GERMAN LOSSES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 150, 3 September 1941, Page 6

GERMAN LOSSES

RUSSIAN ESTIMATE ACCEPTED

TACTICS IN 1 GREEK CAMPAIGN

The opinion that the Russian estimate of German losses in the past seven weeks may be accepted as accurate was expressed by a young Dunedin soldier who recently returned home wounded after going through the Greece and Crete campaigns. He based his view on his experiences v against the Germans, whose commanders, he said, showed little regard for the lives oi their men when they were determined to take a position -

"It is quite conceivable," he said, "that -they have lost well over .1,000,000 men in the battle 011 the vast eastern front, for in Greece they poured thousands into the struggle and seemed little concerned at the great loss of life they suffered. "There always seemed plenty to take the place of the masses th&t were slaughtered," he added, "and in Crete the parachutsastsi were sent into a veritable hell of. fire. We did not have much time for counting, but on one occasion I counted nine troop-carrying planes from which about 15 parachutists apiece baled out. I watched carefully, but not one of the 135 parachutists succeeded in firing a shot. They were either shot, while in the air or despatched as soon as they readied the ground. We learned later that they had been- told that Crete was held | by only 200 Greeks. The parachute troops; were a t fine lot of men, and t theyi firmly believed their cause to be right. They were equally convinced, too, that if Germany did not win 'the war by Christmas she would never win it."