LCT wrecks found in Crete

Discussion in 'The War at Sea' started by Mike L, Sep 6, 2012.

  1. Mike L

    Mike L Very Senior Member

    I have for some time been helping an Australian archaeologist, Mike Bendon, in his researches into two WW2 LCT wrecks he has located in Crete.
    I have treated the research and Mike's results with a fair degree of confidentiality for various reasons but in a recent email he attached two newspaper articles he has contributed to so, as the cat appears to be out of the bag now I am attaching links here:

    Battle of Crete | Ship Wreckage | A20 | Ausatralia | Photos

    A Cretan mystery revealed | Neos Kosmos

    Most of the circumstances of the sinkings are now known but research is still ongoing into these wrecks and the stories of their crews.
     
  2. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    Excellent work
    well done for assisting
     
  3. sherlock

    sherlock Member

    Thanks for the info. I'm sure you realize how lucky you are to involved. Keep up the good work.
     
  4. Orwell1984

    Orwell1984 Senior Member

    Came across this when searching for something else and thought it might make sense to add it to this thread.
    [​IMG]

    The barge from Crete, painted by Peter McIntyre, New Zealand’s official war artist, in July 1941.
    McIntyre’s painting illustrates the epic journey of a group of escapees who sailed an abandoned landing barge from Crete to Egypt. The 137-strong party, mostly Royal Marines, set out on 1 June. Nine New Zealanders were thought to be among this party, although the only one known by name was Private W.A. Hancox. He had been picked up 3 km off shore, paddling along on a plank of wood.
    After the barge’s fuel ran out blankets were rigged as sails. To make sure these caught the breeze the men often had to jump into the water and push the nose of the barge in the right direction. Conditions on board were tough. Food supplies were rationed to half a tobacco tin of water and a teaspoon of bully beef per day. During the voyage one soldier died of exhaustion and another committed suicide. On 9 June, eight days after leaving Crete, the barge drifted ashore 24 km west of Sidi Barrani in Egypt.


    The barge from Crete by Peter McIntyre, 1941 | NZHistory, New Zealand history online

    Cheers
    Mark
     
  5. Buffnut453

    Buffnut453 Member

    Wow! Never heard of that escape story before. Fascinating...and gutsy!
     
  6. Mike L

    Mike L Very Senior Member

    Thanks Mark - that's one of the stranger, if slightly better known stories of the evacuation of Crete.
    The 'landing barge' was in fact an LCM (Landing Craft Mechanised) left behind during the evacuation and an account is included in the thesis which Mike Bendon has since completed for his degree in Maritime Archaeology. We are still working on further information regarding the background and loss of these LCTs (which were very new and still something of a secret at the time of Crete).
    It is hoped that we might be able to get funds to finance further diving investigations of the various local wrecks including the JU87 Stuka.
     
  7. phylo_roadking

    phylo_roadking Very Senior Member

    Hi Mark - unless there happened to be TWO groups of British and Commonwealth troops sailing abandoned landing craft to Egypt...Hancox MAY have been picked up by THIS group!


    Courtesy of Alan Clark's The Fall Of Crete...where most of the picture caption ALSO comes from! It appears from Clark that unless there were really were two identical parties sailing landing craft with makeshift sails across to Sidi Barrani...he must have been picked up by this boat...


    On the day of the surrender, New Zealand, Australian and British soldiers found an abandoned landing barge near Sfakia which they put out of sight in a sea cavern. They sailed the barge out of the cavern on the night of 1 June: the Germans nearby opened fire but noone was hit. An Australian, Private Harry Richards, was skipper, and a New Zealander, Private AH Taylor (HQ NZ Div), was engineer. The following morning the barge was damaged when it ran ashore on Gavdhos Island but the damage was soon repaired. Richards appealed for volunteers to stay ashore and ten men stood aside.

    When the petrol was gone, the men put up a jury mast and sail. The wind dropped and the boat drifted. The food ration was cut down to a small drink of cocoa for breakfast, and even this was soon finished. The men became weak; nerves were on edge and outbursts of unreasoning temper added to their misery. Planes flew over but the soldiers dared not wave in case they were the enemy. On 8 June they saw land immediately to the south. The barge drifted, maddeningly slowly, onto a rock beach near Sidi Barrani. The escapers stepped ashore right in the middle of aBbritish camp and were given a great welcome.


