He was a shy individual.
 |
| Unsung hero: Asa Jennings |
Five feet tall and diminutive of build, he wore large glasses and had an uncommonly large mouth. When he smiled he looked like a frog.
But Asa Jennings - an employee of the YMCA in the city of Smyrna in Turkey - was to become one of the greatest unsung heroes of the 20th century.
Jennings was thrust into the limelight in September, 1922, due to events that were entirely outside his control.
 |
| Greek army heads for disaster |
The Greek army, which had landed in Turkey three years earlier, had suffered a strong of catastrophic defeats. Pushed back towards Smyrna, and evacuated by ship, it left the city’s vast Greek population unprotected and vulnerable.
When the Turkish forces re-entered Smyrna, they instigated a massacre of the Greeks and Armenians.
For days, the city’s European and American inhabitants watched on helpless. There was very little they could do.
But as hundreds of thousands more Greek refugees poured into the city, the situation took a terrible turn for the worse. On 13 September, the Turkish army set fire to Smyrna.
 |
| Smyrna on fire: 350,000 refugees trapped |
The entire population was now in danger of being burned alive - and Jennings suddenly found himself caught up in a crisis of unprecedented proportions.
 |
| Fire spread rapidly, burning everything |
His bosses urged him to retreat to one of the US destroyers in the bay. But Jennings vowed instead to save the 350,000 refugees on the quayside.
He learned that a large fleet of Greek naval vessels was at anchor at nearby Mytilene Island. Seized with ‘an uncontrollable urge’ to do something, he took himself to Mytilene. His aim was to persuade the ships’ captains to go to the rescue.
He began by sending a telegram to the government in Athens. Jennings knew that he would need permission from the Greek ministers if he was to have any hope of leading the ships to Smyrna. His telegram was signed: ‘Asa Jennings, American citizen.’
An answer was received from the Greek government just minutes later. Who, asked the Athens government, was Asa Jennings?
 |
| Kemal: victor of Smyrna |
‘I identified myself as Chairman of the American Relief Committee in Mytilene,’ Jennings later recalled. ‘I didn’t bother to explain that I held the position solely by virtue of the fact that I was the only American there.’
The Greek government vacillated for hours, until Jennings threatened to make public the ministers’ refusal to rescue the 350,000 Greek refugees in Smyrna.
His strategy worked. ‘All ships in the Aegean placed under your command to remove refugees from Smyrna.’ By virtue of his bluff and bravado, Asa Jennings had been appointed an admiral of the Greek navy.
He could scarcely believe his ears. ‘All I knew about ships,’ he said, ‘was to be sick in them.’
 |
| The great rescue begins |
By midnight, his little fleet was ready to sail. The newly appointed Admiral Jennings took his position on the bridge of the Propondis and led the other ships towards Smyrna.
‘At the water’s edge, stretching for miles, was what looked like a lifeless black border,’ he wrote on his arrival. ‘As we approached and the shore spread out before us… I thought that the whole shore was moving out to grasp us.’
All day long Jennings took off refugees: by nightfall, he had saved some 15,000 people. After landing them safely in Mytilene, he returned to Smyrna.
This time he had an armada of seventeen ships and many more people willing to help. By that evening, Jennings had managed to spirit away another 43,000 souls - all under the gaze of the Turkish army.
 |
| Happier days: Smyrna before the fire |
And so it continued for day after day, By 27 September, the number of refugees on the quayside had fallen to below 200,000. Just two days later, less than half that number remained.
By the end of September, Jennings’ job was almost complete: there were fewer than 50,000 refugees still awaiting rescue from the charnel house of Smyrna.
Jennings would continue his work until there was not a single person left on the quayside.
It was an extraordinary achievement. No one had asked him to intervene and he asked for no reward.
But this quiet employee of the YMCA had the silent satisfaction of knowing that he had rescued some 350,000 people from almost certain death.
My book Paradise Lost: Smyrna 1922 tells the full story of Asa Jennings and the Smyrna catastrophe. Click here for more information. Also available in Greek, Turkish and other languages: more information on my website.
 |
My latest book Wolfram: The Boy Who Went to War is available here.
