Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Five: Lieutenant B. H. Harding, Southern Rhodesian Forces, who served with the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) from August 1944 until its disbandment, serving in Captain J. Olivey’s eleven-man Z.1. Patrol in Greece

1939-45 Star; Italy Star; War Medal 1939-45, all unnamed as issued; Africa Service Medal 1939-45 (SR.599042 B. H. Harding.); Army L.S. & G.C., E.II.R., Rhodesia & Nyasaland (0367. Lt. B. H. Harding.) officially engraved naming, mounted as worn, very fine (5) £1,400-£1,800

Barend Hercules Harding was born at Bethlehem, Orange Free State on 19 December 1924 and attested for service in Southern Rhodesia on 26 May 1943, serving with the Rhodesian Recce Unit and the 49th Survey Company. He was posted to join the strength of the British Forces in the Central Mediterranean in July 1944 and joined legendary Long Range Desert Group on 4 August 1944, being a member of the Z1 Patrol.

Z.1 Patrol in Greece
Harding went into action in September, as part of Captain John Olivey’s 11-man Rhodesian Z.1 Patrol:
‘Olivey’s 11 jeeps arrived in Greece by landing craft on 26 September, roaring ashore in their jeeps at Katakolon, 40 miles south of Araxos. The patrol soon became bogged down, however, Olivey noting as they drove north that “the roads [are] very bad after the recent rain”. Four of the jeeps in the patrol pulled trailers, on each of which was 1,000lb of equipment for Bucket Force, and within a day of landing Olivey began to doubt that all the vehicles would stand the ordeal if the condition of the roads did not improve.

On 30 September Olivey’s patrol arrived at Bucket Force’s Forward HQ, a few miles west of Patras. “L” Squadron of the S.B.S. were positioned on the high ground overlooking the port, and their commander, Major Ian Patterson, was endeavouring to persuade the garrison of 900 Germans and 1,600 Greeks from a collaborationist security battalion to surrender. During the night of 3-4 October word reached Bucket Force HQ that the Germans had started withdrawing from Patras. At first light a patrol of the S.B.S., travelling in the L.R.D.G. jeeps, raced into the port and discovered that all but a German rearguard had indeed sailed out of Patras, heading east up the Gulf of Corinth towards the Corinth Canal.

The S.B.S. and the L.R.D.G. now set off in pursuit of the Germans. In a convoy of jeeps they roared along the headland overlooking the gulf, a captured 75mm German field gun hitched to the back of one of the jeeps. “Chased the enemy who were withdrawing by boat,” wrote Olivey in his log, “firing with .5 Browning and 75 mm gun, from positions on the Corinth Road.”

They reached Corinth on 7 October, exchanged desultory fire with the Germans on the other side of the canal and then accepted the surrender of another battalion of Greek collaborators. From Corinth Olivey received instructions to push on to the town of Megara, several miles to the north-east over a mountain road, but to leave two jeeps’ worth of men in Corinth to help in the clearance of German mines. Olivey’s Z1 Patrol reached Megara on 9 October and at dawn the next day assisted an S.B.S. unit to “blow the escape road that the enemy were using”. With that done, they set about preparing a landing strip for the arrival of the 4th Independent Parachute Brigade led by Colonel George Jellicoe. They dropped into Megara on 12 October, a day when the wind was particularly stiff. “We were rushed to Megara airfield to help by driving alongside the paratroopers on the ground with open chutes, swinging left or right to collapse the chutes, to enable them to get to their feet”, recalled Tommy Haddon, a Rhodesian trooper in Z1 Patrol. “Even so, many parachutes were not collapsing and men were swept onto the rocks along the coast running alongside the airfield.”

The next day, 13 October, Z1 Patrol was among the first Allied troops to enter the Greek capital. “We proceeded over the Corinth Canal to Athens in convoys,” recalled Haddon, “all the way being greeted by singing and joyful Greeks, shouting words of welcome.” Once in Athens, Haddon and Z1 checked into the Grand National Hotel, though it wasn’t for long. They were soon billeted in less salubrious surrounds – the old Ford factory on the main road to Piraeus.

John Olivey’s patrol then “proceeded south of Florina and harassed the withdrawing enemy and proceeded to the flat country ... firing at a range of 2,000 yards, at the enemy force withdrawing up the Florina to Havrokhoma Road. Florina was occupied/captured at 1600 hours.” By mid-November the Germans had been chased out of Greece and on 12 November the L.R.D.G., together with the S.B.S., returned south to Athens for what they imagined would be some well-earned rest and recuperation. But it was quickly apparent in Athens that the indolent days of the past had evaporated. The antagonism was palpable between the government of ‘National Unity’, who were pro-monarchy, and EAM, the predominantly communist National Liberation Front, whose military wing was ELAS, the Greek People’s Liberation Army. They were still in Athens when the trouble with ELAS started and their jeep patrols rescued police from posts under fire and raided an ELAS headquarters to capture petrol and arms. Several of the party were wounded and had to be evacuated. A Greek National Guard was then being hurriedly formed, and the Rhodesians and their colleagues helped to train them while assisting in maintaining order in Athens and the neighbourhood.’ (Long Range Desert Group in the Balkans refers).

Harding was returned upon the disbandment of the LRDG in late 1945. He returned for further service in Rhodesia and rose to the rank of lieutenant (quartermaster).

Sold with framed photograph of the 2nd Battalion, King's African Rifles Officer's Mess, June 1962, with Harding identified; a number of photographs including the recipient; and copied research that confirms that his Africa Service Medal was his only officially named Second War medal.