THRILLING DELIVERANCE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 144, 20 May 1941, Page 5

THRILLING DELIVERANCE.

ANZACS PEACH CYPRUS. ASTONISHING EXPERIENCE. LONDON, Alay IS. A party of Anzacs who had been posted as missing in Greece landed in Cyprus to-day with a story that is more hair-raising than any thriller, says the Daily itxpiess in a dispatch Irom Nicosia, hor three weeks, dodging across the Aegean irom island to island, they kept one jump ahead of the Germans.

Tlie narrator of the parly, lying in a rest camp in Cyprus, said: “Our story really started beyond Mount Olympus, when we got an order to retire. The dive-bomuers kept driving us further into the hills, where there was no lood, and it was each man tor himself. Gome of us, however, stuck together, including half a dozen who were wounded by shrapnel. We lay doggo for six days, watching the German trooji-earr.ers fly southward, and once we passed within 130 yards ol a German patrol.

“The food position was terrible. Seven of us had one roasted potato between us one night and then we began to boil two tortoises, but half-way through the cooking the Germans began to show up and we grabbed the half-cooked tortoises and bolted. “Once we stumbled on three men and prepared for action, but they were Mew Zealanders. Our party grew as other refugees joined in. The Greek villagers everywhere helped us; they concealed us and gave us whatever thev could.

I “Near a Greek port a peasant led us to the coast, and we arrived on the ! short at a spot with enemy positions to the north and south. We waited for boats nearly a week, hiding near the shore, and wo then decided to pool and divide our remaining money so we could split up into small groups. “Gome of us reached a nearby island and began collecting small boats to take them on the long sea trip to friendly waters. One party of officers and men found a Greek fishing smack and, using a prismatic compass, set out alone. Alter four days they hit another island, where they secured a steam yacht with which to set out and find their mates. “On one island they found the main party famished. Calling at islands all the way across, these had got enough food and water from fishermen to keep going. The men cut down their heavy battledress to shorts and singlets because of file intense heal. Many were suffering from stomach complaints through eating green fruit, but there was no time to iose, because the Italians and Germans were already occupying the islands. One of our parties actually saw an Italian destroyer and two troopships steaming into the harbour of one island just as they left.

“Our leaders decided to take the yacht clean through the Dodecanese Islands, resting in bays and inlets in the night-time and hugging the coasts in the daytime. We saw Italians ashore and they saw us. but they were puzzled and did nothing. “N’ow we are here waiting to rejoin our units, and someone is going to pay for that trip.”