Visit to the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in Milan

Photos only. Full text to follow.

View of the cemetery from the main gate. Percy's grave amongst those on the left

The section where Percy is buried

Percy's headstone

Percy's nephew, John, beside the the grave

John sprinkling sand from Stanley Bay Beach, Auckland on the grave.
John and Gina also took some pebbles from the grave for the Vasiliki and Georgos in Koukounara

John with the gardener.

The book of rememberance is housed here

Digging / field walking and musing

The main reason for our trip to Greece was, of course, to try and make contact with people who had sheltered my uncle in 1941, 1942. And how successful we have been!
Successful beyond our expectations because of the help we have received from the staff of the University of Missouri, St Louis. Their enthusiasm for us to be successful is only matched by the practical help they are giving us.

And the course is a fantastic experience also. Every day we are up at 5.30 ish for a good breakfast and then out to the bus ( a beautiful new Mercedes model with a very careful diver from guess where: yep, Koukounara!).
The jobs are rotated so you might find yourself field walking one day, cleaning specimens at the Pylos museum the next, then on the actual dig and helping the Sat Nav team the next. So if you are on the Sat Nav team you're up a bit earlier to get out into the field to set up the days grids for the field groups to cover.

I enjoyed that immensely as my grandfather was a land surveyor and used a theodolite and chain as his tools of trade. Nowadays of course all coordinates are obtained from satellites and distances are measured similarly or by laser. He would have been delighted, especially when I remember the mistakes I made when "chaining" for him!

No log tables , no chain tables to take into account the curve in the chain over the distance. But above all the mystery and the inevitable accuracy and truth of Mathematics. I'm a sucker for it: theory proven in the pursuit of a useful task and combined with the latest technology. And he was too!

But the essence of the practical side of the course is the field walking. And we did a lot of that. Split up into field teams of about 8 each and led by an experienced archaeologist we followed the grids laid out by the Sat / Nav team. After being dropped of by the bus at about 8.30 ish we walk to the grid site and our leader sets us up with compasses. We then walk our section of the grid very slowly looking down and around to find the slightest trace of an ancient artifact.
Sometimes we retrace our steps if the country is difficult. Now and again we are successful as we hold up a piece of brick. But often the leader says, "Great finding but it's modern". "Modern"is something I do not like! But today I excel my self and pick up a piece of the base of a 2000 year old drinking vessel.
Quite proud I am. Of to the museum for classification and then it will probably be returned almost to the exact spot that I found it.

Top: Fieldwalking country
Middle: J. A. Parry, Registered Surveyor, King Country, New Zealand C1915.
Bottom: What a find!

Georgos

Having met Georgos the other day we had arranged to meet up again for dinner at the local restaurant in Koukounara this evening. Our jewel of a taxi driver, Christos, took us to Koukounara, (how easy it rolls off the tongue yet how hard it has been to find) where we picked up Georgos, his housekeeper Valentina, and headed out to the restaurant at about 8.30.

Well what a meal. All local meats and vegetables topped off with local vino! A great night of stories and anecdotes and wonderful company. Georgos and Christos speak excellent English, both having lived overseas for many years. Georgos lived in the USA for 30 years and still has a daughter there.
Georgos knew Snow and Ernie really well and helped them to shift between different houses. He was away some of the time in the Albanian Campaign and when he came back to Greece was involved in intelligence work which generally made life difficult for the invading German & Italian forces. He tells of blowing up bridges to stop the German advances. He also tells of informers who betrayed Snow and Ernie. Yet one of the wonders is that he, along with the others hold no grudges and the families of all sides live in peace and good will.

Georgos owns large tracts of olive groves and has given us some beautiful olive oil to take back to England. He tells us that Greek olive oil is the best in the world and is added to the Italian variety to improve the Italian quality. Certainly the Greek stuff is wonderfully fresh, sweet and aromatic.

As we leave the restaurant at about 11.00 pm we have been fed to bursting by Georgos. The restaurant owner and his daughter have not stopped bringing dish after dish! And we notice at that time that the Greek families are starting to come in for dinner. Whole families, with infants are crowding into the place in the cool of the night.

Top right: Christos, John, Georgos and Valentina.
Bottom centre: Gina, Georgos and Valentina.

Vasiliki

Today after returning from our field work, one of lecturers, Nancy, drove me back out to Koukounara and interpreted for Vasiliki and I. Neither of us speak more than a couple of words of each other's language. So Nancy was essential and much appreciated.
Vasiliki and I sat holding hands in her beautiful lounge while we conversed through Nancy. The house was cool and a real oasis from the heat outside.
One of the first things Vasiliki told me was that Snow (Percy) would cry each day because he missed his sister, Peggy, who was of course my mother. He was considered a son by Vasiliki's father and Snow called him Dad. Snow worked in the olive groves and often he and Ernie Clarke would sleep out in the groves if German or Italian troops were known to be about. The locals had a really simple way of knowing this: their dogs would bark if a stranger came anywhere near. Snow and Ernie would usually live in Vasiliki's

or Georges' parent's houses. They would not stay in one house for long, but would move around.


