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Tatoi today Tatoi airfield lies about 9 miles or 15 km North of the centre of Athens, within a mile or so of the 1940s Tatoi station on the railway that runs north to Thebes and on to Larisa and Thessaloniki. Perhaps 12 miles or 20 km away to the West is Elevsis (Eleusis), close by the bay of the same name and on the railway west to Corinth.
The main runway, 0321, lies at far right above the wing of the glider. Mt Parnes (Parnitha) on the horizon, right. The wild beauty of this mountain national park suffered much in the forest fires of 2007. As remarked elsewhere, the summer palace of the Greek Royal Family was at Tatoi proper, some 4 miles (8km) to the North by road, on the lower slopes of Mt Parnes. There HM George II King of the Hellenes was born in 1890. In World War II, the proximity of the Royal palace caused the RAF to adopt Menidi as the name of the airfield (yet often preferring “Menidi-Tatoi”!). The village of Menidi with its railway station lay some 2 miles (4km) nearer Athens. “Decelie, fountain of the golden wine...”
Today the airfield is occupied by the HAF as Dekelia-Tatoi Air Base, where the Athens Glider Club still retains flying rights. The airfield, TATOI LGTT, is at 38° 06' 32"N 23° 47' 02"E with an elevation of 785ft (239 metres) and the main runway, now as then, is aligned 0321, the winds of change notwithstanding.
A nice landing on runway 0321 with Parnes in the background, just as L6670 was caught in the same place but mid-flare, forty years before.
The hangar still as in 1940. Photographs courtesy of the Athens Glider Club http://www.anla.gr/. Menidi today Paramythia then and now The modern boundaries of Greece had been set nearly thirty years before, by the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest. In settling the Second Balkan War of 1913, the Treaty included the ceding of Epirus (including Yannina and Paramythia) back to Greece. It may be that some confusion may have arisen for Lamb if his FAA charts were of pre World War I vintage, a far from impossible case. In any event, contemporary maps of both German and British origin were in accord with the 1913 settlement and clearly show the border NW of Paramythia in its modern position, as shown on the following sheets: 1:100000 Greece Sheet PARGA III H (MDR 356/7044 printed by 514 Fd Survey Coy RE 1943) Impractical to reproduce all of them here, however, the Airfields Used by the RAF in Greece sheet and the German Grechenland Nord sheet are shown on the Maps page. When the Italians invaded across the Albanian border on 28 October 1940, Paramythia was briefly occupied, suffering damage to the village. The Greek counter-attack was prompt and effective. By 15 November 1940, Greece was free of Italian forces (AIR 21/48 RAF Narrative–Middle East Campaigns Vol VI: The Campaign in Greece). As the Italians rapidly withdrew deep into Albania, they also carried out some demolition of mountain road culverts, which were still being repaired as the 211 Squadron convoy journeyed North in February 1941.
The blown culvert has been roughly repaired, left. Despite the obvious dangers and the political tensions within Greece, the welcome accorded to RAF men in Athens, Corfu, Paramythia, Agrinion and elsewhere remains bright in the memory of veterans. When the Germans overran Greece in 1941, there were reprisals. The village and its history are the subjects of this beautiful little site, full of wonder and sadness: http://www.paramythia.gr/
In Athens, Kyprianos Biris and some friends in General Aviation have an active interest in flying and finding old aerodromes in Greece. Kyp keeps an on-line album at the Hellas General Aviation page, where he has a number of his own photographs of Paramythia, some of which he has kindly agreed to share here. In writing to me, Kyp sent his warm greetings “to the legendary crewmen who flew in this place”. Well put, Kyp...and nice shots too...
www.211squadron.org © DR Clark & others 1998–2008 |
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