Louis
de Bernieres returns to Cephalonia, the setting for Captain Corelli's Mandolin, to tell one of the greatest, most
controversial, submarine escape stories of World War II.
In
the village of Mavrata, in the south east corner of
the Greek island of Cephalonia, is a memorial to the
60 men who died when their submarine HMS Perseus hit
an Italian mine and sank, instantly, to the seabed 170 feet
below.
But
at the bottom of this memorial are the extraordinary words "The sole survivor
John H Capes was rescued and sheltered by patriotic islanders who helped him to
escape."
When
John Capes, romantic, adventurer, womaniser and submarine stoker was found
half-dead on a Cephalonia beach on the morning of 7th
December 1941, he had a scarcely believable tale to tell: he claimed to have,
almost miraculously, survived the destruction of Perseus, and have escaped, alone, from the wreck at the
bottom of the sea.
For
nearly 70 years after the event, Capes' story was a source of controversy for
naval historians: could he really have escaped through a jammed hatch in the
severely damaged, flooded vessel? Could he possibly have made it to the surface
through 170 feet of water from the bottom of the Mediterranean, a depth never
before survived? Could he then have swum, injured, through three miles of cold,
choppy sea to the island?
Almost
as extraordinary are the eighteen months Capes spent on the island before being
spirited away by the Royal Navy in 1943. The islanders, at great risk to
themselves, sheltered and disguised Capes from the occupying Italian forces, and
fed him when they themselves were on the brink of
starvation.
Louis
explores John Capes' extraordinary story, and asks: could it really be
true?
Producer:
Jane Greenwood
A Loftus Audio production for BBC Radio
4.