CAUGHT IN CRETE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20603, 3 November 1941, Page 9

CAUGHT IN CRETE

AUSTRALIANS IN HILLS SIR I. MACKAY’S ADDRESS “Many men of the New South Wales Ist Battalion, caught in Crete, are probably wandering free in the hills and may yet make good their escape,” said Lieutenant-General Sir Iven Mackay, G.0.C., Australian Home Forces, in an address to the Royal Empire Society, Sydney. “There is every chance that men missing and not yet posted as prisoners are free and may return, and it is highly possible that they will send news to relatives whenever they get the chance.” Unlucky Battalion

General Mackay said that the Ist Battalion had become separated from the other two battalions in its brigade .during the retreat from Verria Pass to Servia Pass. The Ist Battalion had been unable to rejoin its brigade and had been attached to another brigade. By this mischance it had been sent to Crete, while the other two battalions of its original brigade had been evacuated from Greece to the mainland.

In Crete, the Ist Battalion had again been unfortunate. It was sent to the centre of the island and was cut off. No word of the evacuation could be got to them, and, with insufficient transports to evacuate all troops, the Ist Battalion was left behind. In the mountains of Crete were many little villages accessible only by bridle tracks. He had no doubt many of the rnen of this battalion could still be hiding, undetected by the enemy, in these villages. A sidelight on the lack of equipment in the Greek campaign was given by General'Mackay'in'the story of a New Zealand tank which broke down in the retreat but was repaired and brought back by its crew through a portion of the lines held by the Greeks. Unfortunately, that section of the Greek line had been short in anti- 1 tank equipment, and the men had been told that tanks would never be able to advance across the difficult terrain. When the men saw the New Zealand tank’s successful passage they were disturbed, and Australian antitank guns had to be placed there to encourage them. Australian troops had been troubled by exhausting manoeuvres in the rarefied air of the Greek mountains, said General Mackay. Frequently .they had been forced to requisition donkeys and mules from the Greeks to transport equipment, and sometimes the animals had been so weak or over-’ laden that four'men had been-detailed to carry each animal across ■ rough spots. War’s End Not in Sight

General Mackay said that whenever a military-position was pcci)pied | it was the commander’s duty to plan for a possible retreat, but’he did'not talk about it. Talk of planning-;the “after the war,” he said, might*jig:the; means of spoiling the “during the war.” No one could see the end of the war. A high Free French officer had told him he thought the end '.of the war would come with famine in Europe in the winter of 1042-43. :That was one possible solution. The best means of preserving peace after the war seemed to lie in strong BritishAmerican co-operation. General Mackay-said that until we equalled the Germans in equipment and trained men, we wquld not be able to met them in anything like a fair fight. He added that it looked as if war storms were gathering again about Tobruk. It was not possible to say who would strike first, but he hoped that we would strike first instead of waiting in Tobruk and elsewhere to see what Germany was going to do.