NAZI PARACHUTISTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 May 1941, Page 5

NAZI PARACHUTISTS

ATTACK IN PELEPONNESUS DESCRIBED BY MAORIS. ADDITIONAL MEN LANDED BY PLANES. (N.Z.E.F. Official News Service.) CAI,RO. May (i. A party of Maoris who had been attached to a brigade for special duties described a landing of parachute troops which they witnessed south of the Corinth Canal. "Our troops had withdrawn across the canal and were resting in a dispersed area when, suddenly, clouds of bombers appeared in the sky.” they said. “They circled over the area, bombing it constantly for nearly three hours, and then came huge troopcarrving planes, which came down to 300 feet and dropped the parachute troops. Several of the parachutes failed to open, which was just too bad: however, hundreds did. and here and there was a red parachute about which the others gathered. “When they landed the bomb holes which the bombers had made were used as machine-gun pits. Guns and ammunition had come down with the troops, and there were used to cover the landing of huge carrier planes, which disgorged fully-equipped troops and small armoured cars. “Our small arms fire killed hundreds of the Germans, but with most of our equipment already abandoned, our troops could not cope with the sheer weight of numbers and armament which was suddenly opposed to them. They pulled out and continued the withdrawal covered by a withering fire from our fighting rearguards.”