THE CAPTURE OF GALATOS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 148, 29 August 1941, Page 7

THE CAPTURE OF GALATOS

Accompanying a letter to his people in Whakatane a soldier who saw servicc in Crete encloses the following verse written by a friend: — VVc were driven from the village oy the forces of the Hun. While his roaring, straffing aircraft dropped upon us from the sun With mortars, bombs and bullets he t: ied to shake our wills But we turned to face and fight him on the tops of nearby hills, Though he tried hard to dislodge us quite regardless of his loss —■ Our rifles spat hot death towards (lie town of Galatos. The shadows lengthened, faded as we shot down on our foes With the acrid stench of powder gases stinging mouth and nose The yelling of the dying and the smelling of the dead, The cracking whine of bullets whizzing closely overhead ; With grim, set jaws and steady aim we added to their loss And dusk was filled with screaming from the streets of Galatos. Towards us strode our Colonel, with his cold, blue eyes of steel, Who had proved himself in battle and courageous made us feel With his well-known sniper's rifle he shot beside his men Shouting "Got him" when he scored a hit, then took his aim again, And all the men respected: their fictitious type of boss. Who smiled and ,shot beside them overlooking Galatos. The Colonel obtained orders and then turned towards his men He said "Attack the village—fix your bayonets, boys" and then He led the whole line forward, each man spaced down the hill Like a serpent crawling sideways. Avith a killing, bloody will. And the bullets beat about lis, but we had faith in our boss And our bayonets rattled as we ran towards black Galatos. Through olive groves where sliadowJ lurked like flickering ghosts of doom Down darkest ditches where silence was quieter than a tomb Then out into the open where the bullets start lo whine. While a voice was raised "Up, on the left—space and, keep your line" White houses loomed before us, then our lives were worth a toss As we burst in, yelling, killing, on the streets of Galatos-. The rattle of machine guns, the bursting of grenade To a hell of flying steel and flame the village soon was made A shadow moves, a rifle cracks, 1 hear a foreign yell As a bayonet helps another Hun go on his way to hell And very close beside me someone, laughing, cries "Kaloss" As a fighting young New Zealander died at Galatos. Along the cobbled streets, we ran. excitement running free Our fighting was. victorious, the Hun began to flee For then he had no aircraft, the fight was man to man And when we met him face to face, his crazed retreat began For the dead were many in the street, both sides sustained great loss But our boys who died, died for a cause—we captured Galatos. ("Kaloss" is Egyption for "Finished")