SOLDIER’S EXPERIENCES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 July 1943, Page 2

SOLDIER’S EXPERIENCES

— 0 SECOND ECHELON MEMBER. ADDRESS TO ROTARY CLUB. Addressing members of the Masterton Rotary Club yesterday afternoon, Private K. McEwen, who is on furlough from the Middle East gave an interesting talk of his personal experiences of the campaigns in Greece and Crete. Private McEwen described how he left New Zealand with a brigade and trained in England. On proceeding to Egypt the Second Echelon men were known as the “glamour boys” on account of their furlough in England. After training on concrete roads in England they found the desert sands gruelling to march on, to the delight of the First Echelon members. He described events in Greece from Mount Olympus to the retreat to Crete. The British intelligence service in Greece had stated that the date of the German invasion of Crete would be May 18, which was fairly accurate as the paratroops came down on May 20. The defenders of the island, with their service rifles, found that paratroops could be successfully dealt with by putting i shots through the parachutes, which ripped in the air. He described the smashing of the German attempted seaborne invasion and the evacuation from Crete to Alexandria and said the boat which conveyed his party travelled so fast that the smoke stack was red hot and the waves seemed higher than the ship. His experiences in the Libyan and Tunisian campaign were even more interesting, as the New Zealanders there had the equipment and had a sporting chance.