Ivan Sharp, the wolfram man

“We know he had a ticket for another day, but someone gave up to enjoy some more suny days. My grandfather had finished his work in Portugal, and took that place disappearing when the aircraft was shot over the bay of Biscay”, explains Ivan Sharp, that has the same name of his grandfather, one 44 year old mining engineer, involved in the wolfram business and traffic between Portugal and Great Britain.

Ivan Sharp was a mining engineer involved in the Wolfram traffic that was happening in Portugal.
(Picture Ivan Sharp)






 






Even today Ivan does not know exactly what kind of work his grandfather was doing in Portugal. “My grandmother was a old fashion lady. Sometimes we could seat her and ask her some questions. She usually talked for a while but she just shut up and we could get anything more out of her”, he explains.

But the memory pieces collected from his grandmother, mother and aunt drove Ivan to the conclusion that he was involved in something important during the war. He knows wolfram was one of the most disputed merchandises between the allied and the axis, and that still today there are strange stories of instantaneous richness in some parts of Portugal.

Ivan Sharp has the same name of his grandfather, and was the man behind the homage’s to the victims of Flight 777 in Lisbon and in Bristol.

In 2009 he was in Portugal to take part in the homage to the passengers and crewmembers of flight 777, and he met someone from the Portuguese government who had a family member that “lived the other side of the story”.

“His father in law was also involved in the wolfram business selling it to the British and to the Germans. He told me the story that once his father in law made a mistake putting one more decimal number on the German account. When he saw the mistake he thought he was going to be killed, but the Germans just paid and went away”, Ivan retells leaving the impression that he would like to know more about what happened in Portugal during that period. “There are still a lot of secrets and it is important to dig some more where all this took place”.

Telegram received by Sharp’s family after his disappearance. 

(Picture Ivan Sharp)

About the strange times of “the wolfram war” Ivan also remember s another story that his aunt normally told. “Once she saw a small bag on the kitchen. She felt some hard things inside and thought they were marbles but when she opened it she saw that there were uncut diamonds. We think he used them to pay for the wolfram”.

More joyful are the memories of the times when the mining engineer returned home from Portugal . “He always brought fresh fruit. My mother and my aunt usually gave some of it to the kids from their street. Everybody was amazed with this offers, because fruit was so scarce during the war and most people had no access to this kind of luxury”.

A sporty men the engineer Ivan sharp was part of the team from Sledge&Trust, one company that was later bought by the Rio Tinto Group, one of the biggest mining groups in the world. “we still think what could have happen to our lives if he had survived the war. We would certainly much better”, say the grandson.

He still looks to the event that made his grandfather disappear with mixed feelings. The accident theory does not convince him completely. “I don’t understand why the Germans reacted so fiercely in the next day’s reinforcing the patrols in the area. Why did they wanted to avoid the British rescue team to be successful.Why were they so committed. That is one answer I would like to have”, he reveals.

Ivan Sharp was using diamantes to pay for the wolfram.  

(Picture Ivan Sharp)

There also other mysterious events that would like to have one explanation. “When the war ended the Dorset Regiment announced that they had captured one photo album with pictures of the plane being shot. For some reason those pictures disappeared. If there were only pictures of the aircraft being shot down, why did the album disappeared?”.

“On the other hand there were some important people inside that plane. One very known movie star, people related with military and espionage personnel. If the germans where really interested in someone inside that plane it would have been easy to divert the flight to France. The Gestapo would have a lot of questions for these persons, wouldn’t they?” asks Ivan Sharp, one of the most responsible persons for the homage ceremonies that took place in Lisbon and in Bristol, in 2009 and 2010.

He had the idea if a homage some years ago and after several phone call and the help of the Bristol airport people, and latter the ones form Lisbon, he was able to see those ceremonies take place…

Hear what he has to say about his grandfather…

Carlos Guerreiro

Quirinus Tepas, the “warm, bearlike” commander of Flight 777

Quirinus Tepas receiving the “Order of The British Empire”. 

(Picture Jean Pratten/ Roger Fennely)

The pilot from Flight 777 was a big men, that entered the life of the brothers Jean Pratten and Roger Fennely when he became ill, acouple of time after his escape from Holland. The father of these youngsters – they were 12 and 10 years old – was a doctor and he was called to assist the Dutch KLM pilot.

Jean Pratten and Roger Fennely in 2010

Both remember a “warm, bearlike” man, with worries about his family that he left behind in Holland. They also remember the presents they received from Portugal, especially the oranges and the bananas, something they had no way of getting in a wartime Britain.

Letter published in a newspaper after the disappearance of Capt. Quirinus Tepas. (Collection Jean Pratten/ Roger Fennely)

They also speak about the day they received the call announcing the dead of Quirinus Tepas, and the fact that he was already expecting something like this to happen.

