Post by Dave Homewood on Nov 4, 2014 15:22:35 GMT 12
Here's another fascinating story of a forgotten kiwi hero, from the New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25041, 3 November 1944, Page 7, via Papers Past
DARING RAIDS
EXPLOITS IN GREECE
DROPPED BY PARACHUTE
NEW ZEALAND COLONEL
BEARDED ADVENTURER
The part played by New Zealanders as members of the intrepid bands of British servicemen who were dropped by parachute on German-occupied Balkan countries during the critical days in 1942 is gradually becoming known as tales of these daring incursions are told by men returning from the Middle East.
To the growing chronicles there has to be added the fragmentary but undoubtedly stirring page of the adventures of yet another New Zealander who shared in these exploits. It is related by Major C. D. F. Bowie, manager of t N.Z.E.F. clubs in Cairo and Bari, and concerns Lieutenant-Colonel C. E. Barnes, of the New Zealand Engineers, whose parents reside in Wellington.
In his official capacity, Major Bowie, who is from Dunedin, had numerous importunities of meeting New Zealanders and hearing their versions of campaigns. It was in this manner that he got to know Colonel Barnes, who prior to the war was a civil engineer working in New Guinea and returned to enlist as a private in the New Zealand Engineers.
Full Measure of Adventure
"When I first met Colonel Barnes," said Major Bowie, "he had returned to Cairo after being in charge of a company which had constructed port facility in connection with the transportation of munitions to Russia. He was appointed adjutant at the engineers training depot in Egypt. but he browned off and sought for more exhilarating !nd adventurous activities. In September 1942, he was chosen as one of a party of four men who were to undertake special operations in Greece. From what I have since learned from Colonel Barnes, he had indeed a full measure of the adventure and thrills he was yearning for.
"It was 20 months later, in April, 1944, that Colonel Barnes walked in on me in Cairo wearing a begrimed battledress and camouflaged behind a full-grown beard and moustache," said Major Bowie. "He had returned from secret operations in Greece and had been called back to Egypt to meet King George of Greece and the Greek Government. I believe that it was the express instruction of the authorities that he should retain his beard until that meeting was over.
Disrupting Communications
"Although naturally reticent and reluctant to say much about his experiences, I gathered sufficient to appreciate something of the hazardous and dangerous work he had been engaged on. After selection for the mission which was to destroy and disrupt the German lines of communication in the western coast of Greece, then being used for shipping munitions and men across the Adriatic Sea to Italy and thence to North Africa, Colonel Barnes and his three comrades were given a brief training in parachute dropping. He had, I understand, one jump off a fast-moving lorry and two jumps from a warplane as his course of training before being dropped among the hills in North-west Greece. The party of four also included, I understand, another New Zealander, a Lieutenant-Colonel Edmonds.
"Only a sketchy outline of what these four men and the others dropped at other times and places had achieved was related by Colonel Barnes, but enough was told to indicate the tremendous havoc they wrought with the enemy's communications. They blew up bridges and viaducts including one of the largest and most carefully guarded viaducts on the main railway line from Yugoslavia to Corinth. An epic deed had been the lowering of an Englishman to the depths of a ravine to explode a charge that brought the long viaduct crumbling to ruins, while the German guards engaged the others in the party who created a diversion.
"The damage resulting from these activities caused the Germans to divert their transport to the eastern ports of Greece and to ship munitions through the Aegean Sea — this being the purpose of the Allied strategy as it forced the enemy to use the longer sea route on which the transports were subjected to many attacks by British submarines. These important tactics were the prelude to the British offence from El Alamein and continued throughout the campaign which drove the Germans and Italians from North Africa.
Attached to Greek Patriot Forces
"Their primary job completed the men then attached themselves to Greek patriot forces operating as guerillas and conducting a sabotage and hit-and-run campaign. Colonel Barnes and another joined General Napoleon Zervas and his Patriots," said Major Bowie, who possesses a number of photographs of Colonel Barnes in the Greek fighting costume in company of the general and British and Greek troops.
They continued to harry the Germans and their sorties and raids grew in strength and effectiveness as communication was established with British bases and and more paratroops and supplies were dropped. Major Bowie recalled that Major W. S. Jordan, of Hamilton, whose exploits in occupied France were reently reported, was under Colonel Barnes' command in Greece.
Other New Zealanders mentioned by Colonel Barnes were a Sergeant Stott, and a man named Morton. Major Bowie said he presumed these were the two New Zealanders who had escaped from the Germans in Greece.
Price Placed on Head
"The Germans made great efforts to get hold of Colonel Barnes," said Major Bowie. 'They knew he was one of the leaders of the raiders and put a price on his head. They even put out a story that Barnes was the son of an English earl, and referred to him as 'Lord Tom' in German and Greek Quisling newspapers. How Colonel Barnes reached Bari, the New Zealanders' base in Italy, was also an interesting story. There is no doubt the information he gave the British Command was of extreme value in the operations that were later undertaken to reoccupy the southern parts of Greece."
Major Bowie said he understood Colonel Barnes had received the highest decorations from the Greek government and had also received the Military Cross and had been mentioned in despatches. The colonel's movements were, he understood, again shrouded in military secrecy.
