Rhodes 1942

A Different Kind Of Warfare

Carried Out By The Special Boats Service

The previous page was: "Operation Frankton"

During World War II, a tiny organisation called the Special Boats Squadron had waged a most unorthodox and highly successful warfare against the Germans and the Italians in the Mediterranean.

It came into being through the energy of a small group of young men, expert climbers, canoists, swimmers and men who had ideas of their own and whose imaginative genius found its scope in the adventure and excitement of war.

Amphibians both by training and inclination, they became in a very real sense the modern equivalent of the Elizabethan privateer. Admiral Keys, that great supporter of youth, blessed their birth.

General Wavell gave them their opportunity, and for five years the force, operating by canoe, by parachute, and by submarine, harried the coast-line on all sides of the Mediterranean. The credit of their achievements belongs entirely to themselves.

Their officers, who supplied the brains and the initiative to their daring enterprises, came from the Commandos, and from men who find their happiness in hope and enterprise and change. But being Officers who knew the value of experts, they picked Marines for their men when they could.

Operation Frankton

The Characteristic Nature Of Their Work

Towards the end of August 1942, seven members of the Special Boats Service assembled in Beirut to prepare for a secret mission. It had been a bad summer for the Allies.

The Russians were being sorely pressed. Tobruk had fallen in June, and the Germans were at the gates of Egypt. Both in the Western and in the Eastern Mediterranean our convoys were being badly mauled by German and Italian bombers.

One of the bases for the convoy's bombers was Rhodes. The island was the goal of the seven men; the destruction of its two large airfields at Marizza and Calato was their self-imposed task.

Having Prepared Their Plan

The seven men set out from Beirut in a Greek submarine on August 31st. The leaders were Captain Allot and Lieutenant Sutherland, both of whom were Army Officers. Their five men were Sergeant Moss, Corporal McKenzie and Marines Duggan, Barrow and Harris. The party was completed by two Greek officers and two Greek guides.

Four days later they reached their secret landing-beach and put ashore that night without difficulty. Leaving their escape floats close to the beach, they began their ascent of a steep mountain. After three days of slow progress they found a cave.

Then making this their rendezvous, they separated, Captain Allot, going off on the longer journey to Marizza, in the north and Lieutenant Sutherland with the three Marines, the Greek officer and guide made their way to the Calato airfield.

The guide was no map reader, but he had numerous local friends who provided both food and information. As they drew near the airfield Lieutenant Sutherland's tiny party was again split up.

Marines Barrow and Harris going off with the Greek officer, and the guide being sent back to the rendezvous. Their targets were the huge fuel silos and the armouries which were across the other side of the aerodrome.

Lt Sutherland And Mne Duggan's Adventure

The attacks on the two aerodromes had to be synchronised, and, as they lay concealed on the mountain-side, the two men were able to make a thorough study of their targets.

Zero hour was the night of September 12th. Fortunately, it was dark and wet, and, as they crept to their first target, a large Italian bomber, they were challenged by a sentry.

Fortune was on their side, for the sentry soon moved off, and, planting their bombs, they went further towards the main buildings.

Here Marine Duggan spotted another sentry just in time, and for some minutes the two men, scarcely daring to breathe, tip-toed back into the darkness. Then, waiting their opportunity, they laid the rest of their bombs and withdrew.

No sooner had they reached cover then the bombs exploded. Fires flared up into the sky. Italian troops rushed out into the open. Searchlights began to light both sky and land. The hunt for the raiders was about to begin.

Time To Make Their Getaway

It was time for Sutherland and Duggan to be moving. Now began a terrible long and eventful process. Crawling, moving faster where there was cover, sleeping on the ledges of cliffs, they made their way in stages to the rendezvous and then to a point where they could scan the landing-beach.

It wasn't long before the keen eyes of Marine Duggan spotted a search-party coming towards them. Worse was to follow, for from their new hiding-place they saw an enemy torpedo boat putting in at the landing-beach. Presently it made off again, taking with it the Carley floats of the gallant raiders.

Lieutenant Sutherland and Marine Duggan were in mortal peril. Hemmed in on all sides by search-parties and now without any means of escape, they lay for a night and a day under a huge rock.

They Hadn't Tasted Food For Days

They had no water. Soldiers searched all round them and sat on the rock as they rested from their labours. One actually touched Duggan's hair with his hand. The two men were trapped.

The Black Watch officer and the Royal Marine endured the same agony from the fierceness of the sun and the hotness of the rock. They suffered, too, the same feeling of sickness and the same sharp pangs of cramp.

There was only one hope, to make for the beach and send out recognition signals with the faint chance that the submarine, which was to take them off, might still be there.

After that burning day under the rock they made their way to the beach, and at 9.30 p.m. Lieutenant Sutherland began to send out signals. There was an agonising delay of half-an-hour, although Marine Duggan was sure that the submarine had replied at once.

Finally the answering signal came through clear, and the two men, exhausted by their thirst and lack of food, stepped into the water to swim their way to the submarine almost two-miles off-shore.

Lieutenant Sutherland was now a sick man with a raging temperature, but, faint, yet pursuing life, they swam on, their arms and legs moving more from subconscious than conscious effort, until they were lifted from the water by "H.M.S. Traveller".

Modern-day Pages Fast Boats Pages Joe Wezley Pages

Special Virtues Only Revealed In Action

Of the seven British who set out from Beirut they were the only two that escaped. Captain Allot's party had been taken prisoner. But all the seven had carried out their mission more successfully than the most hopeful optimists could have expected.

Both airfields were sevrely damaged, and from Rhodes, our convoys were unmolested for many weeks. Once again a Marine had proved himself a wonderful handy man in the most awkward and dangerous of predicaments. Marine Duggan went on to be Sergeant Duggan D.S.M.

We will never know what magic turns a quiet, unassuming and seemingly unimaginative man into a wizard of imaginative resources in circumstances which would paralyse many men of greater intelligence and better physique.

Obviously the training of the Marines counts for much. The modest manner of Duggan consealed special virtues which reveal themselves only in action. Manners may help make a good man. But modesty and good manners make the best Royal Marines.

The next Link below will be: "SBS Algiers"

Rhodes 1942 SBS Algiers

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