Tymbaki Raid, Air Raid on Tymbaki, Crete 1942

On the night of 23rd March 1942 the Wellington bombers of 148 Squadron, stationed at Kabrit, on the shores of the Great Bitter Lake, in the Canal Zone Egypt, were directed to bomb a German Base on one of the Greek Islands.

Myself and the crew were flying the only Wellington Mark 2 aircraft, which had the more powerful Rolls Royce Merlin engines to enable it to carry a single 4,000 pound bomb. However the bomb was so large that the bomb-doors had to be removed, and the bomb stuck out into the airflow. This upset the aerodynamics of the aircraft, slowed us down, and consequently reduced our range. We were therefore unable to reach the Greek Islands, and instead were ordered to go alone to Tymbaki, near the South Coast of Crete, where the Germans were thought to be building a new airfield.

On reaching the target area, we were unable to make out anything, which might be considered to be a large construction area, and were puzzled at the lack of any enemy anti-aircraft fire. Not wishing to waste our bomb, we made several runs, and eventually dropped the bomb on a cleared area with what looked like temporary buildings on it. We then returned to our advanced landing ground in the desert about 15 miles south of Tobruk, as we were unable to reach Kabrit with the remaining fuel.

About a month later we were called to the briefing room at our base, Kabrit, where an army Captain Intelligence Officer told us how on that night he had been keeping watch from a nearby hill top at Tymbaki, in order to assess the progress the Germans were making with building the airfield, when he heard a lone aircraft come over. The officer heard us make several runs across, then drop a single bomb dead in the middle of the Germans’ accommodation camp, just about wiping out everything and everybody. He was most impressed. What also impressed him was the fact that he had only conveyed the information about the building of the airfield three days before. It is also very rare to get such first hand eyewitness accounts of individual bombing results.