Farm Yard Siege In Liopetri
This account of the Siege In Liopetrihas been reproduced from "Quis Separabit" The Regimental Journal of the 1st Royal Ulster Rifles.
In the blackest hours before late summer dawn, a routine cordon and search operation began in the dusty peasant village of Liopetri in the east end of Cyprus.
The operation was mounted by 'A', 'B', 'SP' and HQ Companies of the 1st Battalion, the Royal Ulster Rifles, and Minden Battery, 20th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery. Troops were dropped from vehicles about three miles from the village, known as a hotbed of mature EOKA resistance, and marched in stealth from equidistant points to it from the north, east and west.
10 minutes after the cordon had been mounted at 0300 hours, a motorcar was seen trying to leave the village to the west. A rifleman of 'A' Company challenged the car. A party of men appeared from behind the car and immediately opened fire with automatic weapons on the cordon. 'A Company returned fire and the men behind the car turned on their heels and made it back into the village. It was impossible to track down the escaping gunmen immediately because of the darkness, but the driver of the car was arrested.
Shortly after dawn a search of the area where the shots had been exchanged was made and 'A' Company recovered five 9 mm cases as well as one loaded magazine of 45 rounds for an M.3 automatic weapon. The van was found to be owned by the village EOKA leader and an identity card bearing the name of Elias Samaras was found lying on the ground nearby.
At 3:45 a.m. all men and boys from 14 to 60 years of age were turned out of bed and paraded behind wire at the village school. The sun was well up by the time and Special Branch had identified Elias Samaras where he was well known as a member of the local EOKA force. By 3:00 p.m. that afternoon, Samaras had provided Special Branch with information that lead to extensive searches. Searching went on all day and everyone was becoming tired and pessimistic by nightfall.
A house was surrounded and searched but nothing was found save the remains of the demolished hide. Samaras then led a party to two hides recently constructed about 3 miles out of Liopetri to the southwest. One of these, near a water tank, consisted of a shaft 15 ft. deep met by a horizontal shaft at the bottom some 20 ft. long. He then led the intelligence officer and Special Branch to the cemetery where a box containing four bombs was extracted and a further three bombs were found under the floor of the coffee shop on the other side of the road.
During the following night a sort of treasure hunt ensured with Samaras leading the way to the chaff house where he claimed to have hidden three armed men the previous morning. He also initiated several wild goose chases. It was felt that Samaras' intention was to play for time to give the three men who were actually hiding in the chaff house time to move out.
The second dawn brought little hope and growing frustration. After mess tin ablutions and breakfast were brought to us along the dusty track from Famagusta, events took a startling turn.
A helpful suggestion from the Battalion Ops room back in camp that the chaff should be cleared from the barn brought immediate results. A section of 'B' Company started racking only to be met by a volley of bullets from within. Riflemen Bolger was slightly wounded by this volley and Mr. Boyed fought a rear guard action back through the door. The cordon was thickened, and fire was poured in through the doorway. Corporal Fleet of 'I' Section called on the gunmen in Greek to surrender. It was 30 minutes before much reaction was provoked and then a terrorist was hit crossing the doorway. At this juncture 'A' Company with Major MacIntyre, Capt. Brady and Mr. Ashton-Johnson, were providing the cordon while 'B' Company, recent heroes of Lyis, with Captain Heyland, Mr. Boyed and CSM McConnel provided the point, and five sections. Minden Battery, 20th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, was in close support but in an infantry and not a gunner role.
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Exhortations to surrender in the best Intelligence Corps Greek were greeted by uncompromising volleys of fire. Mr. Gallwey and Mr. Boyd repeatedly threw Mills 36 grenades into parts of the barn where the gunmen were holding out but this appeared to have little effect.
Capt. Lucy became inspired with the idea of using a 3.5 rocket launcher. Accordingly the weapon was dispatched from 'B' Echelon in Famagusta and the RSO and CSM McConnell made up the rocket pair. However, after 11 consecutive rockets fired from varying angles, return fire continued and the building was still secure.
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16 men of 'B' Company and Mr. Boyd then rushed the building. They included Bowes, Rumbell and L/Cpl Smallwood, all of whom were wounded. Despite heavy fire from within Mr. Boyd established himself with four men on the veranda immediately outside the barn door. A terrorist dashed out with a submachine gun and fired on Mr. Boyd wounding him in the leg. Cpl. Shaughnessy, who was at his side and had expended all his ammunition, seized the piece of masonry and hurled it at the gunman snatching away his automatic weapon at the same time Rfn. Moore shot the gunman down. Shortly before this Rfn. Kinsella had been hit in the head. |
In the meantime Mr. Gallwey dashed through the heavy fire onto the veranda to take command of the situation and Mr. Boyd was dragged away. He pressed hone the attack against the last two desperate EOKA men. Under cover of this attack the Commanding Officer, Lance Corporal Gill (a dog handler), and Lance Corporal Dillan (MT) were able to climb up onto the roof of the barn and pour petrol on it setting it alight. This finally drove the last two terrorists out and they were shot down.
