Focus Roald Dahl and the Lost Campaign Trevor Fisher North Africa. But victories in the desert Following the successful filming could not compensate for expulsion of his book ‘Charlie and the from the European continent or Chocolate Factory’, Roald Dahl has counteract the disasters in Norway an international reputation as a and France. When Mussolini decided children’s writer. There is, however, to invade Greece through Albania in a macabre dimension to his writing October 1940, this seemed to Churchill’s underlined by his successful TV series government an opportunity to take ‘Tales of the Unexpected’. Dark the fight against the Axis back on to episodes in Dahl’s highly successful European soil. career touched his life with tragedy. The decision was at least in part This is clearly the case over his war designed to bolster confidence that experiences as a fighter ace in the Britain had the ability to fight alone darkest hours of World War Two. against the Axis. Alas, the Greek experience was as negative as the In his early twenties, Dahl was an previous campaigns. Consequently RAF fighter pilot in the Near East. historians have tended to regard the He joined up late in 1939 at a time Greek Campaign as nothing more than when British forces were fighting the a blind alley. A J P Taylor, in the Oxford Axis alone. After commissioning History of England, for example, argues he was ordered to North Africa to the campaign was launched “on political fly against the Italians. Before he and sentimental grounds,” not military had a chance to fight, he crashed ones, devoting only a paragraph to its in the desert and was temporarily genesis and development. blinded. After a painful recovery he Yet to the men who fought in Greece was retrained and sent to Greece. His the disaster was something more than first actual combat was in the Greek a side show best forgotten. Despite campaign which was a wholesale realising the campaign was doomed, disaster. Though Dahl wrote about they fought with courage, skill and his experiences even his fame has not determination. Even before the British lifted the veil which has shrouded actually engaged the Germans, it was British intervention in Greece and abundantly clear to men in the front line which deserves to be lifted. like Dahl that the Greek expedition was destined to be a lost cause. This did not shake their resolve. n the period following the Dunkirk Ievacuation, the British took comfort Dahl’s introduction to Greece from successes against the Italians in Dahl had volunteered for the RAF in November 1939, training to fly Gladiators. On being commissioned on 5 October 1940, Dahl was posted to 80 Roald Dahl in RAF uniform, 1941. Squadron, then on the Libyan-Egyptian Images reproduced courtesy of RDNL border. His first attempt to join his 22 The Historian / Autumn 2007 squadron ended in disaster. Given the naval power led them to believe they Battle of Britain had made him a wrong location, he ran out of fuel and could maintain an expeditionary force veteran. Coke took Dahl under his crashed with such force that his face in the peninsula against the Germans, wing, outlining the differences between was smashed and he was temporarily and 60,000 troops were earmarked for the Battle of Britain and flying in blinded. Luckily he was picked up by Greece. They were totally outmatched Greece. Over Kent, the RAF had had soldiers from a British regiment and when Hitler diverted a force ten times radar and efficient radio telephone. taken back to Alexandria where he was the size of the British forces to prevent The Commanding Officer flew with given the best surgery available, and the British gaining a foothold in the his pilots and new men were paired patched up ready for battle. Balkans. Once the Germans attacked with experienced flyers. None of this Dahl was fit to fly again by March Yugoslavia on 6 April the British were applied in Greece. There were no radio 1941. The Italian offensive in North setting a very puny David to fight a very communications with the ground. Africa had been blunted and the British large Goliath. A pilot had to fight his way out of felt they could open second front in When Dahl arrived in Greece, trouble alone and, against the Junkers Greece after the Italian invasion of British troops were already retreating. 88 bomber, the RAF was at a distinct October 1940. The Uptton cartoon in The British airforce in Greece, some disadvantage. The Germans were using The Daily Sketch underlined the British 200 planes, had achieved great success tracer shells so they could see where belief in sea power and, while British against the poor quality Italian airforce. they were aiming. The Hurricanes fired aid was initially confined to outdated But the strain on the outdated planes bullets and, if these did not get an engine aircraft, by the time Dahl joined the had been considerable and when the instantly, the attack had failed. When conflict the decision had been made to German attack began, only 80 were attacking a Ju88 the attack had to be send a major force of troops and more serviceable. Dahl thought a large made from well below or the Hurricane modern aircraft to counter the threat of number of modern planes were to be would be exposed to devastating fire. a German invasion. Events were to prove sent to bolster the handful of Hurricanes Coke outlined a survival strategy. that sea power was not enough against a already in Greece. He was mistaken. He Despite Coke’s good advice, when superb modern army. was the sole reinforcement. Dahl made his first attack two days later Dahl was ordered to retrain on When he landed at Eleusis airfield he forgot not merely what Coke had Hurricanes and rejoin his squadron in near Athens, he was confronted by an told him, but the elementary rule that Greece. It was at this point that Dahl unpleasant reality. Already suffering attacks were made out of the sun. In began to grasp the inadequacy of British physically—at six feet six inches tall, the excitement of his first attack, Dahl preparations to fight in the Balkans. Dahl contracted severe cramp if strapped went straight for six Ju88s in line, at He was allowed only two days to train into his plane for any length of time the same height and with the sun in his on the new plane and, after a little —ground staff added mental discomfort. eyes. All six bombers were formed up over seven hours practice, without any They told him that the Germans had in line abreast, allowing the six German preparation on combat tactics for an 1000 modern planes in Greece, while the gunners to aim at Dahl simultaneously. aircraft much more complex than any he RAF had only 80 planes that could fly. Only the fact that flying into a gap in the had flown before, he was sent to what he Greece was a disaster in the making to mountains forced the German pilots to quickly realised was a military disaster. rival those of 1940, but Dahl later noted go back into line saved Dahl from being that: subject to a lethal hail of bullets. By good The situation in Greece luck Dahl hit one of the engines of the The Italian invasion of Greece the it was not receiving the publicity that bomber bringing up the rear, downing previous October had triggered British Dunkirk had received because it was a the plane and forcing the aircrew to bail support for the Greeks. Churchill military bloomer best covered up. out, but he knew he had a miraculous promised their leader Metaxos that survival. “We will fight in a common cause and The failure in Norway had toppled The following day German fighters share a common victory”, but this was Chamberlain’s government. Dunkirk had arrived to defend the bombers and the little more than bombast. Britain was gone down in history as a heroic retreat. odds against him and his colleagues struggling to maintain an army in North But Greece was a disaster best ignored. became astronomical. After attacking Africa after the disasterous losses of Curiously Dahl was unfazed, being a second Ju88 he was chased by 30 or equipment incurred during the Dunkirk young enough not to feel fear, though 40 Messerschmitt 109 fighters and only evacuation, and initially the Greeks did he calculated the odds against his escaped by flying below tree top height not want British military support for fear surviving were 50 to 1. Dahl found thus daring the enemy to risk crashing of provoking a German invasion. his Commanding Officer impossible into local buildings. The Germans pulled Metaxos knew that the Germans, to talk to, saying that the man was out, knowing they were within striking then taking over the crucial oil rich state overwhelmed by the task before him, but distance of the Greek airfields and need of Rumania to the north, had the most he related easily to David Coke, a pilot take no risks. The next couple of days formidable army in Europe. The Greeks officer with whom Dahl shared a tent. were a blur in Dahl’s memory as the only wanted to fight Mussolini and When Coke discovered that Dahl had German Blitzkrieg swept south towards needed air support to bolster their forces no combat experience, he was horrified. Athens. The Times Correspondent on the Albanian front. The British sent Dahl was equally horrified when he was reported on the 19 April Blenheim bombers and Gladiator told that there would be no chance to bi-planes.