INCREASING ODDS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 126, 30 May 1941, Page 7

INCREASING ODDS

THE ENEMY'S WEIGHT

BRITISH GUERRILLAS LANDED

LONDON, May 29. British units, comprising the most highly trained guerrilla fighters in the Middle East, have landed in Crete, and in spite of the constantly increasing odds against them they are cutting their way to Major-General Freyberg's garrison now locked in a crucial

battle round the ruins of Canea

The Royal Air Force has been raiding Malemi in the last 48 hours on a rising tempo in fine weather, and some of the latest and fastest aircraft sent to the Middle East have been swinging to Crete in an endless chain throughout the night.

At sea Yugoslav and Greek naval units which recently joined the British are making up for the losses inflicted on Admiral Sir Andrew. Cunningham's fleet last week. So far no German convoy of any importance has managed to land by sea.

Germans, however, are continually arriving in Crete, and the enemy are pushing back our troops, who are holding a line of more or less continuous positions. There is isolated fighting around Retimo and Candia, but it is unimportant compared with that at Malemi.

The defenders there are mostly New Zealanders and Australians.

The Cairo correspondent of "The Times" describes as an exaggeration a Turkish estimate that the Germans have landed 29,000 men in Crete, but fh.e original air-borne force of about 3000 has been far exceeded. Parachuting and gliding have now virtually ceased, because men are being landed from troop-carriers at Malemi.

The British military spokesman in Cairo declared that it simply remains to be seen how long the Germans can go on pumping in men. •

The Ankara radio says that the most important new development in Crete is the continuous stream of British reinforcements reaching the island. The German planes are apparently unable to prevent British ships from reaching Crete with men, material, and food, and it must be remembered that a small ship of 2000 or 3000 tons carries considerably more men or material than large numbers of planes.

The food question is obviously one of the most decisive factors in the present struggle, and therefore the arrival of food is of the greatest importance. Crete's food supplies, which were always limited, must be partly destroyed or part]y inaccessible to the fighting forces.

The Germans have succeeded in landing some tanks in Crete.

A "Times" correspondent says that no one in Cairo pretends that the British measures are a complete answer to the Germans, who are reaching the crest of their strength. "Our measures simply mean that the German losses are going to amount far higher yet," he writes. "We are making good Mr. Churchill's pledge that Crete would be defended to the death."

The Greek Legation in Cairo has received an account of the recent mass raid against Canea. "The Nazi bombers came over in formations of 100 each," it states. "Their pilots were simply instructed to knock Canea flat, and they dropped 30,000 bombs. Canea's two hospitals were wiped out, while under the piles of rubble which were formerly houses, churches, and streets lay hundreds of dead and dying inhabitants."

The Cairo correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain says that according to a wounded British staff officer from Crete, many of the