Story of Greece and Crete

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 140, 11 August 1941, Page 6

Story of Greece and Crete

RELENTLESS BOMBING

LACK OF AIR SUPPORT

All the paratroops landed with Tommy guns and plenty of ammunition. Many of them carried hand grenades, some of which exploded in the air as a resiult of good shooting on the part of our chaps, and blew the paratroops to smithereens, before he landed. He landed in bits. Immediately on landing certain of the troops would fire flares from Verey pistols. That seemed to serve as a signal to their fellows where to gather. Nazi flags were spread out too as indicators to the Hun planes. This all happened very quickly, and before the day had gone it wasi calculated that 1400 well armed German troops had landed. Many were killed of course, but those ay ho survived were' in good defensive positions in the prison and on the Mulr;ne aerodrome. Wireless sets were landed too, by para-" chute, and the German troops on the ground must have been in continuous touch with the planes by wireless as well as the planes being in touch with each other by the same means of communication.

Greek Uniforms,

Complete Greek soldijers uniforms were also landed by parachute and whether any or how many Germans were able to disguise themselves as Greek soldiers I do not know. Some Germans had been able to establish themselves in the upstair rooms of luihlings from where, for a time, they were a menace, siniping at all and sundry, until finally removed by our patrols. How easy it would have been to dispose of every paratroop in no time had it not been for the continuous and unparralleled attack by dive bombers and machine gunning from the air with explosive bullets and shells, not by 10 or 20 planes such as had been the case in Greece, but by wave after wave incessantly.

Help Defend

At 8.15 a.m. that memorable day, the Staff Captain of the Composite Brigade came into my signal office and asked me if I had breakfast. I hadn't, and he got stome porridge and tea and we had breakfast together in the signal office. Less than twenty afterwards he was dead —shot through the stomach by a sniper, and a chap who tried to doctor him up received the same fate. Then about 8.30 a.m. the Brigade Major came into the office and told u.i we would all have to get out and help defend the village. It was a battle for Brigade HQ. We all quickly got out, all Ii had was my pistol and a few rounds, but the QM gave me a hand grenade as well. I detailed my men to various posts, taking about six of them and about 10 Greeks asi well as myself., We crept to a stone building on the side of a hill facing the area where a large number of paratroops had landed, and took up positions in the doors and windows of. the old place.

A Waiting Game.

We were soon getting peppered by Tommy guns firing from positions beyond the range of accurate aim of our rifles, and it was a case of lake cover and wait until the Hun came a bit closer. In the meantime I sent one of my men to try and locate our commander without succer.?. Then I sent two men back to man the exchange in the signal office, it by now having appeared to me that the Hun was) not going to succeed in his attempt to gain Galatos. One of the men soon returned wounded to me, and informed me that he had located the Commander by phone, that all lines were working and traffic was being passed. Before I vacated the office t had left all lines "plugged'' through. Then the Brigade Major contacted me and advised spreading the men I had with me along a ridge. Established on Hills*. This we. attempted to do but it was too exposed to, the enemy, and there were no trenches at the particular spot. Finally most of us found our way to a hill overlooking the unit area where our Commander had established his battle lieadquar-

tersi. Incidently this hill was the very one which Captain Lyon and

his company had to defend later. I spent the afternoon in this position, and towards dusk saw the Commander and told him I would like to get all my signal section back to the office and get relief for the two men who had been on since the morning.

More Troops Land l .

He agreed and when it was nearly dark I found most of my men and we returned to the office. From then until we evacuated from Galates on the following Sunday I hardly f.lept or left the office except to assist in repairs to the lines. For the rest of the week Gernfan planes were in the air continuously during daylight hours which was from 6.30 a.m. to 8.30 p.m. Landing more troops, landing food (hot coffee ini thermos flasks, fresh cut sandwiches wrapped in cellophane and cake, cigarettes and ammunition) Trench mortars (supported by two or threp parachutes) grenades, ammunition, water and medical supplies as well as wireless sets and goodness knows what else.

Large Troop Carriers

Mainly because of the severity of the direct and continuous attack on our troops from the air, we were rendered immobile, and while in that position the Hun was able to firmly establish himself in the prison area and to capture the Mtaleme aerodrome. He was also using the prisoners he found in the prison to build another aerodrome in the prison area. Ultimately large troop carriers commenced to arrive at Maleme and disgorge motor cyclists and cycles, as well? as hundreds of German troops. Then, in their endeavour to blast our few guns out of position near Galatos, the planes commenced a terrific bombing and machine gunning raid on the village of Galatos. Tetrrific Bombing'. Bombs burst all around our office. Why none hit it, God only knows. Several times we couldn't see across the dugout, and the sack covering which camouflaged the wires leading into the office was set on fire by red hot shrapnel, threatening to suffocate us, and" burn the cables until one chap, at great risk, went out and extinguished the blaze. Great craters were blown in the area surrounding us. The officers mess tent was blown up. The men's cookhouse had part of the roof blown off.

Civilians Killed.

What had once been Brigade ~H<Q got a direct hit from a bomb, the house on the next corner was hi! and was afire. Another liousie was hit and a mother was blown out of it on to the roof of the next dwelling. She was killed. From und'er the ruins came groans and a faint cry. Some of our chaps worked feverishly and brought out a little boy who was suffering from a cut on the head, and his grandmother who had a broken arm and a broken leg and many bruises.

My blood boiled and for the only time in the campaign I nearly shed tears when I saw that little chap I used to wonder what on earth things had come to and curse the man who invented the aeroplane. It was terrible. On the Thursday night the Huns, who had been fairly quiet on the ground all day suddenly launched an attack on Galatos, but we put the Greeks on to them with fixed bayonets, and the Greeks shouting "Arra" charged in and killed 50 Germans in 10 minutes. While we suffered a setback in Greece and later in Crete.

Navy's Work.

The Hun paid very dearly for his successes—more dearly in fact than we. I' feel sure of that. In the

meantime all available troops in our sector had taken up a new defended line from Galatos to'the sea, but the- air attack grew fiercer. No success had attended the efforts of the Germans to land sea-borne troops, our Navy having sunk many boats. Most nights we could hear the Navy guns in action, and one morning just before dawn we saw three big fires burning out at sea. I've heard tell of how our destroyers actually rammed German transports amidships, and subsequent reports state that at least 5000 seaborne German troops were lost.

(To be continued).