The battle of Liopetri ended after midday. The discrepancy in numbers had been irrelevant. In a matter of hours the riflemen had tasted the fanatical determination of the EOKA to resist almost to the death. And many of us too, learned of the cool selfless herders and of the initiative rifleman.
The terrorists killed were Christos Samaras Fotis, Starou Pittas, Andreas Karios, and Elias Papa Kyriakos. Most regrettably Rfn. D.D. Kinsella died from wounds he had received. For his bravery during the battle, Cpl. Paddy Shaughnessy was awarded the Military Medal.
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Opposite, Rfn. Dennis Kinsellas grave. Wayne's Keep Cemetery in the United Nations Protected Area of Nicosia Lefkosa. |
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The traitor was Elias Samaras, brother of Xanthos Samaras, leader of the group. He was held at an interrogation centre for a month then flown to England. 17 days later he returned to Cyprus and surrendered himself to the EOKA, unable, it was alleged, to bear the pain of his guilt. He confessed and pleaded for his life, saying he gave way after torture but this cut no ice with Grives, and he ordered Samaras to be executed.
Grives sent this order to the area commander: "I see no mitigating circumstances in the treachery of Samaras. He will be executed. The execution will be a lesson to everyone, showing that no one may ask for pardon on the excuse that their treachery was due to torture. The greatness of a fighter lies in not giving away to violence or physical suffering, and in not being countered by enemies' bullets. As the leader, because of the family spiritual the ability, because of the trade to sincere repentance and because he has paid for his crime with death. I shall say no more. Everyone must judge the man for himself."
Greek shrine to the EOKAmen who where killed
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These are pictures of the updated shrine to the four EOKA gunmen killed by 1 R.U.R in September 1958. The modernised shrine which is less warlike and heroic than the original stands on the site of the gun battle between EOKA and 1 R.U.R in which all four gunmen were killed and a Rfn D.D.Kinsella killed and four Rfn. wounded. This site which shows how prosperous the village of Liopetri has become was photographed in August 2003 |
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Towards the end of August the camp started to buzz with rumours of an 'Op' in the offering. Being a radio operator, I was able to gain access to some of the inner sanctums and on one occasion heard the name Liopetri mentioned. Being an actually inquisitive person (Nosey) I had a look on the map and soon found the place, not far from Famagusta. It was marked as a hot village, in other words infested with EOKA.
The operation started in the early hours of the morning with troops approaching the village from three different directions and the cordon was in place by 3:00am in the morning. The troops were in light order that is carrying personal weapons and wearing soft shoes. This soft shoe approach was, as usual, not soft enough, the village dogs giving ample warning that the troops were about. Suddenly a cry of, "Halt" rang out followed by a burst of firing. Intelligence reports had been right that there were terrorists in the village and they seemed to be trying to shoot their way out. There was a long drawn-out burst of fire, possibly from a Sterling submachine gun. They were the only automatic weapons carried by the patrol. Then a voice piped up, " They've got a Bren. The truth was most of the Rfn. were carrying Belgium FN self-loading rifles and had learned that if the charge cleaver was removed and the trigger squeezed, all 22 rounds in the magazine were fired at once. This gave a huge weight of fire but wasted ammunition and could cause the barrel of the rifle to warp.
Suddenly the sky was lit up by flares, dozens of them floating gently to earth on small parachutes. The terrorists must have gone into hiding as a deathly silence fell over the village and the night seemed to last for ever.
At first light the cordon started to close in, all adult males and youths were rounded up and placed in hastily erected wire compounds to be interviewed later by Special Branch.
After eating a symptomatic search began. The village was a mixture of modern houses and the more traditional mud brick structures. It was from one of the old style buildings that the first shots came. It was a small, single story building with a chaff house and archways (see photographs), and fronting the building was a pigsty and some small out buildings forming an open square. At the sound of gunfire the troops all ran towards the sound, and the lasting impression of that moment was the clashing breach blocks, as men put one up the spout.
