"UNBELIEVABLE"

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

"UNBELIEVABLE"

GERMAN LOSSES

TALES OF DESPERATE FIGHTING

FEROCIOUS MAORIS

CAIRO, May 29

The Australian official war correspondent says that tales of the desperate and fierce fighting at Malemi airport were told by members of the Royal Air Force ground staff who returned from there.

"All the parachutists who alighted on the aerodrome on the first day were | I wiped out by New Zealanders, with Maoris in the van," one of them said. | The parachutists were clothed in green, and even had their faces and their binoculars and other equipment painted green. They made a ghastly spectacle. "The Maoris went into them with dreadful ferocity, using the bayonet on the terror-stricken Nazis. The German prisoners were unnerved, weeping and hysterical. "When they were able to land their troop-planes, they launched a huge attack on us and drove us half a mile back along the road, when the New Zealanders stopped them." Details of the attack on Canea and the Malemi airport have been given by three New Zealanders who have returned to Cairo with a party of wounded. The men are members of a field ambulance unit. SKY BLACK WITH PLANES. "We were having breakfast on the morning of May 20 when we were alarmed by a terrific drone of planes," said one. "We were at a hospital near the Malemi aerodrome, and we looked out to sea and saw the sky black with planes. The anti-aircraft batteries opened heavy fire, but the planes seemed too low, and rose only when they were almost overhead. Parachute troops started to tumble out, and landed everywhere round the hospital. We were unarmed, and being a noncombatant unit had no option but to surrender. "German troops were everywhere, but a mile or so away those who were coming down near our troops were being shot to pieces. By midday they had us rounded up, and marched us towards Galatos, where they sat us down on a hillside with Germans armed with tommy-guns guarding us. All day we stopped there, watching literally hundreds of planes dropping men or crash-landing on the beaches. "They seemed to gain control of the aerodrome near midday, and started landing big troop-carriers, many of which were immediately set on fire by Australian,artillery. There was fierce fighting going on everywhere, and parachutists were being killed like flies. "They landed about 50 by mistake among some Maoris, and they lasted about 10 seconds. All that day they were also dropping supplies, much of which fell among our troops. "About 1600 New Zealanders drove the enemy back from Galatos. Our guards dropped behind us prisoners, using us as cover, but this did not help them, as they were soon shot and we were free again. We attended to the wounded at once.

"It has been going on ever since. When they secured a footing on the aerodrome, plane after plane came in, unloaded troops and supplies, and flew off again. They bombed hell out of us, and machine-gunned our lines, and we prayed for night.

"Hundreds of fires were burning on the aerodrome, and as we hit their planes, others crashed. They have a flare system as well as signal (lags indicating what they want, and where their positions are, so that they will not be bombed. The whole area was thick with dead Huns, but still they kept coming.

"Last Friday they bombed the town of Canea all day, and blew it off the map, but most of the civilians had made for the hills. The streets were running with olive oil from the store rooms. The Germans came in waves of 50 or 60 planes, and flew a few feet above the trees. They blew up the wireless station.

"We spent a day in the trenches, dressing the wounded, while the scrapping went on round the aerodrome. The German losses are unbelievable, but still they come."

German prisoners who were captured appeared to be drugged. All the prisoners, some of whom are only 16 yeai-s of age. carried white tablets, which are now being analysed.— T.I.P.A.