Tymbakion

What is this word representing and why have so few ever heard of it? Until 6 months ago it never existed in the general history of the Second World War and in particular Crete. It has been identified as a location on the south coast of Crete on the shores of Massara Bay. Nearby is the ill-fated township of Tymbaki.

As the war in Europe began to gather momentum and countries argued over who would side with whom the British Government in their wisdom decided to build a make-shift aerodrome to enable it to control the area around the Mediterranean Sea, This one runway aerodrome near Tympaki in Crete was hurriedly built and rarely used.

The Australian troops had been sent to North Africa and were under the command of the Alexandria Headquarters in Egypt. They had skirmishes with the Italian Army and had been successful. Thousands of Italians were taken, prisoners. The German Supreme Command decided to send General Rommel and his mobile army as North Africa was important to reaching Alexandria, Suez Canal and the rich oil fields of Iran.

Rommel employed a far different strategy and weaponry than the Italians. He had mobility through personnel carriers and tanks. The Australians were pushed back with several hundred taking shelter in Tobruk. These men became known as the Rats of Tobruk. They dug in with trenches and deep tunnels. They were able to hold out for many months.

Meanwhile the Italians had sent troops to Albania to assist with their attack on Greece. This had become a stalemate and the Germans joined in with their Axis country, Italy. Their superiority soon resulted in the Greeks collapsing and fleeing south. To take up the advantage the Germans sent further troops through the passes in the Olympus Range.

The Greek Government asked Australia, New Zealand, and the British for help. They wanted any soldier that was not engaged in the North Africa campaign to be sent to the Mount Olympus Range area to form a defensive line. The ANZACS and British rounded up several thousand troops and these were sent from Alexandria on 1st April 1941.

Corporal Donovan wrote a letter home outlining what the troops went through as they fought in Greece and then on Crete before being captured . His feelings and observations take the reader with him into the places and actions of the Greece and Crete Wars.

A Story of Greece and Crete YOUNG SOLDIER’S VIVID DESCRIPTION

Donovan begins his letter on the morning of April 1st, 1941 onboard ship. He tells his correspondent that everyone was in high spirits, swapping yarns on their A.W.L. escapades on their lost week in Alexandria.

His description of the mainland of Greece as the convoy approaches Greece sets the scene for a romantic holiday. As the reader will soon find out this is far from the disaster that the soldiers are sailing into.

The tranquility described by Donovan was soon to be forgotten as the thousands of troops that were stretched out for miles in trucks prepared to move to meet the German juggernaut.

Town after town gave the Allies a wonderful welcome.

The rendezvous was eventually reached. A party went forward to choose a position and in no time Donovan’s battalion was digging in on Mount Olympus. He recalled now they dug with overcoats on it was so cold with continual drizzly rain. When that let up it snowed.

The Germans swept into northern Greece and the Allies were forced to withdraw to Servia, then hours later another shift to Larissa. They were on the run so to speak until they made the decision to form an Anzac line near Bralon beyond Lamia. Many of the rookies were about to face the full onslaught of the German Army.

The fighting was the bloodiest many had ever met. Finally, the command came to capitulate and run for Athens, the capital of Greece. Here they were evacuated on board British naval vessels. It was April 25th, Anzac Day.

Under heavy bombing, the ships made for the Isle of Crete. After being offloaded Donovan and many others became transfixed by the beauty and serenity of Crete. The people he describes as of a “simple inoffensive manner”.

The Germans spent each Sunday bombing the north side of Crete while the allies orrganised themselves for a seaward invasion. As Donovan tells us the rumour changed around about 27th May, 1841 when the information came through to expect parachute drop of thousands.

The invasion of Crete was fierce and bloody with the fluctuation of Allies and Germans taking the upper hand. On 29th a command was sent out to all the ANZAC and British troops to make their way river the mountains to the south side of the island. Here, at the coastal town of Sfakia, there would be British warships waiting to evacuate the troops back to Alexandria.

Donovan recorded his exhausting steps along with thousands of others. He was thirsty, hungry and tired when he and the battalion he was with reached Sfakia. He was also one of the lucky ones who marched to the water’s edge, caught a lighter that took him to the waiting British naval vessels and freedom.

On June 1st, 1941 the Allies on Crete, capitulated and orders were given for all arms to be disposed of and white material to be displayed.

