Odyssey Of A Young Digger

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 56, 7 March 1942, Page 11

Odyssey Of A Young Digger

111. J FINISHED my etory last week with our small party, members of an Auckland battalion, cut off by the Germans in northern Ureece, hurriedly evacuating the vicinity of a village just occupied by a large body of enemy troops. Iliis occurred early one evening after we had waited all day anticipating the arrival of some food We had put three or four miles har! W ?h n US a " d f the v "lage, when we r< * g S? d fortune to find some Greek shepherds tending a small flock nL S^ eep ,, an 2 ggo a ts - From them we purchased three lambs. There were no qualified butchers among us, but very soon those lambs were spitted over three fires. The Greeks pro duced two large cans of ewes' milk and that and the meat made a verv welcome and much-needed meal niJhf lt y u ? lorI or the rest of that night, then at dawn started off with prospects of being able to cover many miles that day. We had decided that n future we would take the risk of keeping on the move during the day and resting for most of the night This was the procedure for the next four days and nights. Although German plares from time to time forced us to seek cover, our most serious problem was lack of food. However we passed through a few villages' where we usually managed to get something to keep us going. With-

out the kindness and help of the Greek village folk we could never nave continued the journey.

By 21475

The highlight of. those few days was our climb over Mount Ossa, where from a village practically on the summit we engaged one of the inhabitants to guide us over the shortest route to the coast. Before the Germans had invaded Greece this Oreek had made a lucrative avocation of running contraband tobacco from the Aegean coast to the mountain villages, and he was most helpful to us.

Eventually reaching the coast we were very surprised, while resting in some bush close to a small beach to be joined by the adjutant" of our battalion and four more of the bovs They had already made contact with a fisherman, who had agreed to take them that night to an island 60 miles off the coast. He had a 30ft Dieselpowered boat, and now agreed to take our whole party. It was now just a case of waiting patiently for u&rKness.

About ten o'clock we made our way down to the beach, where the boat was waiting. There was near disaster to our hopes when we found that *he boat would not accommodate all of us. This little problem was solved by taking a large dinghy

What a relief when we finally pulled away from that beach! We

I were at last clear of enemv occupied territory, even if our Immediate destination was only 60 miles away, and probably due for the Huns' attention very soon. However, our rejoicing was short-lived. After an hour's steady progress the Greek skipper told us that with the heavily-laden dinghy behind it would not be possible to reach the nearest island before morning, and there would be German planes about after daybreak. He said he would put us ashore at a fishing village 18 miles down the coast, and no amount of coaxing and bribing would alter his decision.

It was a great disappointment for us, but we were consoled with the thought that we would have no difficulty in a fishing village in acquiring a boat for the following night. This we did manage to do after quite a bit of.fun and trouble with the Mayor of the village. Fortunately most of the sympathies of the village folks were not with the Mayor and his henchmen, and in a large caique we made our second, and this time successful, attempt to leave the mainland.

On reaching the island of Skopelos we had our first news of how the fighting in Greece had developed after we had been cut off from the Anzac Corps nearly a week before It was a shock to learn that the Huns had swept right through to the south, and meant that we would have to revise our plans for continuing the journey. (To be continued)