THE EMPIRE'S WAR ACTIVITIES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 6, 21 January 1942, Page 3

THE EMPIRE'S WAR ACTIVITIES

FIFTH COLUMNISTS RIFE IN GREECE German fifth column work in Greece, which resulted in the capture of New Zeal antlers, is described by a soldier in a letter to Mr Haskell Anderson, of Wellington, "Greece was absolutely rank with lifth columnists; it is no wonder they lost to the Hun," he writes, "I shot two of them during the evacuation." The writer states that early one morning when passing outside the town of Thebes he met two "military police" directing traffic on to a side road. Before this he consulted his map, and knew he was on the. main Athens road. "These M.P.'s seemed 'fishy' to me, and I asked one to produce his identification disc. He mumbled something and started to run. I' drew my revolver and shot them both. When I searched them I found ample and convincing evidence ol" fifth column work. A lot of men from our regiment were taken prisoner through the work of these two." Referring to the Stuka dive-bomb-crs, he said that much might be heard or read of the devastation they wrought. His experience was different. He was in a convoy 74 miles long, with 100 yards between vehicles-. They were on the road four days and were dive-bombed and machine-gunned almost hourly. Yet hardly a vehicle was directly hit hy a bomb. The machine-gunning was the worst —nerve-wracking anil deadly. "Imagine approximately 6000 bullets in one burst, coming individually from 20 or more planes." writes this soldier. "I saw in Greece one of the worst sights imaginable. Small children, riddled with machine-gun bullets, lying in the gutters. This sort of [ .liing is unpardonable."