ISLAND SENTINELS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 119, 22 May 1941, Page 9

ISLAND SENTINELS

CRETE'S HOME GUARD

BLOODTHIRSTY HILLSMEN

LONDON, May 20.

Crete's "Home Guard" has helped to repel the Germans' attack. It is probably the fiercest and most bloodthirsty Home Guard that can be rallied anywhere in the world, and is composed chiefly of Cretans who have been taught from their childhood how to meet the constant necessity of fighting for their homes.

The warlike hillsmen have such leaders as "Captain Holy George," who is credited with killing ten soldiers before he reached manhood, and also "Captain Satan," a black-bearded giant who fights with a long knife. Their men give a most unpleasant welcome to any parachutist who is caught unawares at night, and in addition they are providing a valuable intelligence service for General Freyberg.

A Briton who recently left Crete says that the whole island has been picketed and every mountain crag has its sentinels. The island was on the alert for weeks in readiness for the present attack, and every parachutist would be a marked man from the moment he arrived. A comprehensive system of signalling between all the different posts had been completed in time.—U.P.A.