This was it. The months of fruitless patrols, wasted ambushes, and boring guard duty were over, as we had an unknown number of terrorist cornered and they were not getting away. Word got around that the battle started with a section of men racking through chaff and being fired on from the rafters. There was an old iron bedstead outside the bar and some terrorists could be seen crouched behind it. It was like a scene from a movie, as a voice yelled for covering fire. Dozens of weapons poured fire into the barn and house, as the men behind the bedstead scrambled for cover dragging a wounded comrade with them.
There was a lull then except for the occasional shot as a target presented itself. After a couple of hours of stalemate a couple boxes of Mills 36 fragmentation grenades appeared, and things degenerated into a farce. The several grenades that had been hurled at the open doorway failed to go off, and in fact the damn things had no fuses in them. We had to try and remove the base plug with coins, as there were no removing tools in the box. Eventually the grenades were fused and thrown. It was a waste of time and the only result was to fill the air with shrapnel with a lot a small pieces ending up in the back of the nearest rifleman, but only causing very minor flesh wounds.
Finally a party arrived from base camp with a 3.5 rocket launcher. The plan was to be breach the mud brick walls with the rockets. Alas, the rockets, good against armour plate, were no good against mud brick walls. The 10 rockets fired only raised huge clouds of dust and deafened all within miles. Into this dust storm raced Lieutenant K. Boyed and a number of riflemen. To their horror they found the walls were intact, and changing tactics they ran for the open doorway firing as they went. Silhouetted against the blinding sunlight they were an easy target for those inside and several men fell wounded. Cpl. Paddy Shaughnessy, his weapon empty, now faced a terrorist advancing on him, so bending down Paddy picked up a piece of masonry, struck the terrorist with it, snatched the terrorist's weapon from him, and killed the terrorist with it.
The attacking party was now retiring to safety Rfn. Kinsella lay badly wounded against the wall to the side of the door, but his wound was to prove fatal. Lieutenant Boyed, his leg shattered, lay writhing in agony on the patio, and Rfn. Rumble, with a serious chest wound, was pulled out of the line of fire. Many men rushed forward to assist the wounded Lieutenant Boyed and he was dragged through an area of prickly scrubs, which tore at his flesh, but it was shortest and the safest way out of the rough. His chest, pumping blood, was attended to by a sergeant, a veteran of WW II and Korea, who was no stranger to wounds and his treatment was simple. He tore Rumble's shirt open and stuck his fist into the gaping wound to stop the bleeding.
The next problem was Rfn. Kinsella who was lying motionless in the doorway and failed to respond to calls. It was much later before his body could be retrieved. The barn was proving to be more like a pillbox, and different tactics were now used. A Greek-speaking soldier called on the terrorists to surrender, but this was answered by a burst of fire and the sudden appearance in the doorway of a terrorist. He was shot down in an instant, and following this L/Cpl. Gill climbed onto the roof and poured petrol into the barn. The two remaining terrorists came charging out into a hail of bullets, as they choose to die rather than surrender. Cowardly terrorists? I think not. If they had but known that soon the emergency would be over and Cyprus would be independent.
So ended the longest and bloodiest action of the whole Cyprus campaign. 5 brave men died and I wonder if it was worth it.
News Paper Report
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Story of the Liopetri Battle told the inquest today Famagusta Thursday. An inquest was held today on death of four Greeks Cypriots who were killed in a gun battle with security forces in the village of Liopetri on September the second. The men killed were Christos Samaras Fotis, Starou Pittas, Andreas Karios, and Elias Papa Kyriakos. Main witness was Captain Taylor who described the battle. He says with his platoon he went to search a house at Liopetri. Shots were fired at them as they approached a barn. The soldiers took positions up around the house and called for reinforcements. In the meantime automatic fire came from the barn. A soldier who could speak Greek shouted of the men to surrender. For a while the shootings cease but then it started again more violently. A number of soldiers were wounded. On the officers' orders three types of grenades were thrown into the barn One Greek ran out firing and was shot and killed. The an order was given or an attack 14 soldiers rushed capture the barn. 6 succeeded in getting into the house from the verandah but while the verandah they were fired at and two them were wounded. When a soldier tried to take the wounded into the room fire was opened against him by a man the soldier hauled a stone at the man and knocked him down and shot him dead. Meanwhile of soldiers opened a hole in the back of the house and then through a hole in the roof they poured petrol down into the barn and set it on fire. The two remaining men in the barn ran out there were shot dead by soldiers. During a search of the place two bombs a radio foodstuffs blankets and various weapons were found. The coroners verdict was that the four Cypriots died from injuries they had received from returned fire from the security forces in the execution of their duty and Private Kinsellas who was killed two in the battle died from gunshot wounds received from the terrorists fire. The Coroner praised the security forces highly for this action |
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