GREECE AND CRETE

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23378, 11 July 1941, Page 6

GREECE AND CRETE

HIGH PRAISE FOR MAORIS SOLDIERS TELL THEIR STORIES (P A.) WELLINGTON, July 10. “The fighting in Greece was fiercei but the retreat, of which the campaign* mostly consisted, was splendidly organised. In Crete, on the other hand, a great deal of the fighting was a general mix-up,” said a sergeant who was through both campaigns. All the men behaved magnificently. Describing the battle of Crete, the sergeant said that it started as soon as the Germans landed on the island. Actually the New Zealanders started it before the Germans came to earth, and some were killed in the air. The Germans did not use rifles /to any great extent. They were armed with fight air-cooled machine-guns, with belt feed, and Mauser pistols. They fought magnificently with these weapons, but showed no inclination to come to grips. The Maoris had fright, ened the life out of the Germans, this sergeant said. All the pakeha soldiers were satisfied that the Maori battalion was made up of the finest soldiers in the world. Their bayonet charges were magnificent. Even their colonel had joined in. If it had not been for the way the Maoris held up the Germans the army would never have retreated across the island as it had done. .

The German parachutists were ex. ceedingly well trained. Any prisoners he had met spoke English, and he understood that they had all been trained in a college where they learned languages. They were v automatically awarded the Iron Cross after making six jumps into enemy territory. The Germans always respected the Red Cross, said this sergeant, and would not machine-gun unarmed troops, German wounded who were being held at a place where there was no Red Cross made one with an officer’s white 'blanket and their red handkerchiefs. They said that no bombs would be ' dropped if it were shown, and also told some New Zealanders who ofi fered to help them place it to remove their helmets while they were out in the open, as aeroplanes would fire on helmets.

A Wounded Maori • “They shot me in the arm, and that didn’t satisfy them, so they gave me another in the leg,” a young Maori soldier cheerfully commented. When the comment was made that hi* pakeha comrades said the Maoris were magnificent, /he smiled and said: “The whole brigade was gbeat” He added that when the Maori battalion wag given the order to charge, it was given by their colonel, who was also armed with a rifle and bayonet. The Germans gave way before them, and they were able to reoccupy an area that was lost earlier in the day. Another Maori said that lack of food supplies was one of the greatest hardships the men had to suffer when they evacuate*! Crete. He was among the last batch of men taken off , the island and said he had walked for three day?, and practically all he had to keep him going was water. He was among the thousands who made the historic trek from Suda Bay to the point of evacuation. At the point .of evacuation, he said, the Germans machine-gunned the boats .all , day.; The Germans also attacked the convoys on the way back to Egypt, but did no damage. The last of the men had the satisfaction of seeing three German fighters shot down into the sea. , -

Father and Son “I was hit in the leg with a piece of anti-aircraft shell while on duty in England. The bone has given trouble; but they say it will be well in a couplg of months. I will be 21 by then, and so will be able to get back.” This was the comment of a youth who was lying in bed with one leg in plaster, and he added that he wks particularly anxious to go overseas again to rejpin his father,, who served through the last war. .They were on, anti-air-craft duty together when the son was hM in the leg. After he arrived in the Middle East his leg became troublesome, and he was -unable to go to Greece with his father. “I was lying in hospital when a man I knew asked me if I knew who was in this hospital,” said the young soldier. "Ha told me it was my father. Dad had been wounded twice." The son said he had left his father behind getting ready to take part in the next campaign, and the son’s ambition was to join him. ,

There were a good many men in Greece and Crete who saw service in the last war, and had stood up to the hard campaigning splendidly, one young soldier said. He believed that, the old “diggers” took the hard campaigning better than the young men.

Paratroops’ Equipment

One soldier said that the equipment of the German paratroops was a. source of wonder to the New Zea-' landers. In each pocket they carried hand-grenades, and every one of them had a pistol and ample supplies of ammunition. They all had food—a loaf of bread done up un cellophane, a roll of cooked' bacon, chocolate, biscuits, hot coffee in a flask, and oranges and other fruit, and in addition to all that they carried a packet of “energy pills.” “When you swallowed one,” it was explained, “you felt as if you. had had a full meal." The New Zealander said that before the German paratroops left each was given a dose of heroin, just sufficient to keep his nerves steady, and carried a quantity: of the drug to ease the pain if he was wounded. ;