By Rob Forsyth
The Battle for Leros and the long road home after
Following the capitulation of Italy as an Axis power, the Dodecanese island of Leros was occupied by British forces on September 15, 1943. The Battle of Leros itself began with some 50 days of continuous daylight German air attacks from September until German air and sea landings took place on November 12. The battle ended four days later with the capitulation of the Allied forces to a numerically superior enemy on land and, more critically, in the air where no fighter cover to counter the Stuka bombers was provided at all. The occupation, then loss, of Leros was heavily criticised at the time as a poor strategic decision by Churchill. A list of those RN ships and Army units involved and lost is at the foot of this article.
The majority of the surviving British Forces were taken prisoner. They faced the grim prospect of spending the rest of the war in a German POW camp. Senior Officers were taken off the island by flying boats; more junior officers and their men were crammed into ships and taken to the Port of Piraeus on the mainland of Greece and then marched through the streets of Athens - the Greek crowd were largely sympathetic to the British - before being tranported in cattle trucks some 1400 miles to Germany by way of the Balkans with very little food and no sanitation facilities - and in winter.
What follows are the personal stories of the long road home for two people - Bill's as told by his wife, Joyce Minnear, and Ted's as recounted in his book ISLAND PRIZE, Leros 1943. (Printed by The Kemble Press ISBN 0 906835 30 5 Copyright © Edward BW Johnson MC).
Company Quarter Master Sergeant Bill Minnear
Bill and his unit were kept in three German prison camps (Stalags VIIA, XVIIA and VIIIA), over a period of fifteen months. Finally, in the early months of 1945, they were forced marched across Germany from east to west at the hands of German guards as an evacuation manoeuvre from Stalag VIIIA which lay directly in the path of the rapidly advancing Russian Armies. Despite being told by their German captors that there would be rail transport at the end of a two days march to the rail junction of Bautzen,it did not happen. The march then became a long struggle for survival for over 400 miles. This was in the worst months of winter, with cold winds, privation and hardship taking their toll. Some died. Some tried to escape and at least one prisoner was shot dead doing so.
Two months later they arrived in the western zone of Germany everyone in extremely poor condition. The war, however, was drawing to a close with Russians approaching from the East and Allied Forces from the West. The column then arrived in the vicinity of units of the American 9th Army as they drove towards the River Elbe - the last natural obstacle before the final 'drive' to Berlin. Overnight the German guards disappeared - although some were captured quite quickly by the Americans. Most of the prisoners were in a dreadful emaciated state which was not improved by too much rich food eaten too quickly . Repatriation to England followed in two stages via Brussels. Bill finally reached home in late April of 1945 in a physical condition from which it took a very long time to recover.
Captain Ted Johnson. MC.
Ted Johnson was born in 1922. He enlisted in the Royal Ulster Rifles when he left school in September, 1940 and was commissioned into the "Rifles" in June, 1941 when he was posted to the 2nd Battalion, The London Irish Rifles who were then in 47th London Division defending the beaches in the Littlehampton area. In June, 1942 he was posted with a draft of young officers to the Middle East where he arrived just prior to "Alamein". Being of Irish nationality, he was further posted on to Malta GC where the 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers needed officer reinforcements. As an RUR commissioned officer, he was attached for all purposes to the Faughs (pronounced Fog) a nickname in use since the Napoleonic Wars deriving from their unprouncouncable Gaelic motto ' Faugh-a-Ballagh' meaning 'Clear the way'
Ted has written a book (no longer in print) which gives a full account of his own part in the Battle for Leros, in which he was awarded the Military Cross. This included his platoon having (unsuccessfully) to resist a landing by German troops counter attacking after the British occupied the island. In the end the Germans overran the British troops who were forced to surrender. This was largely due to the lack of air cover which allowed the Germans to bomb the island every day for several weeks largely unopposed. The book provides intersting insights into the wider perspectives of that unhappy campaign and was a major contribution to regimental records. The whole British force were made POWs.
