On Spartan Wings: The Royal Hellenic Air Force in World War Two

233 Pages·2012·2.45 MB·English

by  John Carr

To Greece’s airmen and airwomen,
past, present and future

First published in Great Britain in 2012 by
PEN & SWORD MILITARY
An imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire
S70 2AS

Copyright © John Carr 2012
9781844685479

The right of John Carr to be identified as the Author of this Work has been
asserted
by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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available from the British Library.

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Table of Contents
Dedication
Title Page
Copyright Page
List of Plates
Preface
Prologue - The Man Who Said No
Chapter 1 - ‘The Most Magnificent Thing I Ever Saw’
Chapter 2 - The Icarus School
Chapter 3 - Planes for Tobacco
Chapter 4 - ‘Contingency G’
Chapter 5 - And if Fate Calls . . .
Chapter 6 - With a Little Help from our Friends
Chapter 7 - ‘God Help Us’
Chapter 8 - Thermopylae Revisited
Chapter 9 - The Flight to Egypt
Chapter 10 - The Air Force that Nearly Wasn’t
Chapter 11 - Back into the Fight: El Alamein
Chapter 12 - Unlucky 13 Mira
Chapter 13 - The Other Battle of Crete
Chapter 14 - Mutiny!
Chapter 15 - Back to the Balkans
Chapter 16 - Going Home
Epilogue - No Rest for the Weary
Notes
Appendix I - Targets and Losses of the RHAF, 1941–1944
Appendix II - Scores and Victories
Bibliography and Related Works
Index of Names
List of Plates
1. A naval cooperation Fairey IIIF seaplane, 1938. (Hellenic War Museum)
2. Avro Ansons of 13 Mira over Athens, autumn 1940. (Hellenic War
Museum)
3. PZL24s of 22 Mira lined up at Sedes, 1940. (Hellenic War Museum)
4. A Bloch MB151 of 24 Mira just before delivery. (Hellenic War Museum)
5. A 32 Mira Bristol Blenheim IV being serviced between missions near the
Albanian front, March 1941. (Hellenic War Museum)
6. Potez 63s of 31 Mira at a base near Larissa. (G Mermingas collection)
7. Sqn Ldr Yannis Kellas in front of an Avro Tutor at Tatoi. (Hellenic War
Museum)
8. The engraved wallet of Sqn Ldr Dimitrios Stathakos, given to a squadron
mate for safe-keeping just before his last and fatal mission over Albania on
11 March 1941. (G Mermingas collection)
9. A 33 Mira Fairey Battle at Nea Anchialos. (G Mermingas collection)
10. A Dornier Do22, its floats removed and modified for land operations, at
Eleusis airbase, 1940. (G Mermingas collection)
11. Sqn Ldr Marmaduke St John ‘Pat’ Pattle. (G Mermingas collection)
12. Luftwaffe reconnaissance photo of the eastern end of the Corinth Canal,
probably from a Heinkel He111, April 1944. (Hellenic War Museum)
13. A North American T6 Harvard trainer over Rhodesia, with an unidentified
Greek student pilot. (G Mermingas collection)
14. Personnel of 336 Mira in front of a Hawker Hurricane in North Africa,
1942. Ilias Kartalamakis is standing on the far left. (G Mermingas
collection)
15. King George II (foreground, with hat and swagger stick) inspects the
Bristol Blenheims of 13 Mira in North Africa. (G Mermingas collection)
16. Flt Lt Sophocles Baltatzis with his Supermarine Spitfire Vb of 335 Mira,
probably late 1943. (G Mermingas collection)
17. A 13 Mira Martin A20 Baltimore over an Italian port, probably Bari,
September 1944. (G Mermingas collection)
18. 13 Mira’s Baltimores line up at Biferno before starting the first leg of their
flight home, October 1944. (G Mermingas collection) viii On Spartan
Wings
19. Retired Air Marshal Constantine Hatzilakos, aged eighty-seven, at home in
Athens, 2007. (Author’s photograph)
20. Marinos Mitralexis’s widow, Anna, at home in Athens, with her husband’s
photo on the table, spring 2011. (G Mermingas)