A LONG AWAITED ANSWER

Some time ago, a year or more at least, we devoted a page to a mystery created by two photographs that appeared on e-bay. This is that photo:

The location, according to Aris Kosionides from Athens, is the Gulf of Orfani in the north of Greece, but what were they doing there? Peter Brown found out:-

Dutchmen in Greece
Those who regularly follow these pages may recall the page posted in April 2006 discussing some photos on Ebay of Light Tank IIIB and Carriers.
The author of the item thought the photos had been taken in France in 1940, but while Universal Carriers were used in that campaign there is no record of the Light Tank Mark IIIB sent there.

However further research has found that some of these tanks were supplied to Greece and it is most likely that the photos were taken there sometime following the German invasion in April 1941.

How they got there is an involved story which can be traced from documents in the National Archives at Kew, London.
These are in various Foreign Office and War Office files containing letters and memos from 1940 dealing with supplies of all kinds of war materials from chemicals, boots, respirators and bales of leather to rifles, machine guns, assorted artillery and aircraft.

In the area of tanks, in February 1940 the intention was to send “14 Light Tanks with Besa guns and ammunition” at a cost of £96,000 but these would not be sent until early 1941. More letters from April confirm that these would be Light Tank Mk IVc which were then still in production and that deliveries could start in September 1940.

However by November this had changed to 10 Light Tanks MkIIIB, also described as Dutch Light Tanks (Vickers) along with spares for six months plus one month’s reserves. Another file lists 10 Light Tanks (2 man) saying "These are Dutch pattern tanks which are only used for training purposes but should be of value in Greece". It also says these had Besa machine guns which is confusing as they mounted Vickers machine guns.

Also at this time 100 Bren Carriers were allocated to go to Greece.

Detailed listings for ships taking material to Greece dated 24th December 1940 gives among other items -
Clan Cummings - 38 Bren Carriers, 3 Light Tanks
Clan MacDonald - 25 Bren Carriers, 4 Light Tanks
Empire Song - 25 Bren Carriers, 3 Light Tanks
Northern Prince - 12 Bren Carriers

Another memo dated February 1941 says that 4 "light tanks" were being shipped along with stocks of various ammunition, so either more were sent later or one of the shipments was delayed.

As with so much research, this answers some questions and raises others and if anyone can add more to the story of these tanks from British or Greek sources it would be interesting to hear.

And here, just to round things off, is another newly acquired photograph from an old Vickers-Armstrongs collection showing two of the tanks for the original Dutch order and two of the special Light Amphibious Tanks.

Our thanks to Peter Brown and Aris Kosionidis for their contributions.