BATTLE OF CRETE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 June 1941, Page 5

BATTLE OF CRETE

PART OF GREATER CONFLICT BRITISH PRIME MINISTER’S REVIEW. BRITISH AND GERMAN LOSSES. LONDON, June 10. The decision to defend Crete, the British Prime Minister (Mr Churchill) staled in the Mouse of Commons, was taken with the full, knowledge' that aircraft support would be at a minimum. The Battle of Crete, he added, could only be viewed as a part of the Battle of the Middle East and he was sure that the battle was well, worth fighting and that it would play an extremely .important part in the whole defence of the Nile Valley throughout. 1 he present year.

Answering criticism that more guns should have been provided for the defence of aerodromes in Crete, Mr Churchill said every single antiaircraft gun was used in the position in which it would be most effective and he was pleased to say that at last production of these guns was rapidly expanding. Since the Battle of Britain was won by fighters last year, Britain had ceaselessly sent aircraft to the Middle East to build up the strongest possible force there. Although there were heavy demands on aircraft in other parts of the Middle East, it would have been a fatal mistake to make a large number of aerodromes in Crete unless the anti-air-craft guns could have been found to defend them. The decision to withdraw British planes from Crete was made by the commodore of the air force in the Middle East, on the recommendation of General Freyberg.

Mr Churchill said the British losses in Crete were 15,000 killed, wounded, missing and prisoners of war, and the German losses were at least 17,000. About 5,000 Germans were drowned when trying to cross the sea to Crete and at least 12,000 were killed or wounded on the island. In addition, 180 enemy fighter and bomber aircraft and at least 250 troop-carrying planes were destroyed. He regretted that the burden of the fighting in the Middle East had fallen so heavily on the Australian and New Zealand troops. In Allied operations in the Western Desert, the losses suffered by British troops in proportion to the numbers engaged, were slightly heavier than those suffered by Dominion troops. Out of 90,000 who had lost their lives so fax’ in this war, at least 85,000 came from the Mother Country.

COMMONS DEBATE SOME SHARP CRITICISM. FAILURE TO DEFEND AERODROMES. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.48 a.m.) RUGBY, June 10. Mr H. B. Lees-Smith (Lab., Keighley), opening the House of Commons debate on Crete, asked how it happened that at quite an early stage of the battle the aerodromes of Malemi and Heraclion, which had been in British occupation for seven months, vyere abandoned by the Air Force, whose withdrawal, he suggested, directly led to the subsequent reverses. The capture of the Malemi aerodrome, Mr Lees-Smith said, was the turning point in the battle and he asked why it was not provided with adequate defences. Mr L. Hore-Belisha (L.N., Devonport) questioned the powers of the commander and, stating that the establishment of the Fleet Air Arm had been amply justified, asked why the process was not carried as far in the Army and why the ground commander on the spot had not' been given command over land and air forces. He pointed out that the Battle of Crete had proved that airborne invasion over one hundred miles of sea could be successfully accomplished if the Navy could not count on full air support. Sir Percy Harris said whoever was responsible for the defence of Crete grossly underestimated the resources of the enemy and he asked for an assurance that there would be close liaison between the Army and the Air Force.

Mr A. Beverley Baxter (C„ Wood Green) wanted to know by whose authority the Air Force was withdrawn from Crete and asked who decided that it was preferable to lose eight ships rather than sacrifice 90 aeroplanes. After paying a tribute to the “inspiring leadership of Mr Churchill,” Mr Baxter said he did not think the Government in its present form could lead to victory and suggested that the War Cabinet was too large.