Hear Jean Pratten

Hear Roger Fennely

Carlos Guerreiro

Engebertus Rosevink, a search for the unknown father

Engbertus Rosevink desapeared with Flight 777. Tewnty years ago his son searched for the german pilots that shot down his plane... (Picture Ben Rosevink )













“My Father was the flight engineer of that flight and there where so many mysteries about it that 20 years ago I decided to find the truth about what had happened. The only way of doing it was to find the German pilots that had shot the plane down”, These are the first explanations of Ben Rosevink, son of Engebertus, Navigator and one of the four crewmembers that were in flight 777 in June 1, 1943.
“We changed letters and he finally invited me home. I was there with him for a week and he gave me all the information’s I needed”.

Ben Rosevink in Bristol in 2010

Twenty years ago Ben started his search for the story of his father, and he was able to find Herbert Hitze, the commander of the Luftwaffe squadron that shot the IBIS over the Bay of Biscay. Latter he was able to find other Luftwaffe men, that were also involved in that mission, and they all told him the same story: shooting the “Ibis” was one accident.

Ben Rosevink talks about his father and his search.

In this recording Ben Rosevink explains the details he was able to collect in his contact with the German flyers, and also speaks about his father, a man he never knew because he was only born two months after he went missing…


Carlos Guerreiro

Derek Partridge, the accidental survivor

His voice is well known in the movie industry, in television, in documentaries. He also made journalism, presented programs and whatever. In the last decades Derek Partridge was a constant presence in the houses of most of us, and that has only been possible because a famous actor took his place in Flight 777.

Derek Partridge, a well known voice and face. To know him beter you can go to his site were he has a video and tells his story in Flight 777. Click here













When the actor Leslie Howard entered the aircraft with his manager, Alfred Channels, in that morning of June 1, 1943 all seats were taken. Opposite to the door was seven year old Derek Partridge, with his nanny Dora Rowe, that was “escorting” him home, in the UK, and had already crossed the Atlantic Ocean on board of the Portuguese passenger ship “Serpa Pinto”.

“The reason I thought we had been taken off, was because we happened to be sitting opposite the entrance door and I figured we were simply the nearest and easiest to remove. It wasn’t until I met Leslie’s son Ronald (just finishing his book “In Search of my Father”), that I realized it was just a matter of priority and being the least important”, explains Derek Partdridge.

In fact he does not remember much about that day. He knows that he was inside the plane and then had to come out. “I then spent about 5 days in a hotel in Estoril and my only memories are of a beautiful beach, where I found many, exquisitely patterned, tiny sea shells”, refers Derek.

His father had not such delightful moments, especially in the first hours after the shooting of flight 777. Involved in the intelligence world, a specialist in the Middle East, Derek’s Father had suddenly a impossible new mission in front of him: “My father was in MI6 and so was one of the first people to learn of 777 being shot down… he spent 24 hours wondering how to tell my mother, before he received the news that I wasn’t on the flight”.

Five days latter Derek and Dora were back on a plane. “My only memory of the flight back is that - following the Luftwaffe shooting down of Flight 777 - the windows had been covered with several layers of muslin, to prevent lights being seen from outside. It was disappointing, not being able to see anything on my first flight. I had no idea that Flight 777 had been shot down”.

“If it’s a strange feeling knowing that my whole life has only been possible through pure chance… and fate”, concludes Derek, and in fact he might have had a big protecting hand covering his life.

Whit five he was on his way to the United States, send by his family to his aunt in order to be away from England that was under siege and bombardment by the German forces. Two years later – and even before arriving in Lisbon – he almost fell from the ship on the way back.

Derek Partridge with seven years old, the age he returned to Europe from the USA.












“I was talking to a crew member and I was leaning against the rails… unfortunately where I was leaning was where the pilot comes on board and someone had forgotten to close it properly. It opened and I started to fall backwards into the ocean when—fortunately--the crewman grabbed me!”

To know more about Flight 777, click here.

Carlos Guerreiro

Prisoner exchange in Lisbon

A RAF sergeant leaving the train. 

(Século Ilustrado/ Arquivo Histórico de Portimão)

The transports carrying more than 800 Italian and British war prisoners made the activity start at 9 in the morning in the Alcântara Maritime Station, at the Tagus River, Lisbon. It was at that time that the hospital ship “Newfoundland” arrived. It had left the UK and was waiting for two days on the entrance of the Tagus, for news about two trains, coming for Italy, and that should arrive there also.

On the ship were 409 Italian prisoners while on the train travelled 448 British. On the 18 April 1943, Lisbon, under the surveillance of the International Red Cross, was the stage for the exchange of 857 prisoners, mostly sick or incapacitated men.

