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WHO SANK THE HELLE; a naval detective story.
In Preparation
In 1940 a small warship belonging to a neutral nation lay at anchor off a Greek Island taking part in a religious festival. The ship was the ancient Greek Navy minelayer Helle; the place was the religious island of Tinos; the occasion was the Feast of the Assumption. Suddenly, without any warning at all, three torpedoes were seen cutting through the still waters towards the ship, fired from a submerged submarine. One hit the target, exploding, causing fires and a heavy list. Within a short time the little Helle had capsized and sunk.
Ashore all was chaos and confusion. Who could have committed such an outrage? What manner of person and nation had both murdered and sinned simultaneously in such a cold-blooded manner? At once the warring nations set the air waves alight with condemnation, denial and accusation. From the Fascist led Italian capital Rome, the Italian dictator's navy minister denied all responsibility; from Nazi Germany came the claim that "Perfidious Albion" was to blame, trying to drag Greece into their own war with the Axis. London issued a stern denial, blaming the Axis, and queried Admiral Cunningham, the C-in-C of the Mediterranean Fleet as to the situation. He was able to signal, "No British submarine within one hundred miles of Tinos".
It did not take the Greeks long to establish that the torpedoes which had sunk the Helle were Italian, fragments they recovered proved their manufacture beyond doubt. But no great fuss was made from Athens, for the simple reason that the Greek leaders were scared stiff of provoking the Axis into any move against their small nation. There the matter rested for some months, but when, a few months later, the Italians did finally invade Greece, the Greeks were able to speak up on what they had found, but their voice was lost in the babble of war.
Nobody in Greece or Britain had any doubts as to whom had carried out this despicable deed, but, after the war the truth began to be muddied by "revisionists" in both Italy and America. Italians claimed that although the torpedoes were Italian they had been captured by the British from sunken Italian submarines and then fired by a British vessel! Naive Americans in an organisation formed to promote "Universal Historical Research" took these allegations at pure face value and printed them, emphasising that the Italians in 1940 had no reason to carry out such an act. At once British veterans rushed to reply pointing out the historical facts of the case, but mud sticks and to this day many Italians and Americans remained convinced that the British sank the Helle.
The author, bitterly attacked at the time for trying to establish the truth and for pouring scorn on attempts to re-write history, undertook and long and patient piece of historical detection. Probing records, signals, documents and statements from Athens, Rome, Berlin, London and elsewhere the evidence was painstakingly assembled. The story as here related covers the full story of the Helle herself, and reveals not only the extent of this misinformation, but establishes beyond doubt exactly which submarine, which commander, and which Fascist leader was responsible for one of the more outrageous acts of World War II.
Publisher enquiries welcome.