EXPERIENCES IN GREECE

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23349, 7 June 1941, Page 12

EXPERIENCES IN GREECE

«FAIRLY COMPREHENSIVE EDUCATION ” “Life has been fairly interesting and exciting at odd times. We have advanced, withdrawn, fought, and evacuated, so our education is fairly comprehensive. We are just loafing in the sunshine in Crete now, getting over a fairly heavy time and feeding up on oranges.” This information was given in a letter from Captain H. C. Bliss, of the 26th Battery, 4th Field Regiment, in a letter to his father, Mr H. Bliss, of Heathcote. “In the latter stages nearly all our moves were by night, and there were plenty of them,” the letter added. “The old Hun aeroplanes kept us awake in the daytime, so we did not get much sleep. We saw a lot of Greece in our short stay there and the people made us very welcome. It is a really beautiful country. . . . We have been in all sorts of positions. At one .time we were up in the mountains. We had snow, too, about nine inches of it. From there we went to another place, just when the old Hun was coming, too so we did not get a crack there. We could see his car lights, or tank lights, moving up that night before we moved. From there we went by devious ways to another possie at the foot of a pass, where we had our first crack at him. There were too few of us there, though, and after a day of it we had to get out in a hurry. Our gunner boys fought the rearguard action there against both tanks and infantry." Describing another action between the New Zealand forces and German tanks, Captain Bliss states: “With all the smoke and fuss going up, we could hot see to shoot, but we saw his infantry getting up the hills on the flank so we opened up there and discouraged them a fair bit. We gave him a real pasting that day, but at that time the Greeks started to cave in so we had to get out again. This time we went down to where we embarked for Crete.”