On the evening of July 19, Friday, the eve of the invasion, we went around all Kato Phylakia (2nd Company) in a Land Rover together with Minister Damianidis Christos, commander of the Command Company, who was giving strict instructions to the men of the outposts not to shoot at the T/K enclave, and that in case someone did shoot, a dead Turk would have to be found 10 meters from the outpost, otherwise whoever had shot would be court-martialled.
I was impressed by this order, and when I asked the Minister what was going on, he replied that there were orders to prevent the Turks from taking advantage of the opportunity and creating incidents. On our return to battalion headquarters on the evening of July 19th, I also passed through the Relay room, and I remember that the relay operator showed me a GEEF badge (which he had already given to the Commanding Officer) which read:"A/C CHIARLI" … I later learned that this was code for full anti-aircraft readiness, which meant that the anti-aircraft guns would have to be deployed…. something that did not happen... All this was happening on the night that the Turkish landing armada had set sail from Mersina, and was sailing at full speed towards the coast of Kyrenia.
July 20 – Dawn
July 20 dawned - a Saturday... Alarm clock at 4:30am… I remember I was still in my flip flops and a handkerchief around my neck, I was in the middle of the square of the headquarters, and I was drinking tea from the caravan looking towards Pentadaktylus… As I had the caravan raised to the height of the mouth, I saw 3-4 columns of white smoke rising from the ridge of Pentadaktylos, and a fighter plane flying in a direction from west to east, over the Agyrtas - Kioneli enclave and flapping its wings of as a greeting to the Turks in the pocket below... out of the corner of my eye I saw thick clouds of black smoke on the left, in the distance of the horizon... I looked there and saw many columns of thick black smoke, and fighter planes making dives over the area of Myrtos.
I was standing there as if stunned with the caravan with tea still in hand looking at this whole scene not believing what I was seeing… it was an unreal feeling…. I felt like I was watching a movie…..except it wasn't a movie, it was reality and I was inside! The Turkish invasion had begun, and unfortunately it found us asleep...
July 20 – The drop of the paratroopers
Fires had re-ignited in Pentadaktylos from the aerial bombardments... Some time later - still early in the morning, a fighter dived and shelled the battalion headquarters.... Towards the east, Turkish fighters bombed the ELDYK camp and Nicosia airport. After the first surprise, the anti-aircraft machine guns were set up, and the relevant supplies began to be loaded onto the transport vehicles, for the battalion's transition to the Ag. Paul on the Pentadaktylos, which was the headquarters of the battalion.
Amidst all this effervescence, around 05:30 A.M. we heard a continuous hum in the area, south of Ag. Basilio. We spotted over 10 slow moving transports, flying unaccompanied
lined up one behind the other…. approximately at the height of Denia in the direction of Nicosia. I remember the machine gunners asking aloud:"Mr. Commander shall we shoot?", to get the answer from the Deputy Commander, Major Kallimanis Nikolaos:"No, they are allies!"...
Obviously they were anything but "allied"... these were the transports attempting to drop the first wave of Turkish paratroopers, and they were tragically off course! The pilot of the leading ferry must have realized the wrong course when he saw Nicosia in front and to his left instead of to his right - as he would normally have if he were on the correct course north of Nicosia on a west-east axis over Kioneli...
At some point at the height of Kokkinotrimithia, the shuttles made a slow open turn of 180 degrees, and passed low over Gerolakkos, and over Ag. Kingdom... The Turkish white and red coats of arms were clearly visible. I again heard the machine gunners ask aloud:"Mr. Commander shall we fire?", only to get the same answer again from the Deputy Commander:"No, they are allies!"... The slow-moving Turkish transports without fighter escort continued to fly undisturbed through the sights of our anti-aircraft machine guns, flew towards Skylloura and disappeared into the horizon in the direction of the Gulf of Morphou...
A little while later, the same transports reappeared - always without fighter escort - flying in the correct direction this time from west to east, to the north of Nicosia at the height of Kioneli.
They had apparently made a 180 degree turn, probably off it Gulf of Morphou, and this time they were following the correct route that brought them to the north of Nicosia, over the Agyrtas - Kioneli enclave and started dropping paratroopers at the height of Kioneli. Then I heard the Deputy Commander give the order:"Fire!".... Alas, it was then too late! The Turkish transports were now out of range and dropped all their human cargo without any problem in the Kioneli area.
The tragic mistake of the Turkish transport pilots who initially followed – unaccompanied – the wrong course to drop the first wave of paratroopers, and their unhindered flight over the headquarters of the 231 TP (and possibly over other EF units along the way them) at the moment when they were in the target of our anti-aircraft machine guns, it was, in my humble opinion, a golden opportunity to seriously injure the paratroopers in the first critical hours of the invasion. A fatal mistake by the Turks, which was unfortunately left unexploited by the National Guard.
