GREECE• 219three Greeks, all of whom Hammond had trained at Haifa and then
accompanied on a parachute course at Kabrit. Sheppard’s task was
primarily political, to establish contact with ELAS and report on
them, whereas Hammond was given a military objective by Brigadier
Keble, the destruction of a strategically important railway bridge over
the River Peneus in the Vale of Tempe.
The insertion of this second and third mission into Greece caused
complications for Brigadier Myers, who had not been consulted in
advance and was anxious not to give support inadvertently to an un-
known guerrilla group. Accordingly he established himself as the
senior British military liaison officer, taking Woodhouse as his sec-
ond in command, and divided up the country into four regions, which
he assigned to two Royal New Zealand Engineers, Tom Barnes and
Arthur Edmonds, and the two academics Sheppard and Hammond.
Under these new arrangements, a second operation was launched
to sabotage the key north–south rail link over the Peneus, which had
been repaired. A mission consisting of Major P. Wingate and two
sappers, Captains Scott and McIntyre, was dropped into the territory
controlled by a tough ex-commando, Geoffrey Gordon-Creed. To-
gether they mounted an attack on the heavily defended bridge at
Asopos. After they were joined by another commando, Donald Stott
from New Zealand, and an escaped PoW, Lance-Corporal Chester
Lockwood, they finally succeeded at the second attempt in June
- The structure was almost unapproachable, as it spanned a deep
chasm between two long tunnels, with 40 German sentries armed
with machine guns posted at both entrances. The only possible ap-
proach was a near suicidal frontal attack up the gully with the sabo-
teurs climbing the ironwork to attach their charges. Gordon-Creed’s
team, unarmed apart from rubber coshes, braved a torrent of flood-
water to carry five packages of high explosives to the base of the
cantilevered bridge. One inquisitive enemy picket was dispatched si-
lently, and the party placed their charges on a guard platform directly
under the main span and retired. An hour and a half later, the de-
layed-action charges detonated, transforming the fortified viaduct
into a mass of useless ironwork. It was later reported that the Ger-
mans were so convinced that only treachery could have enabled the
saboteurs to destroy the viaduct that they executed the entire guard
detachment.