[Kyt]

Continued....

On the 9th of December 1944, the company was asked to provide guard for a POW cage built to hold 1000 prisoners, and were told that 1600 prisoners were expected. The OC inspected the cage and confirmed that another cage was needed, and a second smaller cage was provided. 1,300 prisoners were placed in the large cage and another 300 in the small cage, sentries were posted. Thirty minutes later the prisoners at the large cage became restless and hurled rocks at the sentries; Lt Peterson fired a burst from his TMC above their heads to no effect, he fired again wounding a prisoner in the leg to great effect the other prisoners quietened, later however the sentries at the large cage spotted someone standing outside the wire, Pte Gabro Elias went to investigate and trod on a German mine badly injuring his foot. The information given to the company prior to the prisoners arrival was that the area around two sides of the cage were mined, but were not informed that a larger area on other sides of the wire were also mined, prior knowledge would have prevented this injury. In the early hours on the 12th a failed escape attempt was made by the prisoners from the large cage which resulted in one prisoner killed. On the 14th the commanding officer Hampshire’s regiment visited Major Hudson and reported that arms and ammunition were suspected of being stored in a large hospital about three miles away, the company was given the job of searching the hospital and several nearby buildings suspected of being ELAS Headquarters. At 1000hrs the next day Lt Reeves with No 3 Kurdish platoon searched the hospital but nothing was found, the search of the ELAS buildings however found ammunition and British bayonets, no trouble was encountered, the platoon returned.

Several escape attempts were made by prisoners from both cages in those nine days with very little success; the sentries were on their guard and their actions commendable, on the 18th December at 1400hrs the company was relieved by the Northumberland Fusiliers and Major Hudson told the company was to take part in operations in Athens.

The company was given the task of clearing and occupying several blocks of houses including a church bounded by M. Botsari and Kiriakou Roads, to assist them in this mission; a Sherman Tank and a section of Royal Engineers were placed under their command to clear any obstacles they may encounter. On the 19th December at 0615 the company commenced the operation, Major Hudson leading the 2nd Assyrian platoon and two sections of engineers crossed a bridge separating them from their objective and proceeded to clear the first block. Within thirty minutes all platoons had crossed and were engaged in clearing their assigned blocks, enemy mortar shells fell on and near the bridge with no effect, the company were safely across. The operation lasted two and a half hours, sniper fire was frequent but no casualties were reported, the platoons occupied their respective blocks. At 1050hrs heavy sniping was encountered in the area of 2nd platoon, two casualties were inflicted, Pte Menas Giwergis was killed and Cpl Giwergis Shabo was wounded, as a result the Sherman Tank was brought into action and silenced most of the sniping. In the evening a section from 2nd platoon killed an E.L.A.S. brandishing a Sten sub-machinegun, sniping was reported throughout the day but no further casualties were inflicted. The next evening, at 1800hrs Lt Boe led a patrol that encountered enemy activity and had a short fire fight, a second patrol led by Lt Reeves encountered no activity and returned to their temporary base. At 1930 Lt Peterson led a patrol that led to an enemy strong point, fifteen minutes after departure the patrol returned and reported that they bumped into a party building a roadblock and were fired on, they also reported Lt Peterson as being hit and possibly killed.

Sgt Benyamin Shlimon, a Private at the time recalls the incident:

It was very dark, we started crossing a road, Lt Peterson was in the lead and followed by Sgt Ismail Nissan, the rest of us waited to be called to cross. As soon as Lt Peterson was halfway across, machineguns opened up from the other side, we pulled back just in time, we pushed hard with our back on a wall, but we could see Lt Peterson he was laying in the middle of the road, he had been hit and wasn’t moving, we tried several times to get to him but failed every time, the enemy fire was very heavy.

Major Hudson immediately took out a patrol to recce the area of the roadblock and found a great deal of enemy activity, he returned to prepare for offensive action. Major Hudson, Capt Clarke, CSM Hutton and two Levies made their way towards the roadblock and took up positions, on command they fired on the enemy with a Bren, Thompson sub-machineguns and grenades, CSM Hutton under cover of 77 smoke grenades made his way forward to where Lt Peterson had fallen and found no sign of him, the patrol then returned to base.

On the 21st December at 0900hrs, Major Hudson led the 1st Assyrian platoon to clear the houses on either side of the road leading up to the road block; in support were Lt Reeves with the 3rd Kurdish platoon, two tanks and a section of engineers. The houses were cleared and the Tanks were reported to have had a good shoot, the enemy machinegun positions from the previous night were found and demolished. Lt Peterson’s Beret was found covered in blood where he was reported to have fallen, civilians were questioned, and some said that he was badly wounded and a prisoner of the E.L.A.S.

Two standing patrol positions were found overlooking the roadblock and were occupied later by the company. Commanding officer of the Hampshire’s regiment began negotiations with the Red Cross in an attempt to secure the release of Lt Peterson through a prisoner exchange arrangement; Lt Peterson was later reported to have died in captivity. At 1830hrs the two previously found positions for standing patrols were occupied by patrols led by Major Hudson and Lt Reeves, a short time later they exchanged fire with the enemy in the area of the roadblock for two hours until there was no further movement by the E.L.A.S. the patrols returned to base soon after.

