MEN IN CRETE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 193, 16 August 1941, Page 12

MEN IN CRETE

"DOOMED BATTALION"

LAST WAR PARALLEL

Known as the "doomed battalion," some 1000 British troops who failed to escape from Crete were reported in a cabled message last week to be living in caves with the islanders and engaging in sorties with the German garrison. The fact that the Germans have been so harried that the British troops cannot expect quarter, and that escape from the island is impossible owing to every boat being destroyed or closely guarded has no doubt caused anxiety among relatives of New Zealand soldiers who are reported missing. However, from a well-known Auckland resident comes a story told a few days ago by an Italian officer in the last war of a similar incident which should help to relieve the concern of missing men's relations. In the Great War, stated the officer, when the Italians were forced to retreat from a mountainous section on the south-western front, a large number of troops, chiefly Alpini. who occupied high positions, failed to get away. In due course these men were reported as missing, and most of their relatives believed them dead, or at the best as prisoners of war. Not until the reoccupation of the country a year later by Italian troops was the fate of the lost men revealed. In High Spirits As the newcomers marched into the valleys they saw descending from the mountain sides to meet them their comrades in arms of a year earlier. Though they had been living in caves in the mountains the men were said to be in the highest spirits and were well supplied with food, weapons and ammunition. They had obtained meat and milk from the wild mountain goats, while for other foods they relied on the friendly inhabitants in the valleys below. The lost troops were practically unmolested by the Germans, most of whom had left, and those who remained did not consider that the labour and risk of routing the Italians from their fastnesses was worth undertaking. On the other hand, the refugees felt so safe and confident that small bands visited villages guarded by one or two German soldiers who were unable and probably unwilling to oppose the intruders.

It is pointed out that the country in both Greece and Crete is not unlike that described by the Italian ex-officer, for the marble mountains contain many caves and are well wooded.