photo courtesy of Ted as a POW
His subsequent experience as a POW were published in an article in the December 2007 edition of the Deddington News reproduced hereafter:
"Christmas 1943: We, a group of prisoners, had recently completed a 14-days cattle truck journey from Athens to Moosberg, near Munich,where the touring accommodation was not ideal ('40 hommes - 8 chevaux' was the sign on the outside of the wagon). Now, on 23 December, I was one of a random selection leaving Moosberg for another camp. We were told journey time would be 2 days but at the end each prisoner would have his own room ! Travel accommodation improved a train of hard seat coaches. During the usual body search before we left I lost my issue field dressing to the "ferret". I hope the small compass hidden in it was of use to the eventual finder. Our guards for this journey were more amiable than those we had known before and I was able to buy aloaf of bread from one of them for 10 cigarettes (Red Cross, no doubt). We arrived at our end station Lukenwalde, near Berlin, having come via Leipzig and Halle in the late evening of Christmas Day. After the usual "Raus, raus,schnell, schnell" we marched through the snow towards the lights of a camp on the horizon. The welcome we got was no different from any other prison we had so far encountered: wire, grim-looking Wehrmacht soldiers and the predictable roughlooking German Shepherd dog with handler. The inevitable body search took place again. This time all personal possessions were taken and with Teutonic efficiency were listed in detail. Toilet articles were given back and we were permitted to keep the clothes we wore. We were all issued with a palliasse cover, 2 wood pulp blankets, 1 bowl, 1 knife and 1 spoon. By now the outlook was worrying ! Next, we were moved into a long low building which contained individual cells. I now saw the truth behind the news about each officer having his own room! No explanation was given as to why or for how long one was being given such personal attention, but by now, since capture, we were becoming used to the devious methods of the "detaining power". It dawned on me that I was in solitary confinement and that this was a novel way to celebrate Christmas. There was no meal that evening but a redeeming feature was that my cell was warm. This personal hovel in which I spent the next 10 days measured 15ft. x 7ft.6 inches (5 paces by 21/2 paces) and contained a bed with straw palliasse, a table and a stool. The metal door had the traditional peep hole, the small window was barred and high out of reach. Twice daily, what passed for food and drink was brought into my cell by a Russian slave labourer under armed escort. It was from one of these unfortunate walking skeletons that I learned why I was incarcerated - interrogation. As the days went slowly by, I thought a lot about my predicament and the events which led to this situation, and how only 3 years ago I was a schoolboy enjoying the freedom of my native Ireland. I sang a lot to keep my spirits up and tried to keep fit by pacing up and down my cell and running on the spot. I devised a game by rolling up my socks into a lump and playing catch against the cell wall.
My release came during the l0th night at about 2a.m. when I was taken under escort to confront a smooth talking German officer in a brightly lit office. He spoke good English with a Canadian accent. The gist of the questioning, which was conducted in a calm conversational atmosphere, was to get confirmation of facts he already knew. I hope the answers to his questions added little to his already detailed knowledge of the events leading up to the recent operation in the Aegean, in which we had come off second best. During the interview he noted that as a citizen of a neutral country I was in the British Army - why ? Finally he suggested that I help myself to be released by agreeing to join a German Free Irish Battalion which, he said, already included some of my comrades. He did not look surprised when I declined. Later I found very little evidence that such a unit ever existed. At the end of this very mild session I was released from solitary confinement into a barrack room where I met some of my colleagues whom I last saw on Christmas night and who had gone through a similar experience. A day or two later, when our whole group had been through the ordeal, we were escorted to a more permanent abode: Offlag VIIIF in Czechoslovakia."
After the war, Ted elected to stay in the army and obtained a regular commission in the Faughs. He was adjutant of the 2nd Battalion in Palestine 1945/46 and later adjutant of the Army Apprentices School at Arborfield 1948/50. He spent 3 years on secondment to the Gold Coast Regiment in West Africa and later became adjutant at Queen's University OTC, Belfast 1954/56. He retired from the army in 1958.
Royal Naval ships lost or damaged during the battle for Leros
1 Cruiser crippled beyond repair:CARLISLE
6 Destroyers sunk: INTREPID, PANTHER, HURWORTH, ECLIPSE, DULVERTON, HHMS OLGA.
3 Submarines sunk: TROOOPER, SIMOON, HHMS KATSONIS.
10 lesser warships sunk, including 6 Motor Launches and 2 Landing craft.
3 Cruisers heavily damaged: PENELOPE, SIRIUS, AURORA.
4 Destroyers heavily damaged: HURSLEY, HHMS ADRIAS, ROCKWOOD, PENN
4 Submarines heavily damaged: UNSEEN, UNSPARING, UNRIVALLED, TORBAY.
Army units involved and subsequently lost
234 Infantry Brigade HQ
4 Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment)
1 King's Own Royal Regt. (Lancaster)
2 Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment
2 Royal Irish Fusiliers (Princess Victoria's)
3 Bty less one Troop 1 Light Anti Aircraft Regt RA
Troop 25 pounders (Guns found on Samos in September)
Detachment 9 Field Company Madras Sappers & Miners.
47 D.I.D. RIASC
161 Field Ambulance RAMC
570 Advanced Ordnance Depot RAOC
Detachment Long Range Desert Group (Possibly Sqdn strength)
Detachment Special Boat Squadron