They would frequently "go bush"and range over a wide range of land around Pylos and Koukounara. That is why, for me, it was so poignant to be walking over the same ground, avoiding snakes and scorpions just like Snow and Ernie. Not only that but most of the trees were the sames trees as those he wold have pruned, picked and tended.

One morning the dogs started barking when Snow and Ernie were still in bed at Vasiliki's house. Snow had not hidden his rifle and to be found with a rifle meant death. So Vasiliki's father put on his overcoat, placed the rifle inside, along his leg, picked up a bucket and went outside in front of the Italian soldiers, to the village well, where he dropped the rifle. Vasiliki said she heard the splash as it hit the water. He came back to the house and said, " Now even if they find it they won't know how long it has been there."

However after 10 months or so, the Italians got wise and were waiting in the groves when the villagers went to work. They picked up Snow and another soldier (not Ernie). There was an informer in the village. Ernie mentions in his book Over The Fence is Out, that one informer was found strung up in a tree, having been rewarded by the Italians with a presentation of money.
The villagers continued to shelter allied soldiers and around 1943 twelve houses were burnt to the ground as a reprisal.

The pictures above show
top left: Snow either in Egypt, Greece or Italy.
top right: Snow, Peggy and Ivan at Stanley Bay, Auckland circa 1939. Ivan also became a POW but survived the war.
botton left: An old building in Koukounara which Snow and Ernie would have known.

Meeting Vasiliki and Georgos

We have now made contact with the two main families who sheltered my Uncle during WW2. We were overwhelmed to meet each other. My uncle, or Snow, as he was known, was treated as a son by the family of Vasiliki, the lady I met yesterday. Snow called Vasiliki's father Dad. Lots of tears of joy! She was a girl of 10 at the time and remembers Snow as a very tall blond, extremely handsome boy. They all want to retain contact and to ensure that the contact continues down the generations. We really have a family here in Greece.

On Monday, Gina and I are having dinner with another gentleman of 90 who looks about 75. His family also looked after Snow and he remembers Snow and Ernie really well as he was a little older than them. He is also keen to give us contact details of his sons in USA and in Athens.

It has been a very emotional but rewarding time! I can hardly believe we have made contact. It was in 2000 that I started the research. There could not have been a better outcome.

In his book Ernie Clarke refers to the hospitality and the kindness of the Greeks. We have found this also. From the Prof down everyone has done their best to facilitate our search for Snow's shelterers.

Gina's fall

My reverie in the olive groves was rudely disturbed at about 3.00pm by the approach of a staff car and the news that Gina had injured herself and was in Pylos hospital. In the town square of Koukounara she had misjudged a jump down from the back of a trailer and fell, literally on her face. She has a suspected very slight fracture to the bridge of her nose and another slight one in her left wrist. I was taken post haste to the hospital where I found my wife being looked after not only by doctors and nurses, but also by fellow students and university staff. She was shaken but unstirred!

By the time she had plugs inserted in her nose Miss Piggy wasn’t in it! We made an appointment for X-rays the following morning and took her home to the hotel and bed.

She received superb care from the hospital and wonderful support from the university.

First day in the field

I think we’re going to love Pylos. The little cafes and stalls, by no means flash, are just our cup of tea.

The course is well run and headed by a prof who is eminent in his field and who has already found strong evidence of a large new site.

We have state of the art equipment which plots the site and finds using satellites, etc etc. It is hard work in the sun but is rewarding.

I volunteered to look after this equipment on the first day. I had a wonderful time with my camera as there was nothing to do except keep out of the sun and make sure the equipment was functioning properly.

The equipment was sited in olive groves north and about 5 kms inland from Pylos. It afforded a fantastic view out to sea and extensive views of the extensive olive groves in the area.

Percy new these groves like the back of his hand as he worked on the family’s groves and used them to evade his hunters. All I could hear were cicadas, an occasional distant tractor and Pilot of the Greek Air Force training overhead. Pure bliss!!

Arrival in Pylos 1st June 2006

Arrived in Pylos by bus after a long and slow rail journey to the railhead at Kyparissia.

The hotel is very nice indeed and we have a room with a balcony overlooking the Med! So can’t complain! There are not as many oldies on the course as we had anticipated but everyone seems extremely pleasant and the younger students are just delightful. We have been for a walk into the town centre , - about 2 minutes away. There is a lovely piazza and it is strange to think that my uncle would have come here on occasions and that he would have been very careful not to get picked up by Italian or German troops. He was initially imprisoned in the new castle here but escaped, so a visit there is a must. One can see part of it from the hotel.

Pylos is simply a delightful small town with exceedingly pleasant inhabitants. It faces to Bay of Navarina which has many Turkish and Greek ships both relatively modern and of antiquity on its bottom, and it stretches like a climbing white rose up the hills along the Bay. Percy and his mates witnessed what was probably the latest battle at Pylos as Allied planes bombed an Italian cruiser and its attendant refueling tanker as they were moored at the Pylos dock. Hard to imagine on this azure, cloudless Sunday in June ’06. The cruiser got away but the tanker was destroyed. And just a few metres from where we are standing.