LOSSES IN CRETE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 June 1941, Page 5

LOSSES IN CRETE

STATEMENT BY AUSTRALIAN ARMY MINISTER CORRESPONDENT ON “BRUTAL FACT.” NO CHANCE OF ADEQUATE AIR SUPPORT. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, June 4. The Australian Army Minister, Mr Spender, announced today that figures received from the general officer commanding the Australian Imperial Force, Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Blarney, showed that 3599 mon were unaccounted for as a result of the campaign in Crete. Out of a total of 6486 members of the A.I.F. in Crete before the German attack began, 2887 had so far been evacuated. This figure included 218 wounded. A warm message of congratulation has been sent by the Governor-Gen-eral of Australia. Lord Gowrie, to Major-General Freyberg. "I am thrilled with admiration,” he says, "at the heroic achievements of all ranks under your command in Crete. Under your inspired leadership, and side by side with our gallant Greek allies, they fought with a courage and tenacity which will add another glorious page to the military history of the Empire.” A message from Alexandria says that the Australian war correspondent in the course of his latest dispatch states: —

“Greece and Crete were won and lost in the air. A brutal fact, proved in two campaigns, is that the Allied forces were ..without hope from the beginning, because it is admitted that there was no chance of adequate air support. The fact is so naked now that no commander should still be allowed to nurture the delusion that, even if no air support can be given, his men can hope to avert defeat from the sky by hiding in holes or relying on ground defences.

“The lesson of Greece and Crete is that military enterprises of this nature cannot and ought not to be risked today without at least air equality or except under pressure of the most urgent need.”