At 2100hrs Lt Boe on patrol bumped into one civilian who fired at him with a pistol, the Lieutenant returned fire from his Thompson killing the civilian and seizing his weapon. The following three days the company carried out patrols in the area, searching houses and engaging the enemy with mortars and rifle fire, on one such patrol Cpt. Clarke searched three suspect houses and found a large stash of German ammunition, four civilians were arrested and sent back for questioning.

29th December 0700 one section from 2nd platoon and another from the 3rd platoon were sent to assist the 2nd Kings own Regiment that were attacking across the company’s front, one paratrooper from 3rd platoon [Pte Hussain Mohd] was wounded by a sniper. On the 30th December at 0700hrs the company moved forward to commence its own attack on the enemy, in support were two armoured cars and a section of engineers. At 0730 the company moved forward, heavy rain and cold weather adding to the hazards of street fighting, by 1200hrs the operation was completed, six prisoners and some ammunition were captured.

31st December 1830, the company was ordered to relocate to Goudhi barracks for further operations, the next day at 1500hrs the company arrived at the new location, most were not impressed with their new accommodation describing them as being very dirty. Orders were issued as such; the Brigade was to carry out a night attack on a three company front, and the company’s objectives were a workhouse and a home for aged, the latter was suspected of being an ELAS stronghold.

On the 2nd of January the company took its position at the starting line on the corner of Athens and Kifissia Roads as right flank. 1st Assyrian platoon moved first and took up covering positions, they were soon followed by the rest of the company, Lt Reeves leading 3rd platoon on reaching the corner of his objective [block one] was challenged, when challenged a second time he opened fire and the enemy returned heavy fire, the rest of the platoon were screened from this barrage but were unable to move forward. 2nd platoon were sent to the left of 3rd platoon in an attempt to give covering fire, this was not possible however due to a seven foot wall surrounding the objective, they then moved forward to their own objective [block two], Lt Reeves managed to place two sections from 3rd platoon across the road to give covering fire, with concentrated fire they forced the enemy to withdraw to block two, the platoon was then able to climb over the wall and occupy their objective.

The second platoon working their way around the buildings and prior to reaching their objective came under heavy fire from block two and three and another two gun positions, 1st platoon engaged and destroyed these two gun positions with mortar bombs, they drew the attention of the enemy and were fired on receiving three casualties, they were ordered to occupy a block of buildings across from their objective [block three] and joined the fire fight. The 2nd platoon moved forward and engaged both blocks, they could not move further however owing to heavy fire from the enemy, they suffered three killed and five wounded, after three hours of fierce fighting they were withdrawn to block one. The third platoon was also engaging the enemy entrenched in block two and a church to their right in a fierce fire fight.

The next morning at 0715 five Tanks arrived to assist the company that has been in constant battle for twelve hours, soon after a company of the 2/4 Hampshire’s arrived and attacked from the right flank and Para company moved forward from the left, by 0750 the area was clear, the enemy had held to the last minute, inflicting two casualties on the Hampshire’s and one on the company’s Sergeant Major [Giwergis Zorzan].

As suspected, the Blocks of houses were used by the ELAS as headquarters and was occupied by 110 of the enemy,

The following armaments were found:
5 Breda Guns and 7 spare barells
Three German Mortars/ 47 shells
43 rifles, one revolver
25,700 rounds
37 Molotov cocktails
70 grenades
120, 1 pound gun cotton
69 cartons of dynamite
200 yards fuse

Casualties:
Enemy 16 killed
Company 3killed, 8 wounded

On the fifth of January at 0800hrs the company relinquished defence to the East Surreys and commenced a new operation, their task was to clear another area suspected of housing ELAS armaments, at 1000hrs the company crossed the starting line and by 1200hrs the task was accomplished without incident, the next day on the 6th the company was engaged in another operation that also past without incident but a large amount ammunition was found and confiscated. On the 7th Major Hudson visited O.C. 4th Division for further orders and was told that the company is to return to Hassani, on the 8th the company moved by Motor Transport and arrived back in their billets at Hassani. January 13th major Hudson was in conference with officer comanding. Wing and a number of issues were discussed. Major Hudson presented a report on the morale of the Assyrian and Kurdish troops resulting from the casualties and other experiences from the street fighting in Athens, after a lengthy discussion the O.C. Wing decided that the company should return to Iraq.

Sgt Benyamin Shlimon commenting on the Morale report:

After our experiences in Athens we became very upset about our dead and wounded, we knew the widows would not receive any help from the British and our wounded would be discharged to fend for themselves, the British commando receives much better pay and if he dies his family wouldn’t starve, we didn’t want the same pay as them but we wanted things to be a little fair, we didn’t want our widows to beg for food if we die, after all we were fighting as hard as the commando and dying just the same, we talked with the Kurds and they felt the same, so we made our feelings felt to the British officers and they didn’t like it.

Parachute Sergeant Hormis Youkhana describes his experience after being wounded in Albania:

After I was wounded in Albania I was told by the doctors that I would need two years of physical therapy to heal, but I was discharged after six months medically unfit, I couldn’t get a job after that, they wouldn’t even have me working in the camp kitchen.

On the 30th January 1945 the company departed to Italy and was back in Iraq in late April 1945. On returning to Habbanyia the company maintained a very high standard of morale and discipline, and during the spring of 1946 they received excellent reports on their training with the 6th airborne division and in addition won the Wing Drill competition. In December of the same year, the company was disbanded and the personnel contained into regular levy squadrons.

Albania Parachute and Sugar Beach