ALL-IN STRUGGLE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20571, 3 June 1941, Page 5

ALL-IN STRUGGLE

BAYONETS & FISTS N.Z. TROOPS EXCEL FEROCIOUS STRAFING (N.Z.E.F. Official News Service.) (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) 1 (Reed. June 3. 9 a.m.) CAIRO, June 2 Bayonet charges, swift sieges of enemy-infested cottages, arid . even fisticuffs marked the fiercest fighting in the Battle of Crete, and probably in the whole war, when the Maoris and veteran South Island troops launched 1 ) a dawn attack on Malemi aerodrome. Casualties mounted on both sides as the New Zealanders swept through to their objectives, cleaving the heavy cordon thrown in front of the landing field by freshlyarrived air-borne infanti’y. I saw our men go by in the small hours to start this grim all-in struggle which might v/ell have been the decisive encounter in the island battle The Germans by this time had piled up formidable reinforcements of strongly-armed troops, who mover quickly clear of. the. aerodrome and spread themselves-thickly through the villages and vineyards in the area,' two or three miles deep. It was this bristling enemy belt that the New Zealanders entered with the first glimmer of light showing in the sky behind them. The opposition became stronger and the battle fiercer as the sun rose, but our men pushed on until their objectives were gained or in sight. Then, however, enemy mortars were brought to bear on them with deadly intensity, and the most atrocious aerial strafing yet experienced made the positions untenable If circumstances arising elsewhere had not delayed the zero hour for the attack, the New Zealanders would have reached their goal with the night fighting, in which they were unsurpassed. and would have been able to make the new positions secure, but the delay meant that withdrawal was almost inevitable, and the whole New Zealand line had to be re-formed some miles back along the road to Canea. German Losses Immense Malemi aerodrome thus more surely became, as was predicted at an early stage, the jumping-off point for the main enemy drive in the western sector at least. Though the ground gained could not be held, the battle there took a heavy toll of the massing German forces for, while our casualties were sevei’e, theirs were immense in comparison.

The New Zearanders rode into this battle on the crest of a wave of success before the dawn gloom turned to broad daylight and brought the violence of the Luftwaffe and mortar barrages. While semi-darkness lasted, they met the enemy on something like equal terms. That ■ was all they wanted. With the South Islanders on (he seaward side of the road and the Maoris on the other, they combed the fields and groves in a systematic hunt-ing-out of enemy nests. Our sections found machine-gun posts established in the upper storeys of village buildings and entered by the ground floors to hound the Germans out. They used bayonets, Bren-guns, grenades, rifle butts, and sometimes plenty of bluff.

It was not uncommon for a couple of New Zealanders to enter a building and emerge with a dozen prisoners. A diminutive batman, who was a former jockey, came out of one house with four Germans in tow, meekly handing over to him their tommyguns and automatics. A Christchurch officer and three men, who were fired on as they passed another • house, dived into it and killed 13 men with grenades and automatic weapons and took 14 prisoners. The battle hardly seemed to have begun before almost every man had a German tommy-gun and a pistol as additional armaments. Maoris Use Bayonets Bayonet charges were made frequently and with extraordinary effect. The Maoris excelled in these tactics, but the pakeha soldiers wei - e caught as strongly in a mood of exhilaration fired by the blood-curdling native war cries, and there is no doubt the effect was the thorough, though short-lived, demoralisation of the enemy parties. The Germans often threw weapons down and tried to run away. Some scrambled to hiding under beds and cried for mercy when discovered. Fists, wrestling holds and rifle butts were, in other instances, used by the New Zealanders to wrest weapons from enemy soldiers. The whole action, in fact, was fought more often than not at less than 10yds. range. In these hand-to-hand fights the German marksmanship was usually poor and the New Zealanders simply ran in, knocked down surviving ti'oops and disarmed them. The push moved swiftly through the dawn hours, when opposition was mostly confined to tommygun fire, but heavier machine-guns and mortars made the battle a sterner one as the morning brightened.

The South Islanders cut their way up to the fringe of the aerodrome, while the Maoris reached their objective on an averlooking slope. Brisk street fighting in the Malemi village again showed the Maoris to advantage. They met enemy bluff there in a typical way. When the Germans, taking cover behind a wall, called out “Charge!” in English, as if trying to intimidate the Maoris, the Maoris charged instead.