When N.Z. troops led defence of Greece

Press, 12 April 1979, Page 16

When N.Z. troops led defence of Greece

The war historian. ARTHUR KIDSON, recalls the occasion, 38 years ago today, when New’ Zealand troops officially became “Auzacs” for the second time.

We still honour Anzac Day on April 25 each year, and mourn our sad losses at Gallipoli and elsewhere in World War I, but we tend to forget how close we came to losing the whole of our 2nd New Zealand Division almost at the outset of World War 11. Our small force, which had never yet fought a battle, or come together under one command, was ordered into war-torn Europe as the advance guard of a British Expeditionary Force to Greece. When General Freyberg was apprised of this commitment, on February 17, 1941, fully one-third of his Division, which he had never seen as a whole, was on the high seas. The Second Echelon had sailed from Britain, but had not yet reached Egypt. The Thirds were already there, encamped for five months and itching for battle. Our First Echelon had been in North Africa a whole year without ever being used as combat troops. They were given “second line” tasks: garrison duty in Cairo; digging quite useless antitank ditches and gunpits in the Western Desert: transporting men and materials for the big “stonk” up there. One wag dubbed our Division “Freyberg’s Colonial Carrying Company.” The “stonk,” of course, was the so-called Wavell Show, which gave the Allies their first victory .of the war. It. opened on December 9, 1940; and in three months General O’Connor’s Desert Army had advanced 600 miles, reducing all strongpoints in its path and investing several towns. It

took 130,000 prisoners, captured or destroyed 400' tanks, 1290 field guns, and vast quantities of military stores. In the first three days the Coldstream Guards reported taking more prisoners than they could count. They had, they said. “about five acres of officers and 200 acres of other ranks.” Heady stuff, this. And Prime Minister Churchill announced it to an electrified House of Commons. But did he “reinforce success” — press this victory to its logical conclusion: a thrust on Tripoli (key-point in Mussolini’s North African Empire); a build-up of sea and air strength along the North African coast; the restoration of British control over the central Mediterranean? No. He plunged instead on his great Greece gamble, throwing the New Zealanders in with his chips, as at Gallipoli. That suited our soldiers. Here at last was action, and a change from stinking Egypt. But their war-hardened General had his reservations. “It was a solemn thought,” Freyberg records, “to be the advance guard of a British Army in the Balkans, especially against an enemy like the Germans, fully equipped and .outnumbering us by three or four to one . . . I wondered who had given the order for us to come. I should not have liked to make the decision.” Originally this Expedition-' ary Force was planned to include the Ist British Armoured Brigade, the 6th Australian Division. the Polish Independent Brigade Group, and the 7th Australian

Division. They were to follow our Division in that order. But when Rommel got wind of these wholesale withdrawals he launched an eastward from El Agheila. so the Poles and the 7th Australians were held back to defend Tobruk. The 6th Australian Division arrived late. Therefore, when the Germans invaded both Greece and Yugoslavia on April 6. 1941, the New Zealand Division and the Ist Armoured Brigade were the only Allied formations complete and in their place in the forward area. Their position was most precarious. Three Greek divisions (one of them only just formed) had been

detailed to assist the British force; but they were poorly equipped, had few automatic weapons, little artillery, and no anti-tank guns. “My visit to the Greek Army,” Freyberg wrote, “filled me with mixed feelings ... I was astonished to see that their first-line transport was composed entirely of ox waggons and pack animals which of course could only travel a very limited distance in a day at a very slow speed — actually at a slower pace than troops could march.” When the New Zealanders arrived, 19 Greek Division was withdrawn and moved to Thrace. This meant that our brigades had to prepare and

hold a defensive position on a 28,500 yard front, right in the path of a German Balkan Army numbering 12 to 14 divisions backed by armour and protected by a vastly superior air force. On April 3 General Freyberg wrote in his diary: "The situation is a grave one; we shall be fighting against heavy odds in a plan that has been ill-conceived and one that violates every principle of military strategy.” He considered that had the New Zealanders been forced to stay on in that position and fight, the Division, with the whole of its equipment, would have been rounded up in the very first phase of the campaign.

By the end of it, Just three weeks later, they had lost heavily enough: 2500 men killed, wounded, or captured: all their vehicles, guns and stores deliberately destroyed or, perforce, abandoned. In the inevitable debacle they fought running battles — desperate rearguard actions — down the whole length of Greece, thus facilitating the escape to Crete of some 50.000 British troops. Meanwhile, on April 5, all British, Australian and New Zealand forces in Greece had come under command of the veteran Australian, General Blarney, to form the Ist Australian Corps. At Freyberg’s suggestion this title was changed: and on April 12 Blarney issued the following order: “As from 1800 hours, April 12, Ist Australian Corps will be designated ANZAC Corps. In making this announcement the G.0.C., ANZAC Corps, desires to say that the reunion of the Australian and New Zealand Divisions gives all ranks the greatest uplift. The task ahead, though difficult, is not nearly so desperate as that our fathers faced 26 years ago. We go to it together with stout hearts and certainty of success.” This message was transmitted ’to New Zealand Divisional HQ in typical Aussie style. Captain Morrison of our 25 Battalion, whose brencarriers guarded Blarney’s headquarters, was asked by the Australian, Brigadier Rowell, to wait while the message was prepared. That done, Rowell said: “I’ll let you know what’s in it. It will save you opening it on the way home.” He read it out; and General Blarney remarked: “There you are, sonny. You have only got to live ’till six o’clock tonight to be a bloody Anzac.”