GREECE AND CRETE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 44, 20 August 1941, Page 6

GREECE AND CRETE

FIRST-HAND ACCOUNT

With the aid of a map Colonel R. A. Row, D.5.0., gave the members of the Travel Club an interesting address on the Greece and Crete campaigns yssterday. He described the beautiful country of Greece (one of the disputed passes reminding him of Arthur's Pass in Canterbury), the lovable Greek people, and the way in which the indomitable women, who largely constituted the transport portion of the Greek army, had taken supplies through the hilly country dotted at intervals by small villages. Donkeys were the chief method of transport in the practically roadless high country. The casualties in Greece, he said,, were not comparable with those in the last war in France, when it was not uncommon for a battalion • to' lose 200 men killed and wounded in a day. The number of missing and captured was much greater in Greece and Crete, however. . ! The effect of dive-bombing on troops was not nearly so disastrous as wellaimed shell-fire. On one occasion Colonel Weir's regiment was bombed by dive-bombers for over half an hour and the total loss was one man wounded. The moral effect of dive-bombing was considerable. "You will understand that during the evacuation of Greece everything was lost, and the men came out with practically what they stood up in," said Colonel Row. "1 feel confident that if we had had anything like our full equipment in Crete we would be there today." The Wellington R.S.A. executive has expressed concern at the clothing allowance at present being granted to members of the fighting forces on their discharge, and has decided to request the Dominion executive committee of the N.Z.R.S.A. to urge the Government to give urgent considei-ation to the granting of an increased clothing allowance, sufficient to provide a suit of clothes, underclothing, boots or shoes, an overcoat, and a hat of reasonable quality.