USED AS SCREEN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 June 1941, Page 5

USED AS SCREEN

NEW ZEALAND WOUNDED IN CRETE ORIGIN OF FALSEUNIFORMS STORY. FOUL-FIGHTING NAZIS WIPED OUT. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day. 10.45 a.m.) RUGBY. June 11. Fuller details are now available of an incident in Crete outlined by Mr Churchill in the House of Commons, when German parachutists, after landing at one point, drove a number of New Zealand walking wounded before them, and consequently the cry arose that the parachutists were themselves dressed in New Zealand uniforms. A; hospital in which New Zealanders were being cared for was systematically bombed and machine-gunned by German aircraft. The Germans could not have failed to see the markings, as they flew so low that the wing of one plane struck the top of a tent. After this had been riddled by machine-gun fire, the parachutists landed about 300 yards away. The hospital, in which every person was unarmed, was captured. All the patients who could walk and some even wearing pyjamas, were sent ahead by the parachutists to act as a screen against snipers. Many of the wounded had to walk a long distance with 'their hands up and being continually threatened with shooting. Actually twelve were shot, some being killed. Other prisoners who were too ill to walk were kept for five hours lying face downwards in an olive grove, until eventually they were rescued by New Zealand forces, who killed or captured all the Nazi parachutists who had landed in that area.