REVISED ESTIMATES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 130, 3 May 1941, Page 7

REVISED ESTIMATES

EVACUATION FROM -GREECE OPERATION NOW COMPLETE

LONDON, May 2

following the news that the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Greece has been completed, further eye - witness accounts have been given of this gallant exploit. At this stage it is difficult to assess the number who actually got away, but in London the figure is" placed at between 41,000 and 45,000, while General Sir Thomas Blarney estimates it at about 43,000. The loss at sea is not likely to exceed 500 men. All the nurses in Greece got away safely.

The Australian Minister of War (Mr P. C. Spender) states that under the most difficult conditions not, only the forces engaged deserved praise, but the three Services for their magnificent collaboration. He paid a tribute to General Blarney's generalship as one of the greatest feats of arms in British history.

One Australian soldier told how the Germans landed parachutists in an effort to cut off the last section of the British troops. The sky was literally filled with the parachute troops who descended in hundreds'! The fields were littered with German dead swathed in the folds of their parachutes.

Another soldier spoke of the gallantry of a Greek policeman in a town through which the Anzacs passed. When they arrived at a fork in the road he directed them to the left, and when later on a German detachment came on the scene he directed them to the right,, thus enabling the J3ritish to roach safety on the destroyers.

The correspondent of the British "United Press pays a tribute to the gallantry of the New Zealand and Australian nurses, who defied the dive-bombers to care for the wounded, and wanted to be left behind.

The Navy used every conceivable type of boat to get the men away, including whaleboats.

ATTACKS AT SEA

Cheerful and begrimed, the first contingent of Anzacs arriving in Egypt from Greece told how even at sea they continued fighting. During the actual embarkation they were unmolested, but German dive-bombers attacked them five times en route. The commander said tne men were posted all over the ship and enjoyed themselves immensely firing at German, planes with Bren guns. A number of bombs were dropped very close, butl there were no casualties. Tho embark-' ation occupied six nights. About 200 Yugoslav airmen escaped and are now with the British forces. They hope to re-form their squadrons ■with American machines now on <the ■way. A large number of Yugoslav army officers also escaped and are joining up with the British forces. ENGINEERS' BRAVERY.

An officer of the Royal Engineers faa.s told how. up till the last minute, sappers stood to their posts, smashing everything that would have been of use to the Germans, including bridges. Those not destroyed were left with fuses to collapse as the sappers left.

Chester Wilmott. the representative of the Australian Broadcasting Commission, says the news of the evacuation gets better every day. "Men we thought were lost have been picked up in all parts of the coast, he says.

Although the ships were repeatedly dive-bombed, never did they sec a British, Australian, or New Zealand trooper with his tail down. They illustrated once more how we "can take it."