FOUR COT CASES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 167, 17 July 1941, Page 5

FOUR COT CASES

RETURN TO AUCKLAND EXPERIENCES IN CRETE | "Don't eat that, Robbie; it's ( 'snow,' " someone called out. Lance-Corporal E. N. Robson, Maori Battalion, considered the! small packet of white capsules, some of which he had already eaten. The name of the packet was in German, ' but it was eventually translated as ] ! meaning something like "for extra energy." It had originally been the , property of a German. jl j That was in Crete, but Lancel Corporal Robson is now back in < Auckland in the new military an-'; nex to the Auckland Hospital. He* was one of the four cot cases who" arrived by train from Wellington yesterday. I "I threw them away then," explained Lance-Corporal Robson, referring to the energy capsules. "I didn't want to take dope. By gee they pepped you up, though." ! Lance-Corporal Robson is one of j the first Crete survivors to arrive ! back in Auckland. He confirmed the j stories of the famous bayonet | charges of the Maori Battalion, and added that the pakehas, too, were not far behind. "In one bayonet charge," he said, "our boys chased the Germans so far that they had to be called back in case we lost touch with them." In the thick of the fighting the Maoris had on occasions detached their bayonets from their rifles and [used them as short swords, as there was not room for the usual bayonet drill manoeuvres amid the press of fighting men. Mopping up operations were usually carried on at night, when the Nazi superiority in the air counted for less. Few prisoners were taken [in these night melees. In some areas | the troops' rations for a time consisted almost wholly of what could |be taken from the German paratroops. who were each issued with biscuits, chocolate and ba^on—and the energy tablets.