WAR IN GREECE AND CRETE

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26523, 11 September 1951, Page 7

WAR IN GREECE AND CRETE

New Book By Former

2nd NZ.E.F. Officer

(Special Correspondent NJtJ>.A.) LONDON, September fl. “Dare to be Free’’ is the title of a book by Major W. B. (‘‘Sandy’) Thomas. D.sTO., M.C. and bar. formerly of Motueka. to be published in London in mid-October. It has already won recommendation from the Book Society, , Major Thomas tells the story of how he was captured in Crete after he had been severely wounded, of the battle of Galatas, how eventually he escaped the Germans at Salonika, spent several months in Greece during which he stayed with the monks of Mount Athos, where the monastery, is 1200 years old. and eventually rejoined tin 2nd N.Z.E.F. Major Thomas now Holds a commission in the Royal Hampshire Regiment of the British Army, and is at present at the War Office. He will take a staff course at Camberley next year. Major Thomas, who served With the 2nd N.Z.E.F. in North Africa and Italy with great distinction after his escape, was one or the New Zealand personalities of the war. Lord Freyberg said of him in July, 1945: “I have watched him develop from a very young second lieutenant through all ranks until, in the last year of the war, he became one of the most dashing and lessoned commanding officers of infantry in the 2nd New Zealand Division.” Geoffrey Cox, in “The Road to Trieste." wrote: “Major Thomas was probably the New Zealand soldier Of this war who most closely resembled the Freyberg of the last war/’ Advance notices of Major Thomas s book. “Dare to be Free, state that It begins with one of the bloodiest battle descriptions of the war (In Crete), and is an “almost incredible story of reckless courage and endurance.”