Greece

[firdimigdi]

As an aside: Franz-Peter Weixler, for reasons of his own, decided to visit Kondomari after the war in the 50s. The surviving villagers, gathered around to welcome the guest as tradition dictates for hospitality, while knowing exactly who he was. At some point, during what one might imagine was an awkward gathering, one of the villagers present stood up and said that the formality had been observed, hospitality had been given and now it was time to leave - so all the villagers just got up and left leaving Weixler alone.

[Cybermat47]

16 hours ago, cardboard_killer said:

[80 years ago today] "• Indignant that Cretan civilians had fought alongside the Allied troops, Luftwaffe Generaloberst Kurt Student issued orders for reprisal against Cretan villages. The reprisals are to be carried out rapidly, omitting formalities or trials and by the same units who had been confronted by the locals.

‘How dare these people defend their homes after we invade them for no good reason!’

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• General der Flieger Alexander Andrae, the new commander-in-chief on Crete, approves further repressive measures against the population of Crete. Today paratroopers gather 118 civilians from the town of Alikianos and ten smaller villages nearby. The Germans force the civilians to dig their own graves by the Keritis River, and then shoot them.

 

- Thousands more will be tortured and/or murdered under Andrae, to the point where the British will plan to send commandos to capture him, being thwarted by his coincidental transfer to the Air Ministry.

- After the war the British will arrest Andrae and extradite him to Greece. He will be convicted of war crimes and sentenced to four life sentences. King Paul of Greece will commute it to four years in prison. After release, Andrae will return to West Germany and co-found the far-right German Reich Party, which will stay just outside the legal definition of embracing Nazism which would result in it being banned."

 

 

[Heliopause]

Sqn 800 Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is now active over Crete. (Six Dutch Hellcat pilots had joined the squadron in August for helping out with operations over
the south of France). Dutch pilot Poublon noted:
11th Sept: Four Hellcats perform recon flight over Crete, notably the flying boat base at Duda bay and the airfield of Heraklion.

12th Sept: Eight Hellcats strafe targets at Crete harbor. Two flying boats are set alight. Four Hellcats are damaged by AA. After landing two are considered a total loss and pushed overboard.
13th Sept: Fighter attacks.

 

Dutch pilot W.L.K. Limque seen here next to his damaged Hellcat after yesterdays mission.

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• As the Germans are conducting aerial evacuation from Greece and the Aegean islands, British and American bombers hit the airfields around Athens, badly damaging them and destroying a large number of Ju-52 transports. During the next few days British ships, including aircraft carriers with night fighters, will move into the Aegean and German losses on the flights to and from the islands will climb.

 

• The Soviet Seventeenth Air Army of the 3rd Ukrainian Front begins a six-day campaign attacking railroad bridges near Niš, Skopje, Kruševo and other towns in southern Yugoslavia to isolate German troops in Greece and southern Yugoslavia."

[Heliopause]

Some more notes of Dutch Hellcat pilot Poublon who flies with Sqn 800 FAA:
16th Sept:  Force cover.
17th Sept: Attack on a number of islands amongst them Leros. Saltykoff attacks a ships wich then blows up (his fellow pilots see the Hellcat dissapear into the explosion fearing the worst. However he pops up again still flying. After landing on the carrier the damage to his plane becomes clear. Three cylinders are missing, still the engine had kept running).
18th: Force cover
19th: Dive bomb attacks and strafing by Hellcats on the island of Rhodos. Two freighters are sunk.
20th: Force cover.

 

Dutchies Greve, Saltykoff and Poublon seen here later in the year of 1944.

[Heliopause]

Oct 3rd
Dive bomb attack on the harbor of Leros by six Hellcats from Sqn 800 FAA. Intens AA damages three machines. On the way back an Ju 52 is discovered and followed. Over the airfield of Heraklion it is shot down. Again AA is intens. The Hellcat flown by Dutch pilot De Wit is severely damaged, however he is able to keep control over the machine. He later receives the instruction from the carrier not to try and land. Insted he is ordered to divert to Turkey. After an hour of flying he reaches the coast, flies up and down and spots an airstrip. Circling for a while and fireing some flares he then belly lands his Hellcat (the landing gear damaged by enemy fire). Dutch pilot Poublon later noted in an interview: "He was put in an hotel suite and told he could have anything: food, drinks, women as long as he stayed there. He was also told there was a ship leaving there and there that would sail for Egypt the next day. Well anyway he joined us again after three days".

[Heliopause]

Oct 17th
Sqn 800 Feet Air Arm performs a mission over Greece. An enemy column on the road between Larisha and Saloniki is attacked with the Hellcat flown by Dutch pilot Helfrich being hit by AA. He succesfully lands his crippled plane on Mount Olympus, later arriving at Athens riding a mule.

 

On the 11th eight Hellcats had dive bombed the station of Saloniki in the morning with another attack in the afternoon focusing on the trains. On the 15th trains were again attacked followed on the return flight by attacks on E boats and barges. Four E boats were destroyed and the barges left floating. One Hellcat was lost due to enemy fire and two damaged with the pilots ditching near the fleet.

[Heliopause]

Oct 30th
Hellcats from Sqn 800 FAA perform attacks on Milos island. Four planes are sent to attack an enemy ship that tries to leave the harbour. Upon arrival it is seen returned to port however. Harbor installations are then attacked by the Hellcats. Dutch pilot Poublon's machine gets hit and loses the hood of the cockpit due to enemy AA.

 

Some more notes of Poublon:

19th of October: the island of Milos became the focus point for the Hellcats. Radarstations were the initial targets with one plane lost and its pilot taking to his parachute. Other Hellcats, incl. Poublon's receiving heavy damage.
26th Oct: Eight planes carry out dive bomb attacks on coastal batteries on Milos. These proved unsuccessful as these were located in mountainess terrain. Three Hellcats hit by enemy AA. In the afternoon strafing attacks on enemy barracks with one plane getting hit and crashing into the sea.
27th Oct: Eight Hellcats dive bomb AA positions. Poublon's machine gets hit in the fuselage and wing. He succeeds in landing back on the carrier.
28t Oct: With four planes the enemy's HQ is attacked although this is difficult as the enemy is positioned in caves. All four Hellcats get hit by AA, in the wings and one machine in the engine. In the afternoon an attack on coastal batteries by dive bombing with two of these targets silenced.
29th Oct: Escort for rocket firing Beaufighters of the RAAF. The Hellcats as "flack busters" attack the enemy AA positions with two of them hit by enemy fire. In the afternoon the same type of operation although now against the harbour resulting in two enemy coasters sunk.