How Bridgebuster Barnes blew holes in enemy plans

On May 29, 1943, a top- secret cable came through for Allied ­engineer Tom Barnes, serving deep behind enemy lines in Greece.

Allied engineer Tom Barnes who fought behind enemy lines in Greece in World War II.

On May 29, 1943, a top- secret cable came through for Allied ­engineer Tom Barnes, serving deep behind enemy lines in Greece.

In late 1942, working with local resistance fighters, Barnes (New Zealand-born but who settled in Victoria after the war) and a small team of Special Operations Executive personnel had successfully blown up the Gorgopotamos railway bridge on the east coast of Greece in Operation Harling.

The demolition had disrupted General Rommel’s supply lines to North Africa at the time of the ­battle of El Alamein.

It hadn’t been easy. From their first parachute drop into precipitous mountain country in the dead of night, the small Harling party had met and faced down one ­danger after another. Thanks to a ­garbled signal they had landed in the wrong place. The resistance leader they’d been counting on for support was many miles away. ­Italian soldiers occupying the area, on the other hand, were all too close and constantly on their trail.

Now, 18 months later, more ­sabotage was on the agenda. The cable announced that Operation Animals was about to begin—part of the cover plan for the Sicily landings.

In the west of Greece, Barnes and his staff had already reconnoitred their targets: roads, bridges, power lines. Beginning on June 20, 1943, the Allied Military Mission would co-ordinate sabotage activities across Greece, forcing Hitler to ­retain troops there who could otherwise have been diverted to Sicily.

On the night of July 1, Barnes and his offsider, Captain Harry Evans, were heading for the Kaloyirou bridge on the main road west from the town of Arta — their most ­important target for the Animals ­operation. As they crept along, too close for comfort to the main road that the Italians used all the time, they were laughing quietly to themselves. That morning, at a small mountain village, German Stukas (dive bombers) had been over. They’d left a gift behind—a 50kg ­unexploded bomb.

They’d defused it and taken it along with them on the back of a mule. That mule was with them now. They were going to return the bomb to their enemies with interest—the destructive power of an extra 40kg of plastic high explosive.News_Image_File: The Sabotage Diaries by Katherine Barnes. News_Image_File: Tom Barnes’s crew used local mules to move their ammunition.

Zero hour was 11.30pm. At 11.10pm, Barnes and Evans went in to lay the first charges. Around them, on the mountain above, in the farmland, their friends from the Greek resistance were in position.

They laid beehive charges first, in the abutment that supported the bridge from the side. Beehives could blast more than two feet into reinforced concrete, leaving a 6cm hole into which they would pack the main charges.

They fired the charges, inspected the results, then laid the 50kg bomb and the 40kg of plastic explosive. Ten minutes’ work. They fired again.

The plain around them lit up as bright as day, while the sound of the explosion ricocheted off the hills to the west. Cheers broke out from the resistance fighters all around. The abutment was gone — completely demolished — along with part of the bridge.

They held their breath, waiting for all hell to break loose. The Italians must have been taken by surprise but shots soon broke out to the west. Leaving the resistance fighters to do their job, Tom and Harry cleared out in a hurry.

They made it back to their ­forward rendezvous without any trouble. Heading for the village of Papadates, the two of them fell asleep in their boots. Not surprising — by then they had been going non-stop for 60 hours,

Up again at 8.30am, back to the wireless operator with his set. No messages. Then down to ­Papadates, too tired to celebrate.

Later, they realised that the Italian soldiers were largely at their mercy. There were constructions everywhere — bridges, causeways — that lent themselves to mines and booby traps. There was no way they could have garrisoned every potential target. Not that that took anything away from their achievement.

But it was to be only a few months before civil war broke out between the Greek resistance, and Tom and his staff were caught in the middle.

Katherine Barnes is the author of The Sabotage Diaries, Harper Collins, $29.99, on sale now