Story of Greece and Crete

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 137, 4 August 1941, Page 6

Story of Greece and Crete

WAR GREECES TROUBLE

LACK OF PROGRESS DESCRIBED It was the frequency with Avl),ich the people of Greece had been subjected to war, or the effects of war close to herself, or the threat of war, that had prevented her from building up a decent education System/., there is a surprising amount of illiteracy among the Greek peasant population, and thai comprises most of the population outside of Athens, Piraeus, and T'hessalonika. Schools were all closed throughout Greece during the whole time I was there. It would be interesting to learn whether or not t'hey have been reopened at all since German occupation. Lack of Luxuries. Motor cars were seldom seen, wireless sets were as scare as hen's; teeth in the country districts. Fences were conspicuous by their absence. Fences aren't required. The only stock was goats. They were shepherded in the good old way depicted on the Sunday School picture cards wc used to get—shepherd with crooksticlc and water bottle. And do the shepherds know their flocks? And do the sheep or goats know their shepherd? . In present day parlance I can only answer "I'll say!" I saw a shepherd with his sheep one day all on one side of the road. The shepherd was about 50 yards away from the flock and he suddenly noticed that one of his sheep had wandered across the other side of the road. He caj'ed out to that sheep just as another sheep was about to cross over, and they both returned at once to proper side of the road. They knew as well as any dog I have seen on a New Zealand station.

Chief Crops. The main crops in Greece appeared to me to be wheat (of a strain I have never come across in New Zealand, and about which I would like to learn more) . Tobacco and grapes. Olives grow in abundance an Greece and Crete. Neither olives or grapes were read}' for packing either in Greece or Crete while T was! ,in those countries. I do not remember seeing many cows in Greece, although there were a number in Crete. Animal Life. Lizards were plentiful in both Greece and Crete up to 12 inches long. The prettiest type in my opinion being one a brilliant emerald green. But then emerald green is my favourite colour —always has been, and I'm not Irish either . . . In Greece, tortoises as long as 12 and 14 inches, and as wide as 8 and 9 inches were very plentiful. The main, and in fact the only means of transporting goods in the back country or Greece was the mule and; the mulccart. No Drainage. I saw no proper drainage anywhere in the back and no pipelines for the conveyance of water. Everyone carries the water required for all purposes frbm the well. I remember seeing a Sunday school card of "Rebecca at the, Well." Well it was just like that picture — at every well a group of women and girls could be seen with their water bottles or tins waiting their turn to draw water. But what a lot ojjre could write if "there was only tf.me. That reminds me that I owe such a lot of letters to so.many people, and it will be impossible to tell fhis story as fully as I am trying; to do here to all my correspondents (and this is only a very sketchy attempt). If any do read this let them realise how fortunate they are to be in wonderful New Zealand. What a marvellous country New Zealand is. What up-to-date methods for cultivating the soil are there; what a wonderful standard of living they have; wihUt natural advantages the country possesses; what a marvellous climate: what wonderful people; what an excellent education system!—this is not just political capital being made by a Member of Parliament: Ask any sohlicr who h;is to Australia, India and Egypt, leavc\ alone Libya, Grerce and Crete, and it is IN* opinion of all the soldiers I have spoken to who went to England.

Arrival at Olympus. I have digressed from the story! I was telling of our move North to? a place on the top side of Mt. Olymjpus. After seeing many old and interesting places en route, we nrrived at what was planned to be ,our defensive position. One was inclined to be critical of the fact that our position was prescribed as a "Defensive" one, but under the circumstances it could, not be otherwise. So, as Signallers it fell to our lot to wire the area and establish communications with our Bns. Forcc HQ, Corps, and the units on our rlfght and left. About 12 miles of wire was laid by the linesmen, and from the very start wc had to contend with cutting of the wire by Fil]th Columnists, a menace which we did not take long to tackle with good results. Absence of Batlis. We had a very happy time in this first defensive position—the Germans had not in the early period of our presence declared war on Greece. Wc made friends with the people in the little village where Brigade HQ was situated, and Ave were billfcted in their homes. Their living habits were different to ours in Noav land and took a little getting usc|d to. I' never saAV a bath in the but on tAvo occasions: I borroAA 7 ed n tub and boiled up some Avatcr in a petrol tin, and had a jolly good bath in the foAvlhouse. The lady of the house was \ r cry amused as a result, but Avhat else could I do? She couldn't speak English, and I couldn't speak Greek, and there seem to be a bathroom about the place, so I did the best I could. Of cours,e the usual thing AA r as to take adArantage of a dip in any stream or creek Ave passed in our traA T cls, but one Avas not always travelling— at least not then as much as ay t c were destined to do. The Hun Starts. The throat of Avar between Germany and and between Germany and Greece Avas. groAving eA-orv day, and then -suddenly th<-tiirc-at became a declaration of actual hostility. Then things got interesting, then serious, then tragic. YugoslaA'i.a caA r ed in, the Hun came' down through Bulgaria and swamped Salonika, and lie set lire to Thes-

Salonika. Wc could see the glow at night of Thessalonika afire. Then the Greek resistance on one of our flanks broke down, and tilings got hectic. We were told that We were- to move out next morning. We immediately nut all our signal section to the task of reeling in the 12 miles of cable by hand. Wc had laid it avcll, thinking we would lie lucky enough to take a long and perhaps succqssful stand at this particular place against the Hun New Position. So that cable took some getti'ng up. We started to pick it up after our evening meal and to make, things harder it started 'to rain. 8y.2 o'clocknext morning we had succeeded in getting in 11 miles of wire, and by 8 o'clock we were ready to move out. We didn't move till after lunch, and then wc travelled in daylight back over Mt Olympus and at 10 o*clock at night bivouaced on the southern slopes of -that snow-capped sentinel of Greece. We resumed our journey early, and about 9 a.m. took up a new position in Stennar Portas near, and in sight of, Scrvia. There the Bns. immediately went into position and Bde Hq selected a site in the Pass about 200 yards up a gully from the main road which ran along the bottom of the Pass. On the opposite side of the road to u« and about 200 yards up a low and not very prominent ridge a number of large Yugoslav and Greek antiaircraft guns were situated. Attack Imminent. "~We set quickly to work and got all of the Bns. connected up by phone, as well as by wireless. A 'DRLS' was instituted and kept going throughout the Greek campaign. All the time we were kept informed ?)y intelligence summaries of the situation, and the inevitability of making contact with the enemy on our front daily and then hourly became more certain until it was possible to forecast the time that an attack would be made.

Blilzkrei'g Evidence. Tangible evidence of the air attacks on London has been received in an extraordinary way in New Plymouth. Opening a new shipment of large white cards from England, a member of the jobbing staff of the Taranaki Herald noticed that one of the packets of cards was damaged at one end. He was examining the damage when he dislodged a flat, irregular shaped piece of heavy metal which was embedded vertically in the ends of the cards. Investigation showed that the bomb splinter, as it evidently, was, had cut right through the thick brown paper wrapping and label at the end of the package and had gone a further inch into the cards at an angle before it stopped. The package immediately below was also cut into.