FIGHTING RETREAT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 May 1941, Page 5

FIGHTING RETREAT

WITHDRAWAL FROM GREECE COMPLETED Official Revision of Earlier Figures SIR THOMAS BLAMEY’S REPORT MILITARY SPOKESMAN’S TRIBUTE TO TROOPS (By Telegraph—Press Association. —Copyright.) LONDON, May 2. The evacuation of the Empire forces from Greece has been completed and 43,000 men have been taken off, it was officially announced from London last night. The casualties at sea are not likely to have exceeded 500. The deputy-Commander-in-Chief in the Middle East, Lieu-tenant-General Sir Thomas Blarney, informed the Commonwealth that 3000 or 4000 men—only a few of them Australians—had to be left behind as they were cut off by the enemy. He was unable to estimate the number of wounded left behind in Greek hospitals nor the total casualties in the evacuation. The military spokesman in Cairo yesterday stated that the Imperial forces which withdrew against overwhelming odds from Greece remained almost intact in spite of the hard fighting till they reached Thermopylae Pass. The spokesman emphasised that the evacuation was not another Dunkirk because not only the majority of the troops were evacuated but also most of the light equipment was saved and not a serviceable item of equipment was ..left for the Germans. The evacuation, he said, was a fine feat for the Navy, since the Germans at the end were using 860 aeroplanes. The British lost aerodromes as they retreated, and then the Germans began bombing machines on the ground and finally attacking Athens aerodrome every three minutes.

STAND BY NEW ZEALANDERS “The withdrawal to Thermopylae was successfully completed by April 20, thanks largely to the New Zealanders, who. held their ground in spite of the fiercest attacks by a German armoured division, but it was obvious that without Greek assistance we could not hold that line with only two divisions against the enemy’s five,” the spokesman said. “The final evacuation was carried out under the cover of a New Zealand brigade and an Australian brigade.” Reliable observers from Greece estimate that the German losses were between 75,000 and 80,000. Thousands of' German parachutists landed in the last days of the withdrawal and blew up the Corinth Canal Bridge and set fire to the naval base of Daphne, near Athens, in an effort to trap the last battalions covering the withdrawal of the Anzacs. Some of the parachutes failed to open as the Germans dropped hundreds at a time, and many were killed. The Cairo correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain says the evacuation of the Imperial forces proceeded with astonishing smoothness. Some reached the beach of Euripa Channel, south of Chalkis, where they were picked up by small boats, and others were taken off at places along the Aegean coast, but the bulk of the army cut across Attica to the region of Megara and Mecara. A MOVE BY NIGHT Heavy bombings indicated that the Germans suspected the British were' there, so instead of embarking the British moved by night across the Isthmus of Corinth to the shores of the Aegean coast of Peloponnesus, mainly on the Gulf of Argos. The biggest embarkation was carried out there in the nights between April 24 and 27. Soldiers told another correspondent that as one party of rearguard sappers prepared to blow up a bridge across a ravine, the windows of houses opposite flew open and Germany tommy-guns were poked through. At the same time an armoured truck filled with Germans appeared in the streets. It was' not known how the bridge was blown up, said the correspondent, but it was. Only one man of the party was alive to tell the story. NAZI FOUL TACTICS There are countless stories of the ruses adopted by the Germans to try to trap the British troops. Some of the enemy carried Greek sheep bells and tinkled them to disguise their movements. Some of them came within a few feet of British troops and cried out in perfect English such phrases as “Where are you, Bill?” and if the troops were so unwise as to reply, the dive-bombers were over soon afterward. Again, many of the enemy were dressed as Greek officers, and passed into the British lines. They spoke perfect English, they were perfectly dressed, and they were operating in an area where the Greeks were in action, but ( they were Germans. All the men this correspondent spoke to talked of the co-operation and mutual affection between the British troops and the Greek civilian population. Many of the young soldiers on the quayside were wearing favours given to them by Greek ' girls who knew they were withdrawing in the face of German pressure. One correspondent says he watched the arrival of some of the men at their port of destination, and the i most remarkable thing about them i was that they had come back not disorganised or ragged, as might have . been expected, but disciplined and : cheerful and carrying with them their • full battle kit. Hardly one man was 1 not carrying’his own rifle. < ORGANISATION MAINTAINED ! ( The correspondent said that there I must have been nearly 15,000 men in < the convoy he saw. The ships came 1 right alongside to unload. A crack < British motor-liner and a grey Admiralty vessel lay together, and from s each of their gangways came a steady i trickle of soldiers and airmen. The 1 men had been sorted out on board, and marched ashore in organised groups— i Australians, New Zealanders, and I troops from Britain, as well as pilots < and ground staff of the R.A.F, < Within an hour or two of the start 1 of unloading, the broad concrete quays ( were jammed with contingent after i contingent drawn up in ranks. They t were quickly taken away in trains, f motor-lorries, and buses, which were i packed to the roof. Soon there were i only a few 'hundred men loft in the harbour awaiting their turn.

