THE EPIC OF GREECE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 103, 3 May 1941, Page 9

THE EPIC OF GREECE

Evacuation Gompl^t^E

TOTAL ESTIMATE STILL .■■■t INEXACT' :/:";-

LONDON, May 2. ;. The evacuation from Greece of the Empire forces is stated officially today to have been completed. The Australian War Minister, Mr. Spender, has said that there might still be an increase in the number of men who got away safely. At this stage it is difficult to estimate the exact number safely rescued. One London estimate gives the figures at between 41,000 and 45,000. The number given by General Sir Thomas Blarney, Deputy Commander-in-Chief, Middle East, is 43,000. He said that the casualties at sea were not likely to exceed 500. General Blarney said that all the nurses had arrived at Alexandria, well and cheerful. He also said that v 3000 to 4000 men who actually reached the evacuation beaches were cut off by the Germans and could not have been taken off. A small percentage of these were Australians. The official German news agency claimed that the number of prisoners taken had increased to 8000. The Royal Navy used every available cjraft, from whalen to pleasure steamers and rowing- boats, as well as warships, to bring off the men from ten different beaches.

Every hour brings further details of the* epic achievement of the evacuation. Chester Wilmot, of the Australian Broadcasting Commission", in a dispatch from Cairo, tells of the Royal Navy's part in taking off the troops. The Navy, he said, not only ' went to arranged ports, but scoured the coast looking for lost parties and found several hundred men who had been given^up as captured. "In fact, I think you will find that in the months to come troops will be finding their way back from Greece after being sheltered* and helped by the friendly people," he said. The Navy did its job so well that no fewer than 11,000 men were taken off at one port in one night. Another war correspondent described how, in the last days in Greece, the Germans landed thousands '*of parachutists, who blew up the Corinth Canal bridge and started fires in an effort to trap the last British battalions covering the main withdrawal. One Australian soldier told a' correspondent that the air was filled with para-, chutists. They came to earth hundreds at a time, but some of the parachutes failed to open, and the men were killed instantly. .Many of the parachutists were taken care of by the British rearguard, and the fields and roads were littered with German dead, who were swathed in the folds of their parachutes. This soldier described how, with many thousands of troops, he hid all day in fields and among rocks while German bombers tried to blast the harbour into a flaming ruin. , ■ UNDAUNTED WOUNDED. British Avoimded in Greek hospitals were brought down1, to the port, together with British and Australian nurses. Undaunted, they all sang songs, including the inevitable "Tipperary." In spite of the murderous fire of German dive-bombers, ships clung to the coast so as to pick up any stragglers. A young Netherlands officer described how the merchant ship on which he was serving was bombed and sunk after taking off 2000 Australians. The Australians continued to fire back at >Jie German planes even after the ship had- begun to go down. All were rescued in time by escorting destroyers'. One story tells how the gallantry of a Greek policeman saved a unit of British troops on their .way to the coast. The British troops turned left at a fork in the road. When the Germans came up the policeman directed them down the right fork, and the British, unit was thus enabled to scramble aboard a destroyer in the nick of time. "We owe our lives to that Greek," said one man. "Good luck to.him." A British United Press correspondent, in a dispatch from Cairo, describes how nurses from Britain, Australia, and New Zealand defied the savage attacks of Nazi dive-bombers 'to attend to the wounded. They stayed until the last moment. Some even wanted to be left behind so that they could care for badly wounded men who could not be moved. HISTORIC FEAT OF ARMS. Mr.. Spender said that the successful evacuation under difficult conditions was an amazing tribute not only to the forces engaged, but also to the close ! collaboration between the three Services. "It is a matter of great relief that the casualties at sea from the- evacuation were so small," he said. "The nation has much cause to be thankful that our men had so brilliant a leader as General Blarney." The performances of the men under his generalship, he added, constituted one of the greatest feats of arms in British history. General Blarney reported that the Anzacs. were, always- superior to the Germans whenever they met under conditions which were at all reasonable. He added that all the nurses from Greece had arrived in Alexandria.