PEAK OF CONFLICT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 May 1941, Page 5

PEAK OF CONFLICT

BRITISH LINE HANGING ON GRIMLY TROOPS UNDER EXTREME STRAIN. ENEMY'S ENORMOUS AIR LOSSES. LONDON, May 30. The Battle of Crete is at its peak with the troops on both sides described as being in a stage of extreme fatigue and strain, says “The Times” Cairo correspondent. Men who have not washed for a week and have snatched cold food only in pauses of the battle are meeting at the bayonet point. The British line hangs on grimly in rough country just above the sea eastward of Suda Bay. Farther east at Retimo the situation is quieter but fighting has broken out afresh round Candia, where our forces have never ceased to hold the town. The Royal Air Force bombers are concentrating along the beaches where the Germans are frantically trying to level out runways. There is never less than 100 enemy aircraft on the ground with others landing and taking off. One report puts the German air losses at well over 3000. not including Stukas shot down by the Navy. The headquarters attitude is not optimistic, though the length and toughness of Major-General Freyberg’s Gland seems to have eclipsed the highest hopes held a few days ago.

The havoc round Canea and Suda Bay has levelled olive groves and strewn a whole 10-mile coastal plain with wounded and dead and the wreckage of broken cars, guns, lorries, carts and village houses.

When after 60 hours of continuous assault the Germans finally entered Canea on May 28, they found the town a blackened ruin. The only sign of life was the wounded being tended underground by a few British doctors and Greek assistants.

The Cairo correspondent of the “Daily Express” says low-flying German aircraft are bombing the British wounded embarking in fishing-boats and small steamers.