns amuse and terrify.

STROUD, Rick. Kidnap in Crete: The True Story of the Abduction of a Nazi General. 304p., illus. London, Bloomsbury, 2014. ISBN: 140885175X.

 Although focussed on the Kriepe kidnapping this is a good critical account which also covers the more general Cretan resistance movement.

FERMOR, Patrick Leigh. Abducting a General: the Kreipe Operation and SOE in Crete. xxix, 206 p., illus. .London: Murray, 2014. ISBN: 9781444796582.

Fermor participated in this behind-the-lines mission to capture General Kreipe and spirit him back to Egypt. Originally written in the 1960's this has only just been published by his estate.

COOPER, Artemis. Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure. xv, 448p., bibliog., illus., index. London, John Murray, 2012. ISBN: 0719554497.

An engaging biography of the idiosyncratic, boyish adventurer who joined the Intelligence Corps in 1939 after travelling round Europe. He was sent to Greece to support the Cretan resistance and his well known escapades described. His long and full life is sympathetically treated.

DAVIS, Wes. The Ariadne Objective: the Underground War to Rescue Crete from the Nazis. xx, 329p., bibliog., illus, index. New York: Crown, 2013. ISBN: 9780307460134; London, Bantam Press, 2014. ISBN: 0593072804.

An American account of the adventures of the swashbuckling group who worked with the partisans on irregular warfare against the German occupying forces. The English edition is subtitled Patrick Leigh Fermor and the Underground War to Rescue Crete from the Nazis.       

BEALE, Richard. One Man’s War: An Actor’s Life at Sea 1940-45. 272p. London: Conway, 2015. ISBN: 9781844863334.

This book recounts with good humour the story of his wartime career. Joining the Royal Navy as a rating, he rose to a commission and the command of a series of coastal patrol craft, the last of which was ML 135, sailing from the UK to Malta and latterly covering the Royal Navy's campaign in Greek and Croatian waters.

MACE, Martin & GREHAN, John. The War at Sea in the Mediterranean 1940-1944. xvi, 256p., illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Maritime, 2014. ISBN: 1783462221.

Reprints nine despatches from the London Gazette with a brief introduction, namely 38273, the Action off Calabria; 38023, the attack on Taranto; 38281, the Battle of Cape Spartivento; 38031, the Battle of Matapan; 38287, action against an Italian convoy in April 1941; 38377, the major Malta convoys of 1941-42; 38073, the Battle of Sirte; 38432, Coastal Force Actions in the Levant in 1942-3; 38426, Actions in the Aegean in late 1943.

O’CARROLL, Brendan. The Long Range Desert Group in the Aegean. 336p., bibliog., illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military, 2020. ISBN: 9781526777379.

Shortly after the invasion of Sicily Churchill ordered the occupation of the Dodecanese Islands in the Aegean. The Long Range Desert Group, retraining in Lebanon, were now part of Raiding Forces, Middle East, along with the Special Boat Service and No 30 Commando. The LRDG landed on Leros establishing observation posts, reporting movement of enemy shipping and aircraft and fought bitter battles in the area until the end of 1943.

A participant's account of the exploits of the Levant Schooner Flotilla in the Aegean from mid-summer 1943 to October 1944.

Skulduggery in the Aegean in late 1941 as the author helped smuggle Russian merchantmen through the Axis blockade. He himself returned on the m.v. Olinda and that trip is fully described. Reprinted by Sutton in 1997.

A balanced account of the attempt to rush troops into the vacuum created by the Italian surrender. Uses German and Italian as well as British sources and although mainly an army history gives a judicious account of RN involvement.

The autobiography of an army officer of the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry. After the fall of Crete - which is fully described - he became involved in the cloak and dagger war in the Aegean and captured Samos and Leros almost single-handedly. He was captured and badly wounded and spent some time in German prison camps. Something of a polemic.

An account of a largely unremembered campaign in which the British army fought Greek communist guerrillas. Naval support is sparsely mentioned.

The autobiography of a British adventurer in the John Buchan mould. During the war he was heavily involved in secret operations and derring-do in the Balkans and Middle East, notably with Tito in Yugoslavia. Of background value. US title: Escape to Adventure.

The author was a Royal Marine subaltern during the campaign. He writes knowledgably and elegantly about the campaign in the islands in particular.

Lind served with SOE at the time. Comprehensive on facts but with little real analysis.

Caique borne Army special operations at the end of the war and in the civil war which followed.

An attempt to distil all available information on the conflict as a perfect example of the lessons to be learned about littoral warfare.

A short general account, which tries to give a strategic overview.

A biographical account by a member of the Royal Irish Fusiliers.

The adventures of MTB 651 in the Adriatic.

When standing as President of Austria in 1986, Waldheim was accused of war crimes. This is a review of British evidence on the cases of some SBS and naval personnel. The case is found not proven.

Dudley Perkins was a New Zealander captured in Crete. He escaped and was evacuated by submarine but returned as Kapetan Vasili of the SOE to work with the Greek resistance in Crete. RN and RHN support forms a backdrop to his daring exploits. A second edition was published in 1992.

A war correspondent’s notes of the liberation of Greece and the islands and the civil war of that winter. As usual, the RN was involved.