SIGNS OF STRAIN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 May 1941, Page 5

SIGNS OF STRAIN

IN ENEMY AIR OPERATIONS FEWER LANDINGS & HEAVIER LOSSES. USE OF LESS EXPERIENCED AIRMEN. LONDON, May 26. The German claim to hold the whole of the west of Crete is not true. It is confirmed in London that British marines are taking part in the battle. Since the invasion opened some hundreds of Germans have been taken prisoner. The Germans effected a landing at Suda Bay within the last 24 hours but were driven off from the shore. German air-borne guerrillas are still roving the country between Candia and Suda Bay, threatening our communications, but they are not nearly as serious as the concentrations at Malerni. The Germans every night are sending from hidden coves in the Dodecanese Islands troop-laden fishing fleets to run the Royal Navy’s gauntlet to Crete. A cessation of the glider landings is the first sign that the Germans cannot go on indefinitely reinforcing from the air. The Junkers 52’s hauled up to six gliders, giving the plane and glider unit a capacity of 100 men with arms and-small bombs. Supporting reports that the Germans had expected to take Crete in 48 hours is the fact that the parachutists and air-borne troops who are now landing are not members of the original airborne divisions. The dive-bombers are not coming so low, and they are taking double their earlier losses, indicating that less experienced airmen are now handling them. Typical German frightfulness dominates the latest news of the enemy's bombing attacks on Crete. The Germans mass-bombed Canea, Retimo and Candia (Heraclion) from noon on May 24 to 6 p.m., interrupted by only two short breaks. The havoc is comparable with that caused in Rotterdam a year ago. “INSANITY OF WASTAGE.” More than 250 smashed German planes lie scattered over Crete, mixed with broken gliders and burnt-out stores. The wreckage is strewn in the branches in olive groves, along beaches and high on the rocks over Canea and Candia. More wreckage, including many stove-in fishing boats, is being washed up everywhere-on the north coast. German salvage gangs are pulling damaged German machines off the runways at Malerni aerodrome and abandoning them on the beach, which is already piled up with torn fabric and burnt-out engines. The Germans apparently are prepared for this insanity of wastage, and men, stores, machines and boats are flung in as though Hitler were ready for almost any loss. ATTACKS ON MALEMI. The R.A.F. bombers and long-range fighters, diving on Malerni in one ol their attacks, found nearly 40 troopcarriers on the airfield and at least another 60 on the beach. Men were racing back and forth among the machines tearing out stores, tuning up engines and taking off planes to make room for others that were cruising overhead. The British bombers flung down every bomb they had while our fighters dived, machine-gunning the antlike figures. These raids continued all yesterday. Our pilots say that' their only trouble is they have so much to hit and so far to go to hit it. One pilot said he arrived during a temporary lull, but before he left “clouds” of German planes were coming up over the sea. Supplies of food, ammunition and medicaments are now reaching our garrisons, In addition, the Gormans are continually parachuting boxes of concentrated food, spare parts and shells, some of which fall inside our lines. Quantities of heavier equipment are known to have been on the German sea convoys which wore sunk or dispersed.