NOT A FALTER

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 102, 2 May 1941, Page 7

NOT A FALTER

ANZACS.IN GREECE

GRS^IT WITHDRAWAL

COURAGEOUS DAYS

(0.C.)

SYDNEY, April 30,

Stirring details of the Australian and New Zealand troops' withdrawal from the Vistritsa River to a position behind Thermopylae are given by the "Sydney Morning Herald's" war correspondent from Cairo.

When the decision to withdraw to the Thermopylae Pass was made, he says, the German mechanised forces were getting round through the mountains in which the Vistritsa River rises, threatening to cut our lines of communications. One of our brigades was still north of the Vistritsa.

On our left, the New Zealanders had beaten off two strong attacks by German infantry south of the Vistritsa, near Servia, capturing 150 prisoners. In these attacks, the Germans had little artillery, but used dive-bombers and Messerschmitts instead. The aeroplanes dived low and attacked again and again. Ninety were used during one attack. WITHDRAWAL AT NIGHT. The New Zealanders held the pass against these attacks, and from that stage greater threats came from a German force pushing round the west flank across mountain roads and tracks, and from a German force driving towards Larissa through the Tyrnavo Gap. There, New South Wales troops held five separate German attacks, and mowed down the advancing German infantry. At the same time, the New Zealanders were holding German attacks on a ridge south of Elassona, where our guns put up a tremendous screen of fire* which broke the German advance. The New Zealanders in the centre and Victorian and Western Australian troops, who were watching the roads leading to Larissa from the west, fell bacik at night without loss. Some occupied a rearguard line through Domoko, and the remainder climbed the steep road leading up the Thermopylae Pass. GERMAN GUNS BY AIR. But, as the New South Wales troops coming down the road towards Larissa in darkness found the Germans in Larissa before them, part of the brigade turned east, hoping to get back along the coast. For 24 hours the brigade felt for a way back. Eventually, part stayed on the coast, hoping to get back in boats, part found its way round Larissa across the plain, and part fought its way through the Germans in Larissa. Many trucks were bogged on the tracks round Larissa, but the crews jumped into other trucks. Probably abou* half of the men in each New South Wales battalion got back to Thermopylae before the final rearguard withdrew over the pass. The Germans were landing guns and men from -aeroplanes on the plain south of Larissa. The withdrawal behind Thermopylae was complete on April 20. ANTI-TANK GUNS LOST. The Germans had already been strafing the roads leading from Brallos to Athens for two days. There were places where the bomb craters literally lined the sides of the road for mile after mile. Sometimes bombers and fighters had beep diving on the troops for half an hour at a time. All along the road, Bren gunners were standing up to the diving bombers, which roared over them at a height of 100 ft or so, with machine-guns spitting. False rumours about the losses which some battalions and artillery regiments had suffered v/ere being circulated at this time. Actually, most of the Australian infantrymen got back safely behind the Brallos Pass. The greater

part of the loss was suffered by onlythree battalions.

Many anti-ta%nk guns had been lost before the withdrawal behind Brallos was complete. The Australian antitank gun regiment, for example, has only 18 guns left oi 48 when it was still on the Vistritsa River. On the other hand, one Australian field regiment got every gun back behind Brallos. SIX DIVISIONS TO TWO. Even on the shorter line through the Thermopylae and Brallos Passes, the little Anzac force, with its battered battalions and its artillery regiments, some of which already had lost part of their guns, could not hope to hold the German army indefinitely. The Germans had six divisions, including two mechanised divisions, against two Anzac divisions, backed by a handful of British units. The Germans could bring almost limitless forces up if they needed them, whereas the Anzacs could hope for no reinforcements. The Germans had almost undisputed command of the air, and had hundreds of aeroplanes over our positions. I On April 23, Germans were reported on the island of Euboea. The Australian division sent off two Victorian battalions to prevent the Germans from crossing from Euboea to the mainland and cutting off the New Zealanders who were on the right flank. Another Victorian battalion, with 12 field guns, held off a German column advancing from the west. HEAVY EQUIPMENT LEFT. The first battalions to move further south were the remnants of two New South Wales battalions. They left all their heavy equipment behind, and boarded trucks, and went back in the darkness to Megara, east of Athens, where they arrived at dawn. They dispersed among the olive groves, dug slit trenches, in case they were detected and attacked by aircraft, and went to sleep. ' ■ When night came, the men got on the road again and.drove in darkness over the Isthmus of Corinth to Argos. and then to Nauplia. The la*st available report is that this force was compelled to move still further south. . As soon as the Germans invaded Greece they began bombing Piraeus, the port of Athens. One heavy raid resulted in the blowing up of a ship loaded with explosives. This wrecked part of the harbour, and the next day there were 24 sunken ships there.