DARING RAIDS
EXPLOITS IN GREECE
DROPPED BY PARACHUTE
NEW ZEALAND COLONEL
BEARDED ADVENTURER
The part played by New Zealanders as members of the intrepid bands of British servicemen who were dropped by parachute on German-occupied Balkan countries during the critical days in 1942 is gradually becoming known as tales of these daring incursions are told by men returning from the Middle East.
To the growing chronicles there has to be added the fragmentary but undoubtedly stirring page of the adventures of yet another New Zealander who shared in these exploits. It is related by Major C. D. F. Bowie, manager of t N.Z.E.F. clubs in Cairo and Bari, and concerns Lieutenant-Colonel C. E. Barnes, of the New Zealand Engineers, whose parents reside in Wellington.
In his official capacity, Major Bowie, who is from Dunedin, had numerous importunities of meeting New Zealanders and hearing their versions of campaigns. It was in this manner that he got to know Colonel Barnes, who prior to the war was a civil engineer working in New Guinea and returned to enlist as a private in the New Zealand Engineers.
Full Measure of Adventure
"When I first met Colonel Barnes," said Major Bowie, "he had returned to Cairo after being in charge of a company which had constructed port facility in connection with the transportation of munitions to Russia. He was appointed adjutant at the engineers training depot in Egypt. but he browned off and sought for more exhilarating !nd adventurous activities. In September 1942, he was chosen as one of a party of four men who were to undertake special operations in Greece. From what I have since learned from Colonel Barnes, he had indeed a full measure of the adventure and thrills he was yearning for.
"It was 20 months later, in April, 1944, that Colonel Barnes walked in on me in Cairo wearing a begrimed battledress and camouflaged behind a full-grown beard and moustache," said Major Bowie. "He had returned from secret operations in Greece and had been called back to Egypt to meet King George of Greece and the Greek Government. I believe that it was the express instruction of the authorities that he should retain his beard until that meeting was over.
Disrupting Communications
"Although naturally reticent and reluctant to say much about his experiences, I gathered sufficient to appreciate something of the hazardous and dangerous work he had been engaged on. After selection for the mission which was to destroy and disrupt the German lines of communication in the western coast of Greece, then being used for shipping munitions and men across the Adriatic Sea to Italy and thence to North Africa, Colonel Barnes and his three comrades were given a brief training in parachute dropping. He had, I understand, one jump off a fast-moving lorry and two jumps from a warplane as his course of training before being dropped among the hills in North-west Greece. The party of four also included, I understand, another New Zealander, a Lieutenant-Colonel Edmonds.
"Only a sketchy outline of what these four men and the others dropped at other times and places had achieved was related by Colonel Barnes, but enough was told to indicate the tremendous havoc they wrought with the enemy's communications. They blew up bridges and viaducts including one of the largest and most carefully guarded viaducts on the main railway line from Yugoslavia to Corinth. An epic deed had been the lowering of an Englishman to the depths of a ravine to explode a charge that brought the long viaduct crumbling to ruins, while the German guards engaged the others in the party who created a diversion.
"The damage resulting from these activities caused the Germans to divert their transport to the eastern ports of Greece and to ship munitions through the Aegean Sea — this being the purpose of the Allied strategy as it forced the enemy to use the longer sea route on which the transports were subjected to many attacks by British submarines. These important tactics were the prelude to the British offence from El Alamein and continued throughout the campaign which drove the Germans and Italians from North Africa.
Attached to Greek Patriot Forces
"Their primary job completed the men then attached themselves to Greek patriot forces operating as guerillas and conducting a sabotage and hit-and-run campaign. Colonel Barnes and another joined General Napoleon Zervas and his Patriots," said Major Bowie, who possesses a number of photographs of Colonel Barnes in the Greek fighting costume in company of the general and British and Greek troops.
They continued to harry the Germans and their sorties and raids grew in strength and effectiveness as communication was established with British bases and and more paratroops and supplies were dropped. Major Bowie recalled that Major W. S. Jordan, of Hamilton, whose exploits in occupied France were reently reported, was under Colonel Barnes' command in Greece.
Other New Zealanders mentioned by Colonel Barnes were a Sergeant Stott, and a man named Morton. Major Bowie said he presumed these were the two New Zealanders who had escaped from the Germans in Greece.
Price Placed on Head
"The Germans made great efforts to get hold of Colonel Barnes," said Major Bowie. 'They knew he was one of the leaders of the raiders and put a price on his head. They even put out a story that Barnes was the son of an English earl, and referred to him as 'Lord Tom' in German and Greek Quisling newspapers. How Colonel Barnes reached Bari, the New Zealanders' base in Italy, was also an interesting story. There is no doubt the information he gave the British Command was of extreme value in the operations that were later undertaken to reoccupy the southern parts of Greece."
Major Bowie said he understood Colonel Barnes had received the highest decorations from the Greek government and had also received the Military Cross and had been mentioned in despatches. The colonel's movements were, he understood, again shrouded in military secrecy.
Although he died young in a car crash so I never got to meet him. I'd love to track down an actual copy of the newspaper maybe from archives somewhere. We have lots of photos and his diaries and the book Author Edmonds (mentioned above) wrote 'with greek guerillas' but this is cool- he made it into the paper. Nice website! Anneliese Stephens (my mother Rosalind Stephens nee Barnes is C.E (or Tom as he was known as) Barnes' youngest child after Deborah and Chris (my Aunty and Uncle). 