This fact also emphasizes the level of coordination and professionalism of the Turkish army (or rather the Turkish air force perhaps?) which, in addition to the fatally wrong initial course of the paratroopers' drop, also sank a Turkish destroyer off Paphos mistaking it for a Greek warship...
What surprises me about this whole story is the fact that this incident was left unaddressed by almost all the eyewitnesses.
The reports of both Minister Athanasios Mamalis and Cadet Paraskeias Gelastos are completely coincidental, and do not refer to the essence, which in my opinion is that it was a tragic mistake by the Turks and that we let an opportunity pass unexploited we deal a critical blow to the first wave of Turkish paratroopers the critical first hours of the invasion. A fatal mistake by the Turks and an unexploited – unfortunately – opportunity for the National Guard...
July 20 – The recruitment and transfer of the battalion to Pentadaktylos (passage of St. Paul)
We quickly went to our chambers, and began to fill up our magazines, and get our armaments, to be loaded into the trucks that would take us up to the Pentadaktylos. I will never forget the conversation with Mr. Markos Ilias, also from LD, who saw me putting my two caravans in the yard and said to me... "hey Iliadis, give me a caravan to be happy, I have clean... at least if we die let's go with a clean caravan"... of course I gave him one of the two caravans I had...
In the afternoon of the same day, the soldier Markou Ilias, would be killed by a mortar shell on the Kalampaki hill... it was the day of his name day and his birthday. When I later learned of his death I thought again of the skit we had on the morning of the 20th of July which had been fixed in my memory and gave me a shiver... As the morning progressed, and the feverish loading of material into the "Betfords" continued; the reservists who were presenting themselves for enlistment also began to arrive, since general conscription had been declared in the meantime.
Together with Minister Andreas Kyriakou and under the supervision of Minister Damianidis Christou, we set up a makeshift workshop with tables in the battalion square to record the reservists who presented themselves and distribute them to the companies, and then refer them to the Material Management makeshift workshop to receive clothing and armament...
With the end of the conscription and the formation of the companies, we climbed into the "Betfords" as well as a number of ordered vehicles driven by the reservists themselves... we headed to Skylloura and then to Agios Ermolaos and Sysclepos with destination the strategic passage of Agios Pavlos in Pentadaktylos, which was the headquarters of the 3rd company and the battle headquarters of the battalion. Together with the 231 TP, the 31 MK of the LOK was going up, which would later go out from the eastern positions of the 231 TP towards the Kotziakaya hill in front of the fortress of Ag. Hilarion....It was an extended phalanx, and I think we were lucky not to be spotted by the Turkish air force – the same fate did not have the phalanx of the 281 TP in Myrtos nor the phalanx of the 286 TP that was hit later a little further down in Kontemenos...
At the height of the villages Ag. Ermolaos and Sysclepis in front of the Kalampaki hill which was the advanced Turkish western fort of the Ayurta-Kioneli enclave, we started receiving mortar fire... the phalanx stopped and the soldiers dismounted and took cover behind nearby rocks... I remember the characteristic whistling of the mortar shells before they hit their target, which being a curved weapon, you never know where it will hit... A "Bedford" had stopped (rather from a mechanical failure than a mortar hit) about midway through the phalanx moving up the narrow road to Pentadaktylus, immobilizing the entire phalanx and jeopardizing the safety of the entire battalion which thus became an easy target for the Turkish mortar strikes from the Corn...
I then saw a number of Locatjis in their characteristic green berets and short trousers (the Locatzis then wore short trousers for summer uniform) go to one side of the "Bedford" and begin to rock it back and forth rhythmically shouting "whoop-whoop" until who shook it enough to lean on one side and threw it on the cliff, thus freeing the path of the phalanx... This scene impressed me and gave a "light" note to our whole march, through the rhythmic "oops" of the Locatzis and their giggles when they threw the stalled truck over the cliff... Nothing could stand in our way.
We re-boarded our transports, and continued our march without further incidents to the headquarters of the 3rd company at the pass of Ag. Paul. We arrived at the battle headquarters of the battalion I estimate close to noon with high morale and full of enthusiasm... I remember when I looked then towards the other side of the mountain, towards the sea, I counted about forty ships and landing craft coming and going... The sea was full by Turkish ships… and unfortunately the infantry and artillery units of Kyrenia were not deployed in their dispersal areas… If this had been done, the closed bay of Five Mile would have turned into a death trap for the Turkish invaders…
At the battalion meeting that followed, the Commanding Officer instead of boosting our morale or talking to us about our mission, started making remarks about us being unshaven and with unpolished sideburns... it wasn't unfortunately the last time our commander would let us down, losing all mental contact with his soldiers.