The newspaper descriptions of the time leave no doubts about the health situation of those expected that morning in Portugal. Between the Italians, a group of 33 officers (two of them chaplains) and 376 sergeants and soldiers, were, as the newspaper “Diário de Lisboa” states, “11 madmen, 84 mental affected and nervous, some with tuberculosis and many mutilated”. They were being accompanied by one team of 135 doctors, nurses and stretch carriers.

The hospital ship “Newfoundland”, that brought the Italian prisoners (on the back) and one of the trains, that brought the British (on the front). 

(Século Ilustrado/ Arquivo Histórico de Portimão)

In the trains, between the British prisoners, were “289 that could not walk, 3 blinds, 2 madmen and 2 seriously wounded, explains the “Século Ilustrado” another Portuguese newspaper. Between them was a General Willis captured by the Italians in North Africa.

The “Newfoundland” was received by the Portuguese authorities, and representatives from the Italian and the German governments. The ambassador from Mussolini in Lisbon made a welcome speech and so did the German representative, in the building of the Portuguese Cod Fish Comission, where the prisoners lunched.

The newspaper “Século Ilustrado” dedicated two pages to the prisoner exchange, in his 4th April 1943 edition. The title is “Portugal, Europe’s Oasis”. 

(Século Ilustrado/ Arquivo Histórico de Portimão)

The first train with British prisoners arrived before mid-day and the other one hour latter. The most serious cases were transported directly to the ship and those “that could walk were sent to different British organizations”, explains the “Século Ilustrado”. The “Diário de Lisboa” is more specific and writes that they went “in busses to the English Club, to the Seamen Institute and the British Repatriation Office, for lunch”.

By the end of the afternoon the Italians were sent to the trains, for home, with a package containing “cognac, vermouth, chocolate, tobacco, soap” and other products offered by the Italian colony in Portugal.

Italian prisoners leaving the “Newfoundland”. 

(Século Ilustrado/ Arquivo Histórico de Portimão)

Another British soldier leaving the train in a stretcher.
(Século Ilustrado/ Arquivo Histórico de Portimão)





The British ex-prisoners, with “sweets and tobacco” offered by the British community, sailed in the “Newfoundland” at 22 hours, ending – as the Diário de Lisboa called it – “one more admirable chapter of the humanitarian action of Portugal and the Red Cross in this war”.

Carlos Guerreiro

RAF men remembered in Sagres, Portugal

Two RAF sergeants were remembered on the 9th April “Combatant day” in Sagres, Portugal, where they are buried after their Catalina exploded in the air.

Sergeants Orton and Gibson were members of a Catalina that – as local witnesses remembered a couple of years ago – almost crashed in the small village. In the last minute the aircraft gained some altitude, was able to climb a cliff, but suddenly exploded over the water. Only these two men were recovered from the entire crew (if you want to know more about this event click here).

It was on this day that in 1918 the Portuguese positions in Flanders were overrun by overwhelming German forces loosing thousands of men as prisoners, killed or missing. Since that date Portugal pays homage to all his combatants one this day.

Besides the two RAF men the ceremony also paid homage to five local soldiers that lost their lives in two wars that involved Portugal during the 20th century.

Carlos Sequeira e José Joaquim Abelum died on World War I, in the 9th and in the 12th April 1918. Both were members of the 1st Infantry Regiment, that curiously was at the cemetery as Guard of Honor.

Henrique José de Freitas (1962), Joaquim Pereira Dias Leite e Joaquim António Conceição (both in 1966) died during the portuguese colonial war that killed thousands of men during the sixties and the beginning of the 70’s. Angola, Mozambique, East Timor, Guinea and parts of India were part of the Portuguese empire until 1974.

About one hundred persons were at the cemetery paying homage to these combatants.

The British Consul in Portimão, Clive Jewell, and Major Oliveira pay homage to the Portuguese soldiers that fall in the two wars.

Local veterans put flowers on the graves of the two RAF airmen. Sargeant Correia and the local presidente of the veteran association, Bernardino Martins (on the back), prepare do pay homage to those men.

Major Oliveira (1st Infantry Regiment) pays homage to the RAF Sargeants.

The British Consul in Portimão pays tribute to the two RAF men. Standing beside him is the local Mayor (Sagres belongs to Vila do Bispo), Adelino Soares.

Guard of honour

The graves from RAF sergeants Orton and Gibson.

Catalina crew remembered

The 9^th of April is, in Portugal, the official “Combatant Day” were all the fallen Portuguese soldiers are remembered.

It was adopted after the battle of “La Lys” battle on this day in 1918, in Flanders area, where the two divisions of the Portuguese expeditionary force were almost wiped out by a huge German offensive.

This year, in Vila do Bispo, Algarve (in the south) the commemoration will take place at the local cemetery and the remembrance will extend also to soldiers form other countries. There will be made a special reference to the two RAF men buried in that cemetery.

They were members of a Catalina crew that exploded in that area in 1943.

If you want to know more about Catalina FP 154 click here