The SBS in World War II by Gavin Mortimer

Author:Gavin Mortimer
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472811158
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2016-12-08T16:00:00+00:00

Friday 10 March was a ‘lovely day’, according to Milner-Barry. The weather was dreamy, Stefan Casulli arrived back from the Turkish port of Bodrum with fresh meat and vegetables, and a signal was received from Raiding Forces HQ promising that they were doing their utmost to lift the ban on attacking German targets in the Cyclades. Milner-Barry even managed to install a telephone line connecting the SBS HQ in the Tewfik to the LSF HQ aboard LS9.

John Waterman recalled that the Tewfik could often be temperamental. ‘They would have a hell of a job getting it going sometimes,’ he said. ‘So Lassen would use an explosive charge. He would open a sort of hatch, take some explosive, prime it and drop it in and then screw the thing back up, and it would get the engine going.’ Waterman, like so many in the SBS, found Lassen ‘an odd character’. He added: ‘You could talk to him but whether you got an answer was another matter.’

Waterman established his wireless room inside the Tewfik. He recalled that he was so busy sending and receiving messages to and from Jellicoe that ‘I could barely stay awake I was so tired’. For a while a small band of Kurdish soldiers based themselves on the Tewfik. ‘They were really assassins,’ explained Waterman. ‘Very nice but a little unpredictable. The Kurds slept under our hammocks and if I got a call in the middle of the night that a message was coming in I had to go and decode. So I had to swing down from my hammock but I didn’t want to tread on one of these guys and wake them up in case they knifed me. There was one fellow with a droopy moustache who was really nasty looking. He slept on the deck underneath my hammock ... so I was careful to miss him.’

In the following days S Squadron settled into their new home. Captain Bill Blyth arrived, together with lieutenants Keith Balsillie, Nobby Clarke and Jimmy Lees, and 24 other ranks, and Ian Patterson received orders to attend a conference in Istanbul. Milner-Barry went ashore for the first time, to wash in the stream that ran into the inlet, only to encounter a Turkish officer. He demanded to know what the British were doing in their waters. ‘I gave the stock reply that we had engine trouble on board but would move as soon as it was cleared,’ wrote Milner-Barry. Then, employing all his considerable charm, the Englishman invited him to visit the Tewfik, whereupon a bottle of Syrian Arak was presented to the Turk ‘to seal our neutral friendship’.8

The next day Milner-Barry returned to the mainland, taking with him Bill Blyth and Keith Balsillie. After a wash, the trio ‘walked up the valley for a bit, beautifully fresh and green’ with not a Turk in sight.9

Bad weather hampered SBS operations for the rest of March, forcing delays and postponements to operations. Then a signal arrived informing Milner-Barry that David Sutherland was en route to Dereman to resume command and that he was to return to England on leave.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.