The local residents never even knew that'the vast majority of the expeditionary force had passed through their town. Most of the rnen who arrived on Thursday, the correspondent stated, were taken off from a small port south of Athens on Saturday night, and they had some amazing stories to tell. One air force officer stated that while they were waiting in a small bay German bombers scored a direct hit on a Greek vessel lying off the shore with 280 tons of high explosives on board. The explosion blew many of the men on shore off their feet. WORK OF FLYING=BOATS Another dispatch received in London gives the story of an evacuated officer, who told how Sunderland fly-ing-boats kept coming to one of the ports. On the average, they took about 60 men, but one had 70 on board. This officer was waiting his turn to leave in a Greek fishing boat when news came that the’ Navy was coming. "I don't think the Navy had ever been more welcome, even at Dunkirk,” he said. A destroyer carried this officer and his men out to a liner, during which operation there were four long attacks by German bombers. One ship in the convoy was damaged, and the people on board were transferred to a warship. Afterward the journey was without any incident, and the troops disembarked without interference. NURSES MACHINE=GUNNED Reuter’s special correspondent in Cairo in a dispatch yesterday says that 100 Anzac nurses from a British hospital on the outskirts of Athens were machine-gunned on their entire route to the point of embarkation. Their grey cloaks trimmed with scarlet made good targets for the divebornbers, and the nurses were continually forced to shelter in cornfields and under trees. They eventually found comparative safety aboard the Australian destroyer Gallant. The band made light of their experiences, but deeply regretted that they were forced to leave some of the wounded, who were unable to travel. The ambulances drove on to the beaches, where they were blown up : like the other’ vehicles immediately the wounded had been transferred to the boats.

TROOPS FROM GREECE

FORTY=THREE THOUSAND MEN SAFE OUT OF FORCE OF ABOUT 56,000. ACCORDING TO AUSTRALIAN WAR MINISTER. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright I (Received This Day, 9.55 a.m.) MELBOURNE, This Day. “The evacuation from Greece of British Empire troops has been completed and 43,000 troops, have been accounted for,” Mr P. C. Spender, the Army Minister, said yesterday, adding that there might be additions to the numbers already evacuated. 1 Basing his statement on a report from Lieut.-General Sir Thomas Blarney, who commanded the Anzac Corps in Greece. Mr Spender said the total strength of the Imperial forces— Australian, British and New Zealand—in Greece before the German attack was about 56,000, including 22,000 in the Australian and New Zealand divisions. . The extent of the Australian casualties is unknown, but the casualties among all the troops after the evacuation are estimated at not more than 500. The losses include about 3000 — among them only a few Australians — who. although they reached the beach could not be taken off. Lieut.-General Blarney’s despatch said it is likely that only a very small number of Australians are included in the 3000. Mr Spender described the action fought by Australian. British and New Zealand troops as unquestionably one of the most magnificent in the history of British arms. He paid a high tribute to Lieut.-General Blarney’s work. General Blarney reported that the Anzacs wore always superior to the Germans whenever they met in conditions at all reasonable. He added that all the' nurses from Greece had arrived inj Alexandria. | An authoritative London estimate of'

the number of Imperial troops evacuated from Greece is between 41.000 and 45,000, a cablegram states. The estimate of 43,000 given today was by General Blarney. The figures have been somewhat confused lately as some were based on a percentage of what was believed to be the total number of men in the expeditionary force sent lo Greece.