Prior to embarking upon my journey back to Wales, I’d spoken to the airline about bringing the compass from my uncle’s downed Blenheim Bomber on board in my hand luggage. The compass is a large heavy object with some sharp edges and contains radioactive material which makes it glow in the dark. As a result, the airline didn’t seem overkeen to have it in the cabin and suggested that, if I had to bring it with me it must go into the hold with all of the other holidaymakers’ luggage. You can imagine my disdain… as I perceived it, the compass would be chucked in unceremoniously with all of the other baggage heading back to Manchester. That just didn’t seem an option at all, especially because with every other piece of luggage there was a chance it might get damaged or its glass covering might get broken.
To me the compass wasn’t just any old baggage anyway. The compass was a rare artefact from the Second World War and it was a unique artefact which deserved better treatment to ensure it stayed safe and intact on the journey back to Britain. The compass was British made and, over eighty years previously, it had been in Blenheim Bomber L8511, thundering down the runway of RAF Northolt in Greater London, heading to Egypt to support the troops on the ground in the North African Campaign of 1940.
By November of 1940 the Greco-Italian War was in full swing and Gerald and others from 211 Squadron of the RAF were pulled away from Egypt to help the Greek army in their fight against a large invading Italian force coming in through various Albanian ports. The very first mission in Greece for L8511 had been to bomb the Italians loading and unloading supplies at the Albanian port of Durazzo (now called Durrës) on 24th November 1940. This was to be a mission from which the plane would never return, as it was severely damaged by Italian fighters following a successful unloading of its deadly cargo. The plane limped as far as Lefkimmi in Corfu with thick black smoke pouring from its port engine but when the engine completely fell away into the Ionian Sea, they had no option but to ditch the plane into the shallows there.
Luckily all three crew survived and that story is told in Gerald’s War.
The compass was stripped from the stricken plane by locals and secreted away on Corfu until it was shown to me by Papa Spiro at the rear of the Church of St. Procopius in Kavos all those years later.
So, the compass was the first object I had held which my Uncle Gerald would have also touched and through this compass, I had contact with my mother’s brother whom I’d never met, but who had been revered so much within my family.
“It has to go in my hand luggage!” I said to Kostas. “There’s just nowhere else I would want it to be. It’s such a precious thing.”
“No problem Mr. Nigel. Leave it with me my friend. It will be sorted.”
And that was how it was left for a few hours until Kostas rang me back.
“It is sorted… ” he began, “… you go to the security and you show them the compass, which you take from your bag. It gets looked at and then you place it back in your bag. That is how it will happen. There is nothing to worry about.”
I wasn’t so sure, but I needn’t have been worried. Hours later, I turned up for my evening flight back to Manchester from Corfu Airport. As it came to my turn to be searched, I duly removed the compass from my bag and showed it to the three uniformed officers in front of me. They nonchalantly shrugged their shoulders as one and ushered me forward without another word. They didn’t even ask what the item was or where it came from, they just ushered me through like some VIP.
I placed the compass back in my hand luggage and headed on through and that’s the tale of how the remarkable compass ended up back in the hands of the Davies-Williams family from North East Wales.
What Kostas had said and who he had spoken with I had no idea but it was a fait accompli as regards getting the compass back home to where it rightly belongs.
#Corfu #GeraldsWar #EmotionalJourney #HistoricalFiction #WarTale #HistoricalNovel #HiddenTruths #WartimeSaga
The Blenheim Boys
‘The devotion and gallantry… are beyond all praise. The Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava is eclipsed in brightness by these almost daily deeds of fame.’
Winston Churchill on the Blenheim Crews - Prime Minister’s Personal Minute, M.852/1, 30 August 1941
