Although Cyprus escaped the Second World War something else happened which puzzled the then Governor Sir William Battershill: All small coins had vanished…
Battershill:
In our effort to find the reason behind this, we discovered that all small coins had ended up in the church boxes and the priests, for fear of the War, had collected and buried them!
We managed to plough some back into circulation but at the end we had to issue paper money of small denominations. Another unique thing happened on the island.
Cyprus is perhaps the only country in the world to have been bombarded in one day by military aircrafts of three different nations. That morning the French released two torpedoes which, thank Goodness, were buried in the sandy beaches of Famagusta.
At noon the Italians let loose 20 bombs over Nicosia airport and by 5.00 o’clock in the afternoon the Germans with two stugas bombed a football pitch where a few soldiers were passing their time playing ball. Nicosia was overflowing with fish during those days because the Italians had unsuccessfully tried to bomb the shore of Karavostasi.
They only managed to kill much fish, which gathered by the villagers, found its way to the Nicosia markets at very affordable prices.
Photograph: pht_01628, Ann Franken-Battershill Collection, ca. 1939- 1941
© Costas and Rita Severis Foundation
The ‘Did You Know’ series is made possible with the support of OPAP (Cyprus).
