Wilson's headquarters in an olive grove at the Tripoli road

26 April 1941 Proven

On 26 April 1941 the headquarters of W Force was hidden in an olive grove at Myloi, where the trees gave cover from the German dive bombers. Wilson himself wrote that it lay 'close to where the road to Tripolis leaves the sea and turns westward inland; it was close to the small fishing port of Myloi'. That points to the southern edge of the village, at the turn of the Tripoli road. Radio sets were set up under the trees, but the connections kept failing.

Read the full story: 1941, war in Greece: Myloi from above

Where

Olive grove headquarters (1941), Junction with the Tripoli road, Myloi (the village)

Who

Henry Maitland Wilson, Bernard Freyberg

Threads

War and occupation

Certainty

Proven confirmed by primary sources

Pictures

• 

  Greece, 1941, in the field: Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Blamey, Lieutenant General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson and Major General Bernard Freyberg (left to right). Australian War Memorial 128425 · public domain

Sources

• H. M. Wilson (Field-Marshal Lord Wilson), Eight Years Overseas 1939–1947, London: Hutchinson 1950, pp. c. 95–98 Open (opens in a new tab)
• Supplement to the London Gazette no. 38293, 19 May 1948: despatch of Admiral A. B. Cunningham with the report of Rear-Admiral H. T. Baillie-Grohman, par. 30–32 Open (opens in a new tab)
• C. Buckley, Greece and Crete 1941, London: HMSO 1952, pp. 106, 118–127 Open (opens in a new tab)

Also in this period

1. 13 December 1940

   A soldier from Skafidaki falls on the Albanian front

   The Greek Army's roll of the dead of 1940–45 records Sokratis Papanastasopoulos, born in Skafidaki in 1916, killed at Golemi on the Albanian front on 13 December 1940.

   ProvenWar and occupation

2. 28 December 1940

   A soldier born in Myloi dies in the military hospital of Mesolongi

   Private Panagiotis Lymperopoulos, son of Epameinondas, born in Myloi in 1915, died in the military hospital of Mesolongi on 28 December 1940, during the Greek-Italian war. He is listed in the Greek Army's roll of the…

   ProvenWar and occupation

3. 1941–1942

   A second German reconnaissance flight photographs the bay

   A German strip flight of 1941–1942 (film 93) photographed Myloi again: the curve of the bay, the village along the main road at the foot of Pontinos, the station and the pier.

   ProvenWar and occupation

4. 1941–1943

   A coastal gun near the tower of Bouboulina

   Among the occupation defences of Myloi was a coastal gun next to the tower known as the tower of Bouboulina. The base of the gun emplacement could still be seen in 1994.

   ProbableWar and occupation