SEA PIECE: 1941

New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 307, 11 May 1945, Page 16

SEA PIECE: 1941

By H. ilary

St. George

Saunders,

author

or "ihe Battie or Hritain,

HERE is a story of the evacuation of Crete which still remains to be told. It does not fit into the main picture of the organised embarkation, for the men concerned were few. in number and they organised their own escape. Their story is a small but memorable incident in the history of the Royal Marines. The Royal Marine battalion that had formed part of the rearguard fought to the last, knowing how slender were their chances of rescue. They are said to have "conducted themselves in a manner worthy of the highest traditions of the Corps." Now the traditions of the Corps include episodes like the taking of Belle Isle, Gallipoli, Beaumont Hamel, and Zeebrugge. There is no longer any room on their colours for their battle honours, so they wear a globe instead and the word "Gibraltar."’ Lord St. Vincent, probably the strictest disciplinarian the Navy has ever known, and not given to flummery, once said of them that in the country’s hour of real danger they would be found its sheet anchor. Before dismissing their achievements with a phrase whose radiance is a little dulled with usage, it is well to remember these things. * * * VENTUALLY reaching the beach at Sfakia too late for the last lift, the battalion was disbanded by Major R. Garrett, Royal Marines, on 31st May, by order of the Senior Army Officer ashore. Major Garrett, having carried out his instructions, then made it known thet he would never allow himself to be taken prisoner, that he intended to find a boat and make his way to Africa. Having made his purpose plain to his famished and exhausted men, he set off in search of a boat, and in the bay found the landing craft abandoned by Lieutenant McDowell, R.N.V.R. Swimming off to her he found a wire foul of the port screw and the engines incapacitated. She had, however, some peovisions on board and appeared to be seaworthy. Major Garrett then went in search of an engineer. In the ruins of the bombed village he found one J. Lester, a lancecorporal of the 2/7 Australian Battalion, who had been a mechanic in: civil life and was still game for anything, On their way off to the lighter they were joined by another Australian, Lieutenant K. R, Walker, and between them they got life into the engine, and finally warped the lighter inshore. Major Garrett then called for volunteers to join him on this desperate venture. It was the last rally of the Royal Marines in Crete. To his stout-hearted "Who goes home?" five officers and 134 other ranks responded, They included Royal Marines, Australians, New Zealanders and men from the Commandos landed by the Abdiel on 24th and 26th May. They collected all the petrol, water containers, and rations they could lay their hands on, and at 9 a.m. on June 1 they cast off; there was a light mist drifting in from seaward and under cover of this they

made their way to Gavdopula Island that had harboured the crew of the MLL. 1030. Here they secured a cave. An armed party was landed and returned with the report that they were the only inhabitants of the island. A well was found and all containers filled. The engine-room staff, consisting of four Australian corporals and a Commando sergeant, refitted the engine. The troops were "exercised in seamanship." The phrase is taken from Major Garrett’s report. What these exercises comprised is not known, but the séntence has a brave Ting. A complete muster was made of all their resources. , Then came a good dinner, the first proper meal for three days, followed by a substantial supper, a last drink at the well, and a "top-up" of every water container. At 9.30 p.m. on June 1 off they went. ke = +