The soldiers waiting in their thousands were told that had two options, surrender or ‘run for the hills’. Many took the second option and walked towards Messara Bay and stumbled upon the area that to some would come to be known as Tymbakion.

Those left behind at Sfakia piled their weapons and sat in a daze awaiting the arrival of the Germans. Some found white clothing and bedding and held this aloft as a sign of surrender. The reception was humiliating as the Germans constantly taunted the Australians with comments in English “the war for you is over Aussie”. They were rounded up and set on a march back down the way they had come less than a few days ago. They were refused food or water and several were shot trying to find something to eat and drink.

In the meanwhile, the ones who headed for the hills tried to hide out and with the help of the Cretan people, they were able to find food and water. Many found hiding places in the towering mountains and the numerous deep caves. One rather large group had set out under the command of Major Ray Sandover and Lieutenant- Major Ralph Honner. It soon became obvious to the two men in charge that such a large group would be difficult to hide so they split into two with Major Sandover setting a fast pace towards the Messara Bay area. Honner took his troops and after a slow walk stopped for a rest. They pushed on and found a small town where they were given food and water by the Cretan people living there.

As the beach was the focus for an escape to occur many of the troops headed to Messara Bay. Here they hoped to find a boat of some description and sail this across the Mediterranean Sea to North Africa where some of the troops fighting the German General Rommel were stationed.

The area was strewn with a few boats of many kinds but organising the men was not so easy especially as the Germans were also aware of the likely escapes that would occur in this area.

Only a few nights before the surrender a British Battalion was sent in a battleship to Massara Bay with orders to march over the mountains and back up the troops who were protecting Heraklion Aerodrome on the north coast. This group was made up of British troops from the Black Watch, Argyls, Yorks and Lancs.

After accomplishing their mission at Heraklion they had retreated towards the south coast. Unfortunately, the Luftwaffe found them and attacked with ferocity. Bombing and strafing reduced the numbers and held up the troops. The main body made it back to the coast and was evacuated by the British navy.

A number were separated from the main group and became stragglers. Also sitting on the beach were two LCM (motorized landing craft) and tanks that had been abandoned. These would come in handy to the men who would escape the island in the coming months.

The area where the Allies reach the Bay of Messara was found to be called Tymbakion. For some, it would become embedded in their memories forever.

As the parties under Honner and Sandover reconnoitered the area they came upon a German patrol and were captured. One of the men in this group was Vic Petersen who had taken upon himself to write notes about his experiences. He wrote his notes on scraps of paper and kept the many hundreds out of sight of the Germans until he was liberated in 1945. Each day was dated and what was happening was written down. He described the capture of his group in the Tymbakion area and was to recall this very same area several months later.

Another member of the captured party was William (Bill) George Taylor a Western Australian from the 2/11th Battalion. The captured men were ordered to march back to Galatas on the north coast. He also had the foresight to keep a diary of his experiences. His notes name two other men in the group as Willian Horace Pauley of Wickepin, Western Australia, and William Roy Buirchell from Kojonup, Western Australia.

The march from Tymbakion was accomplished in six days without food and water. On the final night, they bedded down under grapevines ready to sleep when one of the group began screaming. Bill Taylor’s diary records the following:

“June 9th, 1941 we are all settled down for the night when suddenly a chap started yelling and it turned out he had been bitten by a snake. They took him away and we never saw him again”

It was Vic Petersen and he later explained the incident that had caused him so much pain. He had selected to lay on the ground under grapevines when a snake bit him. The pain was excruciating and no one was able to help except to plead with the German guards to take Vic to the nearby hospital. After several refusals, they changed their minds when Vic collapsed. He was saved by a German doctor and spent several weeks in convalescence.

Bill recorded the snake bite incident and this placed Vic Petersen in the group. It will become evident that the naming of some of these men was important to the story of Tymbakion.

Vic Petersen was to spend several weeks in the hospital at Galatas.

The main group was roused next morning and told to march on. It was on 11th June that they were imprisoned at a place called Aya Khania (sometimes Chania).

Bill and Bonney became friendly and the next day were sent out in a burial party. The job was to collect the bodies and bury each in a separate grave, The two men found the work exhausting and sickening. Over 40 graves were dug that day with 39 being for Germans. During the time spent together, Bill and Bonney hatched an escape plan.

