RETREAT FROM GREECE

Evening Star, Issue 24008, 6 October 1941, Page 9

RETREAT FROM GREECE

GERMANS LACKED ENTERPRISE MAJOR R. £. SLEIGH'S IMPRESSIONS “ The engineering branches of the German army were excellent,” said Major 11. E. Sleigh, recounting to a ‘ Star ’ reporter impressions of the Greek campaign, in which he served in charge of the 33rd .Anti-tank Battery, seventh Anti-tank Regiment, covering an important section of the retreat. “The speed-with which they were able to repair demolished roads to bring up their tanks, guns, and mechanised equipment was amazing. In our retreat we practically demolished roads that were already pretty badly battered. Our engineers blew every bridge and culvert, yet in a few hours the Germans would be following us. “ Yet they were lacking in enterprise. Time and time again they failed to push on their attack just at the moment when it seemed that if they had our chance of getting away was lost altogether. Tank offensives would stop at dark. Though it is _ impossible to push on a tank attack in pitch darkness, still there were opportunities for them at. these times to ipush their infantry into the breaches the tanks had made. They always failed to take the advantage offered.” The Battle of Cape Matapan delayed the transport which took Major Sleigh’s detachment to Greece, and nearing the mainland an aerial torpedo—which luckily sped across the bows of the transport—afforded more excitement. In their forward positions along the Aleikon River, in Northern Greece, they saw the bombing of Salonika, 10 miles away. Then came the refugees. PITIFUL SIGHTS. “ I think that was what first got the fighting blood up in our boys,” he commented. “ Whole families, with all their possessions on a cart drawn by one weary horse or a little donkey, straggled along the road. There was no deliberate bombing of the refugees by German planes, but if they happened to bo on a road that was being bombed or machine-gunned—well, it was just too bad, that was all. Later they learned to keep off the main roads. When we retired from our forward positions owing to the inability of the Greek army ever to take up their arranged positions, we had to blow the bridges. Some of the families were separated, perhaps a mother with a baby on one side of the river, and the rest of the children on the other. The people who stuck to their farms were the besi; off.” Major Sleigh’s was one of two brigades holding Mount Olympus for a few days, “ The road was like the Skippers road,” he explained, “ and •though it was bombed pretty consistently, you will understand that it was a fairly hard target to hit. Most of the bombs hit the hillside. We always had to watch tho rocks rolling down.” They warded off tank attacks. “ A fair number was got here, but it was hard to tell. You wouldl see a tank momentarily approaching through the dust, and then let them have it. If it didn’t come on, we thought we had it. Sometimes the wreck would be there next time we got a clear view; sometimes there would be no sign of it.” Leaving Olympus to retire to Elassona, Major Sleigh had the unenviable] experience of lying on the snow on a mountain pass near Leviadou while three German bombers passed over him so close that he could feel the rush of air. “ I could see one of the chaps leaning out, and I wondered how my khaki outfit would show up on the white snow. But they wouldn’t bother about one man in any case.”

Elassona, a town the area of Mosgiel, with a population of about 20,000, was subjected to intensive dive-bomb-ing. Thirty or 40 planes, in an attempt to destroy the road, bombed it at intervals of about two hours one afternoon. In one way it was a marvellous sight, Major Sleigh said. The houses had been all two or three stories, with no yards between, and in places they wore just flattened. There wasn’t much fire, because they were all stone houses.

ENEMY PLANES UNCHALLENGED. German reconnaissance planes used to fly unchallenged above tho lines north of Larissa. There were no British planes and no anti-aircraft guns. “ One of three used to fly all day. round and round. The men nicknamed it ‘ Spotty.’ It wasn’t a nice feeljng watching him up there and knowing that every time ho saw anything a salvo of 5.9’s would follow.” The retreat brought out the greatest initiative on the part of drivers. They did a great job of work. One of the hazards was caused by the broken telegraph wires, which wound themselves round parts of the lorries. It was not unknown for a wire to work itself right into the differential of a truck. Most of the retreat along tho coast road was undertaken in darkness, without lights. The feelings of the men can bo imagined when they reached a point near tho Parnassus line and saw the

German vehicles behind them, using the same road, brilliantly lighted and without any fear of air attack. Round about here, though. Major Sleigh saw a Spitfire bring down an enemy bomber. It cheered the men up a lot, he noted, because that was the first time that they had seen a Bx-itish plane in action in Greece. -A check fire brought down another over the harbour. “We knew there were a few British planes about, but we hadn’t seen any.”

EVACUATION MISADVENTURES. Two days after reaching the narrowest part of Greece above Athens, whore it was anticipated that a stand would have to be made, they were informed that they would have to evacuate, owing to the capitulation of the country. It was intended to leave from Chalkis, but while they were at Thebes they had word of parachute troops taking that place. They finally left from iKafina, and Port Rafti. “We had to go through Athens; and I can tell you we felt a bit awkward about it. People were cheering us and giving us a great reception, and here wo were leaving them in the lurch, so to speak.” Fiercest fighting of the campaign had been at Thermopylae and Molos. Many German tanks were destroyed in these operations. Through a misadventure they missed the Crete campaign, A dive-bomber hit the bows of their transport, and they had to make straight for Alexandria. They were attacked again, but fortunately they were all near mines. As one followed out his adventures on a French - printed map _of Greece, it wasn’t bard _t o imagine the major, still in kbaki shorts and socks, in the part he played in the campaign, though he had little to say about that. Sergeantmajor Gordon Hamilton, of the same battery, wrote a letter to his mother which was quoted recently by an Auckland paper. “ Our anti-tank regiment did good work all along the line. . . . The major was grand. I used to keep him cheered up when things looked pretty grim.”