Weekly Update No 2

Progress this week could be summed up as, "slow and steady". I have managed to steer away from EOKA and concentrated a little more on the Second World War.

I came across a very interesting forum, the link to it is here:

http://www.ww2talk.com/

And from there I have managed to make contact with individuals or their families who Spent time on Cyprus during the War.

Material from that line of research will be slower maturing, but I will place something on here in good time.

The promised material from Owen Roberts arrived, and I enjoyed looking through it. Owen joined 105 Battery, part of 31 Fd Regt RA in Cyprus in November 1942. The Regiment had been badly beaten up at the Battle of Alem Hamza. The Regiment had acquitted themselves well, but had been overrun by Axis Forces and suffered heavy losses. Many of the soldiers from the Regiment had been taken POW and you can read a very brief account of the adventures of one of them, Sir William Bulmer, who'd been a Troop Commander with 31 Fd Regt RA, in his obituary here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9803712/Sir-William-Bulmer.html

In any case, Owen joined the Regiment as they were licking their wounds and his materials contain two items, extracts from a book that he wrote called "31st Field Regiment RA, A Record", still available on Amazon at £14.55. Followed by extracts from "On Two Fronts", by Antoinette Moat, again, still available on Amazon at £7.52. This is an account of her Father's career, Major Arthur Galetti RA, who arrived in Cyprus in the spring of 1942 and assumed Command of 105 Battery. Major Galetti would be killed in action the following year, winning a posthumous MC.

I cannot place extracts from Antoinette Moat's book on here, as I need to contact her first for permission, but Owen is happy for me to freely use extracts from his publication. I pulled two short items from the material he sent me. The first paragraph is a brief description of the Island as he remembers it, and another brief paragraph that shows the effect the island had on war weary soldiers.

Then a British Colony, Cyprus is some 120 miles long and 50 miles across at its widest point; it lies about 60 miles South of Turkish Asia Minor and 100 miles West of Syria. At the time its population was predominantly of Greek origin, with a minority coming from Turkey. It is a mountainous island - the Troodos Mountains dominate the western half and there is an extensive highland backbone along the North Coastline - with fertile plains; it has a pleasant climate, winters have warm days and cold nights and the summers are very hot. It has exotic colouring and everywhere there are groves of orange, lemon and olive trees, intermingled with grape vines. The uplands are well wooded and it has the spicy fragrance (text indecipherable) of so many of the Mediterranean Countries.

To the Regiment, following its near destruction at Alem Hamza and the subsequent remarkable escape of its remnants from Benghazi, Cyprus was indeed heaven. Instead of the previous plan, which had scattered the defenders in small groups covering the ports and beaches, General Tuker concentrated his forces in a central position to provision and ammunition the colony, to withstand seige and to use the Troodos mountain block as a defence ‘keep’. A diverging system of roads linked the central plain with all likely invasion beaches, so allowing reserves to be moved quickly against any invader.

“Owen Roberts, 31 Field Regiment RA, A Record”

Any soldier who has spent time in night ambushes, whether for real or on exercise will recall the smells of Cyprus on a warm summer night. I'm no spice expert, but the smell of sage or thyme can take me back in an instance.

So a picture of Cyprus during the Second World War is starting to emerge, as a place that was used to allow troops to requip, train and regain their strength, before moving into more intense theatres in North Africa. Apart from a short period after the fall of Crete where the threat of invasion became almost a reality.

I also trawled the Imperial War Museum archive and found some interesting photographs,the link is here:

http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/search?query=Cyprus&submit=&items_per_page=10

My daughter is at University in London, and she has agreed to be my research assistant, paid of course, (there is nothing so mercenary as a starving student). Her first task will be to trawl through specific Regimental War Diaries, housed at the National Archive at Kew, I'm not sure if she knows what she is letting herself in for.