Page 156 - Who Was Sapper Brown

Nicosia War Cemetery Burials

The first burial is that of 3885129 Lance Corporal James Hall, of the 2nd Battalion, The Loyal Regiment

(North Lancashire), who died on 14 October 1940, age 31, and is buried in Plot 5, Row A. He was
originally interred at Nicosia British Cemetery.6

The Bombing of Nicosia, 15 June 1941

Italian and German planes based in Rhodes and Crete carried out several bombing raids on Cyprus
during 1940 and 1941. The most serious one involving British servicemen was on Nicosia airfield on 15

June 1941, when seven Sherwood Foresters were killed and 12 wounded.7 - 8

Sherwood Foresters 5. A. Nicosia War
Berrisford, Albert
Private 4977970 15/06/1941 27 (Notts And Derby
4.
Cemetery
Regiment)

Sherwood Foresters
5. A. Nicosia War
Bott, Percy Harry
Private
4980099 15/06/1941 23
(Notts And Derby 8.
Cemetery
Regiment)

Sherwood Foresters
4980114 15/06/1941 24 (Notts And Derby 5. A. Nicosia War Foster, Thomas
Private
11.
Cemetery
William
Regiment)

Sherwood Foresters
5. A. Nicosia War Hemingway,
4974089 15/06/1941 24
(Notts And Derby 6.
Cemetery
William Private
Regiment)

Sherwood Foresters
5. A. Nicosia War Hewer, Frank Lance
4974131 15/06/1941 24
(Notts And Derby 7.
Cemetery
Albert Corporal
Regiment)

Sherwood Foresters
4974151 15/06/1941 28
(Notts And Derby 5. A. Nicosia War Keetley, Joseph
Private
12.
Cemetery
Leonard
Regiment)

The Sherwood Foresters bombing victims commemorated on the CWGC website

6 Information taken from the Register, Nicosia British Cemetery
7 Eleftheria [Greek language newspaper], 16 June 1941. Translation of article heading reads ‘Enemy plane bombarded yester-

day the Nicosia airport’
8 The entry for 15 June 1941 in the War Diary of HQ Troops in Cyprus states: ‘1800 hours. Two aircraft attacked Nicosia
airport each dropping a stick of bombs. No alarm was sounded until after the attack owing to the fact that friendly aircraft were

expected about the same time and on the same course. One stick fell near the cookhouse of 1/Foresters and killed 5 men and
wounded 14 who were in the vicinity. Two of these afterwards died in hospital. One bomb failed to explode and was destroyed by
the Bomb Disposal Section during the night. The bomb was identified as a German 250 kilo HE of normal type.’ A report of the
raid was also published in the regimental journal, ‘Firm and Forester’, in April 1988. The likely reason for the raid was that Nic-

osia airfield was being used as a base by a squadron of Swordfish torpedo bombers (whose usual home, HMS Illustrious, had
been put out of action on 10 January by the Luftwaffe), enforcing a blockade of the Vichy French forces in Syria. The Swordfish
had menaced two merchant ships off Alanya the previous day, and the air raid appears to have been a counter-attack. It sig-

nally failed to disrupt the Swordfish operations: on 16 June, they sank the destroyer Chevalier Paul between Cyprus and Syria
(information kindly supplied by Tim Reardon, historian).

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