The year was 1942, August . The name of the ship was St.Didier. There was a fierce battle going on in North Africa between the German and the Allied forces. The German North African Army under the command of General Rommel had growing needs of supply in order to pursue its objectives in its bloody war campaign. It was a time when the British Commander Montgomery was well aware of the importance of cutting the supply lines of the German Army. Therefore there was a fierce struggle in the Mediterranean sea among the Allied and German forces. The French ship named "St Didier" was forced to serve the German Army since France was under the German occupation at the time. Under the disguise of a hospital ship (a common wartime trick that resulted in the sinking of many "real" hospital ships), St. Didier was carrying jeeps, ammunitions, guns and many other war supplies in its cargo bays.
St. Didier with its escort destroyer was trying to reach Africa through the Eastern Mediterranean sea while under heavy air attack from the British war planes taking off from Cyprus. Unable to proceed any further towards Africa, St. Didier and its escort ship steered toward the Turkish coast to evade the attacks. Under constant air attacks, both ships made it until Adrasan (around 40 miles south of Antalya) where it became clear that St. Didier was unable to continue any further due to the damage inflicted by the warplanes. The escorting destroyer had to leave the "slow moving" St. Didier in order to save itself. The only option for St. Didier to survive was to seek asylum in Antalya. While approaching the old harbor of Antalya, St. Didier had already been given permission for asylum by Turkey. The French officers and personnel on board were throwing off their uniforms and changing the name of the ship to "Societe" in order to survive the attacks. Unfortunately the allied mustang warplanes didn't care about it much as they didn't care about being only a few hundred meters from a neutral country's harbor. Despite the anti-aircraft gunfire from Hıdırlık tower on the ancient castle and from the bow of St. Didier, the planes kept on bombing. The people of Antalya had already gathered around the harbor and watching the desperate struggle of St. Didier. There were several torpedos missing their target and exploding around the harbor. One of the torpedoes went straight into the harbor and exploded inside killing one Turkish citizen. Finally a low flying mustang dropped its torpedo on the right course and scored a hit. The torpedo had hit the ship near the stern cargo bay which was full of explosives and caused a massive explosion that resulted in a huge hole on the hull of St. Didier. The severity of the explosion and the rapid sinking of the ship had resulted in the loss of many lives. The survivors and injured personnel floating on the surface were rescued by the local fishermen. According to international treaties the survivors had to be detained (not imprisoned) in Isparta, Turkey . Turkish authorities at the time was not able to show their protest and anger for fear of dragging Turkey into the war.
While Sabine & the kids are in France, Bruno enjoyed his first dive in Antalya.
The visibility is so so & not much fish... But very interesting dive: A French boat (sunk by the British during WWII???) wreck.
A video will follow later with some explanation.s
During Sabine &the kids' last week in Turkey, we had the visits of Fred & Amouda's family, dear friends that we met when we lived in Martinique
It had been a relaxing week but also a (little) bit cultural. We went to Termessos.
It's an old city lost in the mountain that have been discovered not a long time ago. It is so protected by natural formations that Alexander the Great could not conquer it.
These are new pics, we didn't show you the amphitheater as it has already been presented in a past post.
I know we already presented you this several times but this times thanks to Vaness, we do have clear pictures of this natural fire.
Like always a lot of fun for the kids...
Very traditional. Locals are coming with food and of course, TEA !!!
