NOT IMPROVING

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 153, 31 May 1941, Page 7

NOT IMPROVING

FRANK ANNOUNCEMENT. STORY - OF GREAT BATTLE. (United Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, Ma,v 30. It is authoritatively stated that the situation in Crete is not improving. Communications have become most difficult. There is no fresh news regarding the fighting and there is no reason to believe the German . claims arc substantially untrue. The Beilin correspondent of the New York 'limes lias caolod his paper that the • ‘‘evidence overwhelmingly indicates that the fall of Crete is imminent, due primarily to Britain’s lack ot local air-power.” The battle is at its peak with troops on l>otli sides described as being in a stage of extreme fatigue and strain, says the Times correspondent at Cairo. Men who have not washed for a week and have snatched cold food only in pauses in the battle are meeting kt the bayonet point. The British line hangs on grimly in the rough country just above the sea eastward of Suda Bay. Farther east at itetimo the situation is quieter, but lighting has broken out afresh round Candia, where our forces have never ceased to hold the town. R.A.F. bombers are concentrating along the beaches where the Germans are frantically trying to level out runways. There are never less than a hundred enemy aircraft on the ground while others are landing and taking off. One report puts the German air Josses at well over 3000, not including Stukas shot down by the Navy. HOPES ECLIPSED.

Cairo Headquarters’ attitude is not optimistic , though the length and toughnesg of General Freyberg’s stand seem to have eclipsed the highest hopes held a few days ago. The havoc round Canca and Suda Bay has levelled olive groves and strewn the whole 10-mile coastal plain with wounded and dead, the wreckage of broken cars, guns, lorries, carts, and village houses. When, after (JO hours of continuous assault, the Germans finally entered Canea on "Wednesday they found the town a blackened ruin. The only sign of life was the wounded being tended underground by a few British doctors and Greek assistants

The Daily Express Cairo correspondent says low-flying German aircraft are bombing British wounded embarking in fishing boats and small steamers.

CEASELESS STRIFE. The story of Crete continues to be a story of fierce and ceaseless lighting while our troops are slowly giving ground before the sheer weight of the German invaders, whose dive-bombers add daily to the shock impact of the parachute troops, thrown into the battle regardless of losses. One military expert in Cairo estimated. the German air-borne troops in, Crete at 30.000. though it is admittedly difficult to estimate accurately the enemy forces in such a confused situation, where attack and counterattack alternate unendingly, especially in the areas near the vital Suda Bay. It is stated in Cairo that British reinforcements of men and material have reached Crete, hut it, is uncertain whether these are additional to those mentioned last night. The German News Agency says tiiel hardest fight to capture Cauea occurred round a British stronghold inj the mountainous village of Galutos,| where finally a breakthrough dis-i rupted the whole of the British defences between Canca and the high mountains. The German agency claimed that the British were making every preparation to escape bv sea. The British United Press Istanbul correspondent, says the 1 urks are increasingly impressed with the continued British resistance in Crete after eight days during which the Germans poured in everything possible| from the Greek mainland. German* sources at Istanbul expected Crete to be occupied in two days. Turkish observers entertain Itt tie hope that tin defence of Crete will ultimately l>e successful, but consider the battle lias been an important oeJnyinc action preventing the Germans, going on to the next stage of war their penetration in the Middle East.