Operation Sarande , Albania No 2 Commando,3 Troop

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 09/05/2010 23:26:22

I recently came across these copies of a letter myfather wrote to Roderick Bailey of the Imperial War Museum.

Just to give a little background, I remember my Dad saying that he had seen in the paper a request for info from anyone who had served in Albania with the Commandos.
I imagine Mr. Bailey had placed ads in papers all over the world, quite an undertaking to say the least, seeking background information for a possible book /research.
Dad told us he was going to respond but did not divulge what he wrote.

After his passing my sister contacted Mr.Bailey requesting a copy of the letter ,I have included Mr. Baileys reply and my fathers letter.

I am curious as to why evacuated British wounded would be wearing German clothes?
Can anyone shed some light on this?

Heres page 3 and 4 of the letter .

I have posted these in order to add some info to the CVA but I'm not sure that Dad would have been so keen on sharing his personal mail.

Page 3 and 4 are out of order perhaps Pete can change that , thanks .

Also , typical of these brave men he had never mentioned being wounded to any of us.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 21/05/2010 10:31:42

Hi Lindsay

Sorry about the delay on this one. I have placed your father's letter under Personal Accounts in the Letters and Documents album which can be seen here :
http://www.commandoveterans.org/cdoGallery/v/documents/

This album is slowly developing with some good documents held by families and I am hoping for many more. I have added a photo there as it is a personal document and it is good to see the person who actually wrote it. I will try and do this with all such documents.

As regards why your father and the other wounded were wearing German shirts on their arrival at hospital, I can only think of how he describes the weather - raining for 3 days making their "slit trenches very uncomfortable", he says they were " a pretty ragged group" at the end and "hungry". If they were wounded I would imagine wet clothing would be the first thing you would want to remove and replace with anything dry that was to hand so to speak . Of course that is pure supposition !

Pete

Ps. My thoughts are that your father would be pleased that you posted his letter, and that the Commandos were still remembered

Thanks Pete , I opened the link to have a look and as usual your work in the galleries is excellent , much appreciated.

Lindsay

This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 11/11/2013 17:53:47

Some modern photos from Paul Bell showing areas of conflict on the 9th October 1944 as they look now. Paul adds the following information:

I went over to Albania on a coach trip this summer on holiday and managed to squeeze in one night in Sarande. My wife and I didn't get there until 6 o'clock in the evening, but I still managed to run up the hills behind and after two hours reached the spot (pt 469) where 2 Cdo led its charge on the morning 9th Oct 44. As Veterans often say the cactus rocks under foot was absolutely terrible, how they managed to negotiate it with full kit on in the dark I'll never know."

1st photo is the new road that runs through Commando Valley to Sugar Beach. On the left is the 2000ft ridge where 2 cdo spent many a miserable night in the rain in the weeks leading up to the attack.

2nd Photo is the view from just south of Pt 469 looking towards Pt 264 that the Assyrian Levis attacked (the prominent hill pretty much in the centre of the photo). Just in front of that is a smaller hill with a few olive trees on where the first gun battery was encountered, with the 25 Pdr battery a bit further along from that

3rd photo is from the bay of Sarande itself looking up at the hills were the attack started. The hill on the left is Pt 507 where 40 (RM) Cdo attacked from, and the hill on the right of the valley is Pt 469 where 2 Cdo started from

This message was edited 5 times. Last update was at 08/11/2013 22:36:49

Some more photos from Paul from his trip to Sarande with the Point markers thereon clear when downloaded

The holiday was excellent thank you, it's a very strange place Albania but absolutely fascinating with some stunning scenery, I'd recommend it to anyone. I've attached a few more pictures which I have marked up, to make it clearer. I've also attached one of Spilje 'then and now', not the best 'now' picture unfortunately as it was taken from a very fast bus!

Follow this link to view our No 2 Commando in Albania album