DECISION TO LEAVE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 June 1941, Page 5

DECISION TO LEAVE

TAKEN BY GENERAL FREVBERG LAST FRIDAY . ON ACCOUNT OF AIR POSITION. DEFENDERS OF CANDIA SURPRISED. LONDON, June 2. Major-General Freyberg took the decision to evacuate Crete on May 29, says the Cairo correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain, because it was apparent that air supremacy would enable the Germans to land endless reinforcements and prevent the British from landing adequate reinforcements and supplies. Ten thousand troops had left for Egypt by the night of May 31, mainly British and Anzacs, but there were some Greek and Cretan soldiers and civilians. The Luftwaffe unceasingly attacked the streams of ships from Crete to Egypt. Grim, blood-spattered troops, many of them with wounds hastily tied up ,as best they could, continue to fill in the picture of the most gruelling and most intense battle of the war. One said.-“ Even Dunkirk and the battlefields of Greece were nothing compared with this show.” The British had the upper hand in the fighting in the first six days. Those from Candia say that every Gorman landing in their area was killed and, not knowing how serious the situation was in the Canea region, they were surprised when they were ordered to withdraw. Almost all of the Candia force escaped. Those round Suda Bay were not so lucky, though many escaped by the coast to Candia and others climbed the mountains and reached the south coast. A New Zealand officer said: “The Germans employed numerous tricks. We fired on and thought we bad killed one bunch of parachutists, but we found they were dummies while real parachutists had descended nearby. But we got the real ones, and within five minutes they were about as useful as the dummies to Hitler.” The officer added that the parachutists did not shout “Kamerad.” but they had learned enough English to cry for mercy, and they usually showed a diary to prove that they were gentle Austrians and anti-Hitlerians. “Such diaries seem to be part of the parachutists' regulation equipment,” he said. NAZI CLAIMS (Received This Day. 11 a.m.) LONDON, June 2. A German communique says Crete is free of the enemy and fighting is over. German Alpinists northwards of Sphakia, it is added, defeated the remnants I of the British forces and captured 3,000 prisoners.