"Cold Rage"
by ex Royal Marine James Robinson

Driven beyond their stoical self restraint, the 29th field Reg., and their good neighbors, the Royal Ulster Rifles, were quickly brought into town, to turn out the entire Greek male population, and search their houses. They were, in the words of  The Times Correspondent, "In the grip of a sheer cold rage. No pretense was made, that kid gloves methods, were used". And the Daily Mail correspondent reported, "I was shocked, when I saw rows of bloody, and bandaged Greek Cypriots, lying on the floors  in the Famaguster Hospital".

Grivas simultaneously denied the murder of Mrs. Cutliffe, and, ordered an all out attack on Military locations. They were the heaviest, along the Kyrenian Range, and in the Troodos Mountains. The Guerrillas resumed their attacks and ambushes, bringing death to an officer, and two Marines, of 45 Commando, who had relieved 40 Commando, and the death of two men of The Royal Welch Fusiliers. But, the Guerrillas more frequently came off worst, in the encounters with these two units. Most serious of all, were the attacks, and the planting of explosive devices, in NAAFI canteens, in Akrotiri.  A bomb explosion in the NAAFI,  killed two airmen, and wounded seven. This latter little episode, caused 3,000 Cypriots employed by the NAAFI, to lose their jobs, and, it is expressive of the sympathy felt in Britain for the service men, that 17,000 people answered the call for volunteers to replace them.

Ruses, were now being added to the offensive repertoire of the troops, in particular, by the Marine Commandos in the Troodos Mountains. A guerrilla might see a Marine, apparently dead, and covered in blood, lying with weapon beside him, but, would  find himself  looking down the muzzle of a gun, as he attempted to retrieve the weapon. Another, might see a soldier lackadaisically riding along on a donkey, only to find himself being held up at gun point. Search operations continued, in the snow-capped Troodos mountains. Grivas had been driven back onto the defensive. In the month of February 1959, at a conference in London, it was announced that Cyprus would be granted independence within the British Commonwealth, with the retention of two British bases. Grivas was an embittered man. Union with Greece, for which he had been fighting, had not been achieved. The whole cost of the conflict, in lives, was, the death of seven British officers, and seventy-two men, out of a total death roll, of 393, (of whom 218 were Greek), not counting the victims of inter communal fighting. The Army once again, could claim to have prevented Cyprus from disintegrating in violence.

This picture of me was taken during a Cordon and Search operation  in the snow-capped Troodos Mountains. My service in the Royal Marines started in the april of 1947 and I went to pension june 1971,I joined HM Prison service, serving at Dartmoor, Exeter, and the Maze Prison Northern Ireland. I'm now retired and studying military history. James Robinson May 2000