SCARS OF WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 130, 4 June 1945, Page 3

SCARS OF WAR

THE CRETAN SCENE

BATTLEFIELDS REVISITED

(Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.)

Major Geoff, / Cox, formerly a newspaper correspondent, who was for some time secretary at the New Zealand Legtion in Washington, recently paid a return visit to Crete, described in the following article: We came in towards the Maleme airfield exactly as the German gliders and troop-carriers did four years before, flying from the north-, along the liqe of a.rocky headland which thrusts out towards Greece. Even the weather was the same—sweet May sunshine, with a slight haze. From the dark blue sea the land rolled back peacefully, with its dotted olive trees and yellowing corn. White mountains streaked with snow blocked in the southern horizon like a theatre backdrop, and looked even more formidable- from the air than they did from the ground on our long trek to the embarkation beach. To the east was a white and red patch, the roofs of Canea, and beyond, the blue of Suda Bay. As we circled to land, a watercourse immediately west of the airfield showed up unmistakably, its dark banks dropping down to the wide white, gravelled riverbed, dotted wild thyme and rhododendron bushes —an admirable landing area for gliders or crash-landing area for planes. From the air ydu could see at a glance why it proved a vital factor in the bMaleme battle. In it the Germans found cover and re-formed after their first crippling losses from the fire of our machine-guns, which were too few to deal with this area as well as the airfield itself. Around the airfield, four years of weather and work had removed most of the traces of battle. Many old slit trenches were still there if you hunted for them, and rusty wire, flanked now by massed German entanglements, and the battered revetments of pits where the Bofors guns by the shore fought to the very end. In a junk heap to the eastwards lay the carcasses of Junkers 52's, smashed stukas and Messerschmitt 109's, with their once deadly machine-guns rusted and thrown in the sand. Houses \by the roadside were still, smashed, and the whitewashed walls of a village where the Maoris made a bayonet counter-attack still showed the pock-marks of bullets. STRANG*- CONDITIONS IN CANEA. Just outside Planitas village is the first of several German war cemeteries on the island. There are 440 parachutists buried here. At first sight Canea seems less damaged than one would think possible after the "Rotterdamming" it got. The southern part is intact, or repaired. It was not until I crossed that little square ori the waterfront, barred now by a massive stone anti-tank barricade, that I saw what the bombing had really done. A region of narrow streets had disappeared completely. The small printing shop where we had brought out the "Crete News" was gone. Stone dugouts in the old quarry, where General. Freyberg had had his headquarters, were gone, too, though you. could still see the outlines of the rooms and of the stone wall over which the general used to /lean, staring through field-glasses towards Malta. Beyond, in the incredibly blue water of Suda Bay, the turrets and hull 61 PI.M.S. York still showed alongside the hu]ls of sunken tankers and the two mast tops of a merchantman. It was on the road to Suda that we saw the most fantastic sight of the day. INTERNED GERMANS ARMED. I knew that a German garrison of over 11,500 men was interned here, and they were allowed to keep, arms as a protection against Cretan guerrillas, who have many old scores to settle, until we can get shipping for evacuation. Along the Suda road, which ran through the German area, clad in khaki shorts (usually very short, indeed), jackboots that almost completely hid their stockings, khaki shirts, and peaked Afrika Korps caps with the red, white, and black Wehrmacht button, the former "Garrison Kreta" went about its business. Lorries with ochre-coloured desert camouflage went past, loaded with young Nazi troops, every man with a rifle or tommy-gun. Staff cars, with gold and silver braided officers sitting stiffly in their deep seats, and dispatch riders on motorcycles, roared along. Under the olive trees, where the last stand was made in front of Suda in 1941, German sentries now stood, with rifles slung over their shoulders. • The German military police, using red and white signal discs, waved on the stream of traffic where German vehicles mingled with truck-loads of Greek infantry in battle dress, or British infantry, or civilians in carts. . The disarmament of this force is already going on. At intervals a heavy explosion would shake the area and smoke billow up from an ammunition dump. Enemy tanks had already been blown up. „ ~ On the Suda wharf, German fatigue parties loaded mortar bombs and rifles on to a ship which will dump them into the Aegean. VIVID MEMORIES OF HARDSHIP. From there we went to Galatos, where some of the bitterest fighting of the fhole campaign was waged. Galatos is little enough changed. Buildings opposite the church are all destroyed. The priest, in a round black cap and drab cotton cassock, and the schoolmaster, came hurrying up. The one English speaker of the village was brought along, and we were escorted in triumph to the teacher's house, where we sat around a table, drank wine and ate roast pork and chicken, while in the background old people and girts prepared great bunches cf. flowers for us. One of them had carried food to the New Zealanders fighting outside the house. Everyone had a New Zealand, British, or Australian badge from the prisoners of war they had hid, and everyone had a tale which showed what four years of war had meant to this remote village. In Galatos, 42 civilians fell during the battle or reprisals. In nearby villages, 150 men, women, and children were dragged from their homes and shot, and the villages were razed to the ground. Food was very short in the island previously, but is now satisfactory, except for bread, which is being brought in. There is urgent need for other things, particularly medicines and clothes, to replace those given to the prisoners. The village priest has kept a detailed list of all New Zealanders buried near Galatos. Many of the bodies were removed to the cemetery-at Suda, but 140 remain near Galatos. We visited one small cemetery on the'edge of a cornfield, where there are 24 graves, in two rows, each topped with a whitewashed tin filled with flowers. There is a cross in the centre, with the words in German: . "Twentyfour Fallen Soldiers." The Greeks said the Germans made them remove the cross with "'Twentyfour Fallen New Zealand Soldiers," and replace it with the German words. I only hope it will be some solace to those who loved these men to know that ihey lie amid scenes as lovely as any in their own land, and that the graves are tended and guarded by proud people, whose friendship is an honour not easily or carelessly bestowed.