HUNS PAY HEAVILY FOR BRUTAL TREATMENT OF N.Z. WOUNDED

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 137, 12 June 1941, Page 7

HUNS PAY HEAVILY FOR BRUTAL TREATMENT OF N.Z. WOUNDED

I (Received 11 a.m.) LONDON, June 11. J Amplifying Mr. Churchill's reference to the German treatment ■ of wounded New Zealanders in Crete, a Government official said that ■ although a hospital in the Malemi area, where New Zealanders were J lying, was clearly marked, German planes bombed and machine gunned - ■ it for about two hours. The Germans could not have failed to see ■ the markings; they flew so low that the wing of one plane struck the \ top guy of one tent. ■ One bomb actually landed on a large red cross painted on the \ ground. Hospital tents were raked by machine gun fire. Many patients 1 were hit, and German parachutists landed about 300 yards from the ■ hospital, in which everyone was captured, as the hospital, naturally. I was undefended. Everyone was unarmed and the Germans then sent ! ahead walking wounded, some of whom were clad in pyjamas, to act ■ as a screen against our snipers. J The men were forced to walk a long distance with their hands i up and dawdlers were told they would be shot. The Germans are ! reported to have shot twelve, some fatally. Other patients from the J hospital, some being most seriously ill, were forced to lie face down ■ in an olive grove for five hours until rescued by New Zealanders, who ■ killed or captured all the parachutists in the vicinity of the hospital.