Anzacs Completed Evacuation on Tuesday

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 102, 1 May 1941, Page 7

Anzacs Completed Evacuation on Tuesday

Crete to Be Used as Base For Offensive British Forces Still Fighting in Southern Gieece United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright. Eeceived Wednesday, 11.45 p.m. NEW YORK, April 29. According: to the New York Times’ military correspondent the last valiant Anzacs were evacuated from Greece on Tuesday. He adds that the British and Greek forces have fortified Crete as a base for offensive operations. Greek and British Forces Still Fighting in Southern Greece LONDON, April 30. The Rome radio to-day stated that the Greek and British forces were still resisting in Peleponnesus (the southernmost part of Greece) and that there were two ports in that area from which they could leave Greece. According to a Berlin message German troops are claimed to be approaching the last harbours in the extreme southern and south-western areas of Greece. It is claimed that these harbours are the only ones available to the fleeing British and Greek troops. The British United Press’ Budapest correspondent reports that the Greek radio announced that the Greek General Kollakoglu had formed a Government in Athens and later issued a proclamation charging the Royal Family with cowardly flight. He denied King George’s right to repi’esent the nation and appealed to Greek soldiers to cease opposing the Germans. The Times’ Ankara correspondent says German armoured divisions have returned to Bulgaria and Rumania from Greece for refitting. One division which arrived at Giurgiu lost 65 per cent, of its effectives. The evacuation from Greece has been tho most difficult Empire military operation of the war, says the London Daily Express. It has been harder than the evacuation from Norway and has lacked the air support which was given at Dunkirk. .Semi-official reports received in London say that the evacuation has been much more successful than was expected. The Australian Associated Press understands that the Germans claim to have inflicted heavy casualties on the troops embarking from Greece are greatly exaggerated. Chester Wilmot, representative of the Australian Broadcasting Commission with the Australian Forces, in explaining why the Greeks were unable to hold their ground, said they had Hot the transport to enable them to withdraw intact to new positions which would have dovetailed into the Australian line west of Mount Olympus. The British Imperial forces had artillery to cover their retreat. The only transport the observer saw with the Greeks was long lines of ox-carts travelling at three miles an hour. When the Germans advanced through the Monastir Gap, they cut the railway which was the Greeks’ lifeline. When the Australians saw what the Greeks had been fighting with, they were lost in sHmi piitimi