    The way Clark writes it, that accounts comes first...which the story about Hancox immediately below; he doesn't directly relate the two...but the similarities are remarkable. If it is actually two accounts of the SAME voyage - then there's a SECOND NZ name buried in there, A.H. Taylor.
     
  8. Mike L

    Mike L Very Senior Member

    I heard early hours of this morning that Mike Bendon hs been given the cost of the flight to England by a kind benefactor in Australia. Plans are afoot for his arrival, hopefully late January or early February 2013, and a recorded interview with a survivor of one of the LCTs.
    There are many other plans ongoing but can't divulge too much at this time.
    Very excited about this progress.
     
  9. Mike L

    Mike L Very Senior Member

    Just a quick update on progress with this research:

    When Mike Bendon arrived at Gatwick from Australia it was 06.20 on a cold Saturday morning. Snow was still laying on the ground and he was wearing shorts and sandals.
    We drove straight to Leicester and by about 11am were interviewing a former LCT skipper (temporary Sub-Lt RNVR, DSO MiD) and a POW for 4 years. Over the next days we conducted several interviews with the 94 year old former skipper and the daughter of another LCT Officer and POW who knew the former skipper during the operations in Greece and Crete and in POW camps.
    Many thanks to WW2Talk member BrianM59 who provided professional quality HD video recording facilities for one of those days.

    After leaving Leicester Mike B and I went straight to Kew and spent 5 solid days copying literally thousands of documents relating to the Mk1 LCTs, Greece, Crete and the POW camps. Including audio, video, copies of other documents and photographs of files at TNA we ended up with almost 30Gb of data. Needless to say we are still going through all the information collected but with Mike B now back in Australia and me here in Essex it is proving a little difficult. We have written up and shared hundreds of pages of information, edited video and audio recordings and have still not finished collating some of the data.

    The story is ongoing but we think we have researched these vessels and their history in greater detail than ever done before.
    The result will eventually be newspaper articles, probably one or more books and possibly a TV documentary. A long way to go yet but it is fascinating work.
     
    Rich Payne likes this.
  10. Swiper

    Swiper Resident Sospan

    This is what I love to hear, excellent work chaps - fantastic proper detailed research into a fascinating mystery.

    Very exciting, inspirational stuff chaps!
     
  11. Roy Martin

    Roy Martin Senior Member

    Swiper,

    I can't find the right thread. Google Derrycunihy and you will find a bit about the loss
     
  12. Oldman

    Oldman Very Senior Member

    Mike
    Thanks for the update
     
  13. Mike L

    Mike L Very Senior Member

    Another update.

    Mike B got the money for another trip over and spent a couple of weeks in Crete before coming to Britain again.
    It appears the authorities in Crete are becoming more receptive to WW2 research (as opposed to the more classical archaeological sites) although obviously money is very tight at the moment.
    Mike B and the skipper of the LCT (now 94) have been invited to Crete for next years commemorative events but will have to find their own air fares! I am hoping to go along as well.

    Whilst at Kew for 2 days Mike B and I found a lot of additional info including 3 sets of POW questionnaires (the LCT skipper, his 1st mate and another LCT Officer/Beachmaster), the plans for evacuation of Greece, Royal Corps of Signals plans and records of the evacuation and what appears to be some original Beachmaster notes from which the later reports of units/numbers of troops etc were compiled. In total we copied about another 3500 documents and are still sorting through them.

    After Kew we went to Leicester to spend another couple of days with the skipper and we had a great time with him - he is still in pretty good health.

    The only down side of the trip was that Mike B's Father had been ill before Mike left Australia and was not expected to live much longer. He unfortunately passed away last Sunday while Mike was waiting for a flight back to Aus.
    Understandably Mike will be busy with his family matters for a while and our ongoing research will take a back seat for some time.
     
  14. horsapassenger

    horsapassenger Senior Member

    Mike

    I missed this thread when it first appeared but, after talking to both of you at the Archives last week, i have really enjoyed reading through it as Mike B added so much detail when he explained the story of his research.

    Such a shame that his trip came to such a sudden and sad ending. I hope that one day it might be possible to read his thesis as I'm certain that it will make fascinating reading

    John
     
  15. BrianM59

    BrianM59 Senior Member

    Mike - glad to hear the research is going well, but of course please pass on my condolences to Mike Bendon if you have the time. Brian
     

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