They abhorred the thought of being prisoners of war so decided to escape back into the hills. After their last experience, it became evident that one could live off the land and there were plentiful hiding places. The plan was to hide clothing and food and the next morning before dawn to make a run for the hills.

That evening after getting all organised and watching the guards carry out their patrol Bill became very ill. So much so that he told Bonney he would have to cancel the escape idea. When Bill awoke the next morning Bonney was gone but Bill didn’t think he had run for the hills.

The German command back in Berlin was not impressed by the airborne invasion due to the heavy loss of German lives. Hitler refused to agree to any further paratroop en masse attacks. He was pleased with the fact that Crete was now in German hands and that it would become a fortress from which German Luftwaffe could attack North Africa and the Middle-east. Himmler was sent over to plan the defences and to ready Crete as a forward base to attack the Allies.

All the aerodromes were to be re-inforced and lengthened. The small aerodrome at Tymbakion was to be lengthened, widened and strengthened so that the heaviest bombers could use it. To protect the aerodrome a defences were to be constructed along a 6 kilometres line surrounding the tarmac. These would include anti-aircraft bunkers, moats, barbed-wire barricades.

An engineer was brought over from Greece to plan and to supervise the work which would begin in the Fall. To get the area ready for a longer airstrip would need hundreds of century-old olive trees grubbed out and tonnes of rocks from Tympaki and the surrounding hills.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Hitler was not pleased with the result of General Kurt Student’s Operation Mercury which was better known as the Parachute Invasion of Crete. He was alarmed and disappointed at the huge loss of life of his military. He forbade future use of mass paratrooper invasions. Hitler’s main attention has swung to Operation Barbarossa or the Russian Invasion. His plan was to attack and defeat Russia on the eastern front. This was to begin in the summer of 1941 and be completed before winter.

It was essential that Hitler was able to call on as many troops as was possible so he demanded that all abled-bodied men be withdrawn from their current positions and be rushed to the Eastern front. On Crete, this meant that many of the guards of POWs were to be moved. To lessen the load on those still required ,the POWs were rounded up and sent by ship to Athens. Boatloads of POWs began moving from Crete leaving very few Germans to control the island.

In conflict with this plan was the need to lengthen and strengthen the aerodrome at Tymbakion. A round-up of the stronger men began. As per Vic Petersen’s diary, on 5th September 1941 truckloads of POWs were taken to Suda Bay and loaded onto a ship the Norburg. The exercise continued over four days and on the 9th of September, the ship moved and anchored in the bay. There were about 200 Allied troops aboard.

On 10th September 1941 an Allied submarine fired a torpedo which missed. This surely scared all on board. The ship set sail for Araklion reaching the port about 1.30pm. After a two-day delay, the 200 soldiers were loaded onto trucks at 1.30pm and taken along a winding road and over the mountains. They arrived at 5pm and camped overnight. The next day they cleaned up and erected tents. This would become a transit POW camp for several months.

Each morning the 200 strong group would line up and march some 3 miles to a work area. Their job was to grub out century-old olive trees. They were fortunate enough to be looked after by the local Crete people. They would hide food in holes around the olive trees. This food supplemented the meagre rations being presented by the German guards.

On 28th September Vic Petersen spotted three Pecco planes flying in and landing on a flat area further towards the beach. It became evident to Vic and his mates that they were the slave labour to build a bigger aerodrome. By their reckoning, this aerodrome would give the Germans an advantage in that their bombers could reach North Africa and Egypt.

On the 9th and 10th October, there was a call from the German guards for all Royal Airforce Personnel to come forward. These men were loaded on trucks and sent back to Heraklion. The rumour was they were being sent by aeroplane to Athens and then moved north to POW stalags. It seemed that the Germans were trying to cover the work being carried out at Tymbakion. The remaining POWs were not fooled, readily talking about their work of building an aerodrome.

There were still stragglers in the hills around Massara Bay. This was evident when a dozen men were ushered into the camp on 11th October, 1941. Most of these had broad English and Scottish accents. On the 21st of October, some 50 men arrived by truck. It seemed that the Germans needed to fill up the numbers.

Vic recalled that all they did was work. The Germans introduced a system whereby the prisoner had to grub out one tree a day. No matter what time this was achieved the prisoner could then go back to camp.

On 9th December, 1941 the camp was advised that Japan had entered the war.

