DARING ESCAPE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20638, 19 August 1941, Page 2

DARING ESCAPE

SOLDIER IN OLD BOAT VOYAGE FROM CRETE How a daring and resourceful New Zealand soldier escaped from Crete alone in an old boat is related by Private R. D. Coates, of the 18th New Zealand Battalion, in a letter dated ■July 22, to his parents at Brown’s Bay. “One of the chaps from the battalion has just arrived back here to-day after escaping from Crete and having some remarkable adventures,” Private Coates writes. “He was posted as missing, but managed to escape from a hospital at Canea. Greeks on the island sheltered and fed him, and he managed to reach the southern side, of the island, where he found an old boat. “He stuffed, the holes in it with army socks and used an army blanket for -a sail. He waited for a suitable opportunity and then set sail for Egypt, finishing up at Sidi Barrani. A few more miles to the west and he would have been in German hands again. “He told us that quite a lot of our chaps were in this hospital at Canea. They are all being quite well treated, but the one problem is shortage of food. It will certainly be a great thrill for his people when they get the news, and this just goes to show how foolish it is to give up hope when relatives are posted as missing.” The air-line distance from a point on the south coast of Crete, opposite Canea, to Sidi Barrani is approximately 270 miles in a south-easterly direction. To the nearest point on the African coast near Derna, the distance is about 100 miles. The main, evacuation from Crete was completed just before the end of May, and the soldier rejoined his unit in Egypt between seven and eight weeks later.