ENDURED BY IMPERIAL FORCES IN GREECE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 May 1941, Page 5

ENDURED BY IMPERIAL FORCES IN GREECE

During Their Retreat to the Sea MEN CHEERFUL AND IN GOOD HEART AFTER ORDEAL SIX NAZI DIVE-BOMBERS SHOT DOWN IN PORT SOUTH OF ATHENS LONDON, .May 1. A correspondent, describing- the arrival of troops evacuated from Greece, states that the most remarkable thing about them is that they came back not disorganised but and cheerful and carrying with them their full battle kit. There were nearly 15,000 men in the convoy he saw arrive. Most of them were taken off from a small port south of Athens on Saturday °g men descri b e( i their journey to the sea in Greece as one long bombing. When they reached the coast they found no ships there. Officers commandeered a small fishing boat and proceeded to a Greek ship lying in the* harbour and bv using an old wireless sent out an S.O.S. A Sunde-land flying-boat arrived soon afterwards and took away about 50 men. When the Navy and transports arrived, three destroyers played their searchlights into the streets to show the way. At daylight there was another by dive-bombeis. Bombs fell within a foot or two of the largest ship, without doing more than knock off some paint. In the meantime about 80 machine and automatic guns were placed on the upper deck and when the next attack was made the guns opened fire. Altogether six dive-bombers were brought down. The Nazis were out to prevent a single man of the forces escaping. On the other hand, the German infantry were driven like cattle to slaughter. Various estimates have been given of the German losses in killed and wounded. A Cairo message put them at 75,000. . *