12,000 GERMANS KILLED IN CRETE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 127, 31 May 1941, Page 2 (Supplement)

12,000 GERMANS KILLED IN CRETE

MANY DROWNED R.A.F. Overwhelmed • By Vast Enemy Strength I'niloi] Press Associat i<«n.—< "opyrisht. Rec. 5.30 p.m. LONDON. May 30. i A Greek Government spokesman told "The Times" Cairo correspondent that German casualties in Crete had reached 12,000. including 7000 shot in the air or on landing, and 5000 drowned in attempting to invade from the sea. The 30.000 who reached the island comprise two divisions of parachutists and glider-troops, one air-borne division and two regiments of shock troops, who were part of a division lost at sea. The Anglo-Greek troops, fighting from defended positions, suffered fewer casualties, but civilian casualties on the north coast are high. Since the British had virtually no heavy equipment on Crete our losses of tanks, guns and lorries are under those of any previous expeditionary force. The part Greek skippers are playing in enlarging the German losses is only now coming to light. They were forced at the gunpoint to man their caiques, but in the darkness thev deliberately crashed them on the'rocks. Piles of wreckage round Suda Bay are a monument to their courage. Thousands of Germans | were spilled in deep water to drown. The Cretans are most active saboteurs. They wrecked light, water and power plants at Canea and other northern villages, and set fire to the few remaining petrol dumps. R.A.F. personnel from Crete give , vivid pictures of the overwhelming [strength of the Luftwaffe's onslaught j against the small British Air Force oh the island. "It was a man-sized job even to get the planes into the air." said one of the men. "The Luftwaffe machine-gunned our pilots | and aerodromes so continually that Iwe made many fruitless attempts to !get into the cockpits. Then, when iwe got into the air, we were overwhelmed by enemy fighters, and if we escaped to return to the aerodromes we often found the runways bombed. "One Hurricane pilot was last seen with 20 Messerschmitts on his tail. He had brought down many enemy planes before that, but the odds were too great. To maintain our fighters there, would have meant total destruction." Pilots relate countless individua: acts of heroism. A pilot who hac i never flown a Hurricane before took it up to fight off droves of Messer schmitts. He helped to bring dowi: five before he lost His life.