BATTLE FOR CANEA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 May 1941, Page 5

BATTLE FOR CANEA

GERMAN AGENCY REPORT TURKS IMPRESSED BY BRITISH STAND. IMPORTANT DELAYING ACTION. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, May 30. It is stated in Cairo that British reinforcements of men and material have reached Crete, but it is uncertain whether these are additional to those mentioned last night. The German news agency says the hardest fight to capture Canea occurred round a British stronghold in the mountainous village of Galatos, where finally a break-through disrupted the whole of the British defences between Canea and the high mountains. The German agency claimed that the British were making every preparation to escape by sea. The Istanbul correspondent of the British United Press says the Turks are increasingly impressed by the continued British resistance in Crete after eight days during which the Germans have poured in everything possible from the Greek mainland. German sources in Istanbul expected that Crete would be occupied in two days. Turkish observers entertain little hope that the defence of Crete wifi ultimately be successful, but they consider the battle an important delaying action preventing the Germans from going on to the next stage of the war —their penetration in the Middle East. NAZI CLAIM FALL OF CRETE IMMINENT. NEW YORK. May 29. The Berlin correspondent of the “New York Times” has cabled his paper that the “evidence overwhelmingly indicates that the fall of Crete is imminent, due primarily to Britain’s lack of local air power.”