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IN FULL BLAST

BATTLE THROUGHOUT DAY REPORTS FROM GENERAL FREYBERG. TROOPS FIGHTING SUPERBLY. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON. May 22. No official communique has yet been issued about yesterday’s fighting in Crete, but messages from Cairo correspondents say it continued full-blast throughout the day. The Cairo correspondent of the “Daily Mail" says that from dawn to dusk <m the second day in succession wave after wave of German troopcarriers and gliders, protected by divebombers. spilled out their human cargoes along the whole of Crete's northern coast and inland among the olive groves, where there has been bitter hand-to-hand fighting. Nowhere have the invaders captured the island's airfields or harbours. The fighting is guerrilla warfareman against man. with the Germans and New Zealanders. Britons ■ and Greeks battling singly or in small companies. The situation last night was described in some messages as obscure, partly because the Germans were reported to be landing men in British uniforms in Greek areas and Greek uniforms in British areas. “It has been a hard day,” said Ma-jor-General Freyberg in a cable yesterday to the New Zealand Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, in which he crisply and unemotionally outlined the operations on the second day of the invasion. He added: “Our troops are fighting superbly.” A later message states that General Freyberg said: “We are being hard-pressed. Much depends on the next few hours.” German reports yesterday suggested that strong British naval forces were active in the eastern part of the Mediterranean. The German radio claimed that bombers made direct hits on a battleship, five cruisers and a destroyer west of Crete. NAZI PARACHUTE TACTICS. Some of the German parachutists are using a now type ot parachute and are dropped from only 200 feet, meaning that it is only a matter of seconds before they land, making it difficult to

shoot them down. Nevertheless, the British fire has been most effective between the time they have landed and the time they have run up to where their guns and munitions were landed from other parachutes. Each parachute is coloured red, white or black, according to the wearer’s function. . It is perhaps significant that the German High Command has not yet issued any communique. No word about Crete has yet appeared in the German. Italian and French Press. It can now be revealed that General Freyberg was aware of the imminence of the attack at least as early as May 16. On that day two German airmen who were shot down near Crete told the authorities that a major attack was being launched against the island within 48 hours. The necessary coun-ter-measures were immediately taken.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WAITA19410523.2.47.2

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 May 1941, Page 5

Word count
Tapeke kupu
436

IN FULL BLAST Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 May 1941, Page 5

IN FULL BLAST Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 May 1941, Page 5

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