Without warning the whole camp was told to pack and to destroy anything left behind. This was three days after Christmas and in the dead of winter. The pack-up order was issued at 8am. The group piled into trucks for the trip over the mountains and arrived in Iraklion at 2pm.

After an overnight rest the trucks rolled onto Suda Bay. Vic Petersen in his diary describes a bleak winter’s day;

Arrived at 5pm, very wet, in tents, 15 men in each.

On New Year’s Day, the group boarded an Italian ship. It set sail the next day with an escort of eight. The rest of the group’s story saw them go through the same route as all the others who had left Crete since May, 1941. Salonika, railed to a Stalag and left to the guards.

Somewhere in among all of this Tymbakion experience several interesting things happened or may have happened. Some stories are difficult to corroborate but were put forward by honest people. In sharing the information we will caution you regarding sources and witnesses.

William Buirchell maintained he was captured near Tymbakion (he didn’t ever use that name). His story moves on from his running for the hills and leaving his sick mate, William Taylor, behind. He reached the mountains and hid in caves. He was befriended by Cretans until his malaria hit too hard. He was also concerned that the Cretans who helped him would be found out and executed (this was happening all over the island). He was taken by an elderly Crete to a German camp in the Massara Bay area. It would seem that Tymbakion was the only German transit camp and that they had medical expertise available. One of the prisoners may have been Captain Walter Gerard Holt a fully qualified doctor. His story will come later. William Buirchell’s records, both AIF and German indicate he took the same route and timeline as Vic Petersen who definitely was at Tymbakion. William arrived at Stalag VIIIB on 30th January 1942.

A pair of canvas shorts came to light in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2020. They had been amongst memorabilia in a box in a wardrobe. On the waistband of the shorts was the title PRISONER OF WAR CAMP TYMBAKION CRETE 1st JUNE 1941. All over the shorts, back and front were the signatures of some 127 men. There were 27 Australians that my partner and I took particular interest in.

A search found that nearly 50% of the 27 Australians’ Red Cross records, which are held in the University of Melbourne Archives. Indicated they had been at Tymbakion POW camp.

These were the 27 Australian signatures on the canvas shorts

Barnes, Harry Holcroft, NX32898, 4534, Australia

Bentley, Reginald Guy Arthur, NX13532, 4549, Australia

Bissett, Thomas Alexander, NX13592, 4546, Australia

Bristol, Reginald David, VX26839, 4512, Australia

Brown, Norman McLeod, VX31518, 4559, Australia

Buchanan, Roy Douglas, VX32961, 4607, Australia

Buirchell, William Roy, WX2280, 4562, Australia

Face, Edward John Sydney, NX11441, 4585, Australia

Hardie, Ian Alexander, WX2371, 4507, Australia

Holt, Walter Gerald, NX12348, 4501, Australia

Howes, George Richard, NX2918, 4580, Australia

Johnstone, Robert Aitcheson, VX8887, 4550, Australia

Leviston, Aubrey Reginald, VX7803, 4568, Australia

McInerney, John Patrick, NX8406, 4519, Australia

Molloy, John Joseph, QX7772, 4603, Australia

O’Grady, James Clyde, NX30721, 4597, Australia

Pearce, Sydney Emden, NX33248, 4518, Australia

Pedersen, Walter Vernon, VX5571, 4515, Australia

Petersen, Charles Amos George (Vic), WX571, 4538, Australia

Powell, Ray Edward, VX1114, 4569, Australia

Rainford, Douglas, NX1497, 4601, Australia

Rattenbury, John Alfred, NX6877, 5331, Australia

Ring, Cyril James, WX2058, 4540, Australia

Smith, Loris Richard, NX15308, 4521, Australia

Stratton, Herbert Ernest, WX547, 4561, Australia

Stuckey, John Edward, NX11243, 4567, Australia

West, Leonard Gordon, VX5561, 4586, Australia

Woods, Laurience Samuel, WX443, 4564, Australia

Who were all these people and what happened to them before signing the shorts and after? Who made the perfectly tailored pair of shorts? Who and how did the shorts get moved from one place and another? How do the other 100 British and New Zealanders fit into the intrigue?

These questions and many others have been occupying three researchers for several months and will continue to tease them for many months to come.

The Pair of Shorts Story

The story so far can be read at the link above.