8s EFORE leaving Sfakia Major Garrett had somehow contrived to find a map of the Eastern Mediterranean in the village. Lieutenant R. R. Macartney, of the 3rd Field Regiment, A.I.F., had a map of North Africa. With these two aids to navigation they set a course for Tobruk, 180 miles distant, which they knew to be in our hands. They had, of course, no sextant, no knowledge of the compass deviation, no log or chronometer or means of calculating the set of currents, They estimated they had petrol for 140 miles. They lost two hours during the night of June 1 repairing the steering gear, which broke down. An experiment with diesel fuel in one engine, in an attempt to save petrol, merely resulted in the engine pecking up. The other broke down in sympathy shortly afterwards. Undaunted by the contrariness of the machine, Major Garrett made plain sail, the canvas being furnished somewhat inadequately by the winen cover. This just enabled them to keep the lighter on her course. The sea rose and seasickness overwhelmed them. The devoted engineroom staff continued, however. to strip down the engine and clear it of dieselite, which enabled them to get under way again ur‘: 6 p.m. on June 2 when their petrol wes exhausted. All night they wallowed in a heavy sea under their rag of a sail. On June 3 they were rationed to a sixth of a pint. of water, an inch and a-half cube of bully-beef and half a ship’s biscuit. They burned flares at night, using the diesel oil. Two young marines, A. Harding and A. R. Booth, were inspired to improvise a_ distilling plant from petrol tins, using the diesel oil as fuel. In two days they produced 414 gallons of drinking water. Rummaging among the stores Major Garrett found a tin of petro! which he hoarded for emergencies. * * % T 7.45 on the morning of June 4, a Blenheim aircraft sighted them and circled them twice. This heartened everybody; they were getting very weak. he engineers busied themselves in changing the port clutch and gearbox with the starboard, which was slipping, and they ran the engine for half an hour in the evening to keep their spirits up. Next day, unable to sight land, they used up the rest of the petrol hoping to lift the African coast; but when the engine petered out it was still the same

horizon of waves heaving against the lonely sky to the south of them. Marine Harding built a raft of diesel oil drums, with floor boards as paddles; a raft party volunteered to go and look for Africa and fetch help, but their craft was too unstable and the project had to be abandoned. Next day they rigged a canoe, but it would take only one man and they were too weak for a singlehanded task. That too was given up. They then devoted all their energies to sailing the lighter. They contrived to make four blankets into a jib and six into a mainsail. A marine named Yeo distinguished himself as a sailmaker.. The lighter refused to answer her helm and yawed despairingly. To wear ship it was necessary for these exhausted men to plunge overboard in small parties and by swimming with all the energy left in them push the bows round on to the proper course again. % a8 a HEY had two colour-sergeants and one sergeant of the Royal Marines on board. The former were "old timers," the latter "Hostilities only." Between them they heartened and sustained that clamjamfrey of armed _ scarecrows, bearded and gaunt and _hollow-eyed, crowded together on the sun- grilled plates of a landing craft. The senior, Colour-Sergeant C. A. Dean, was the lighter’s sergeant-major, a combination of master-at-arms and purser, issuing the meagre ration of water with stern impartiality. His fellow, Colour-Sergeant H. C. Colwill, organised the watches on board and constituted himself a sort of sailing master, which involved leading the swimming party into the water every time it was necessary to steady the ship on her course. Sergeant Bowden helped his seniors in these various activities. As a "Hostilities Only" he was probably not expected to be familiar with the routine of sailing the high seas in a squarenosed lighter that refused to answer her

rudder and was propelled by blankets and kept on her course by swimmers towards a coast they might never reach in time. It must be supposed that he just picked it up as he went along. On June 8 Private H. J. Wysocky and’ Driver K. Watson, 155 Battery, 52nd Light A.A. Brigade, died from exposure and exhaustion, and were buried. At 5.45 p.m. land was sighted. % * * T 1.30 a.m. on the 9th, they ran on to a sandy beach and lowered the brow. A patrol, under Lieutenant Macartney and Sergeant Bowden, was landed with orders to move south in the hope of striking the Sollum road. Two Maori soldiers, Private Thompson and Gunner Peters, volunteered to land and find water. They found a well a quarter of mile away within 45 minutes. Sergeant Bowden reappeared after some hours. He announced that they were beached seventeen miles west of Sidi Barrani, 109 miles to the eastward of Tobruk. They had made good 230 miles, but must have travelled nearer 250. Sidi Barrani was the headquarters of the 1st A.A. Regiment, and motor transport had been arranged for the following morning. Sergeant Bowden had found his way back across five miles of desert in the dark without a compass. The colour-sergeants must have agreed that one way and another Sergeant Bowden showed promise. tk BS ak ‘THE following morning, June 10, Major Garrett marched his force across the desert to where the lorries awaiged them. It is appropriate that the story should end here-with the little band of the unbeaten trudging across the sand, their shadows shortening as the sun rose higher; they were still led by the man who had taught them that life and defeat cannot be co-existent, a man whose Corps motto was Per Mare Per Terram.