Dargaville Maori Soldier Home With Cretan Bride

Northern Advocate, 21 December 1945, Page 2

Dargaville Maori Soldier Home With Cretan Bride

(P.A.)

Accompanied bjt his 25-year-old Greek bride, whom he married only two and a-half months ago, Corporal Edward Nathan, of the Maori Battalion, formerly of Dargaville, was a member of the draft which returned yesterday on the Mooltan. His romance began in Crete in 1941, when he swam ashore after his hospital ship was bombed on leaving Suda Bay, and was given succour by his future wife, Katina Torakis, schoolmistress of a little Cretan village. Fourteen months after, Corporal Nathan, and Katina were separated in Crete, because lie was apprehended by the Germans eventually and narrowly escaped being shot, ns a spy. Neither knew whether the other still lived.

Corporal Nathan now speaks fluent Greek, and on his return to Crete re-

WELLINGTON, This Day.

cefttly he was attached as interpreter to the Greek party that participated in the dedication of the British cemetery there.

For 14 months he lived with Katina’s family, but eventually he was caught in the hills by the Germans, and the Gestapo decided that he should be shot as a spy. Fortunately, through friendly guards he was able to have his identity disc smuggled into the civil prison. ESCAPE!*. RECAPTURED ‘•lt was then that they began to get really hasty and beat me up with rifles; boots and fists—not for being a soldier, but because f would not disclose how I obtained the disc,” said Corporal Nathan. Transferred to a prisoner of war camp in Athens, he escaped within a fortnight, but was recaptured and spent the next two years in Ober, Silesia, where he acted as interpreter for Cretan prisoners.

He was subsequently repatriated to England, and after unsuccessfully attempting to communicate with his fiancee was given leave to go to Crete. Meanwhile, Katina's family had suffered. Her father had died as a consequence of German persecution, and Katina herself had been imprisoned. His arrival brought the romance to a happy ending and they were married on October 3. The bride and groom then travelled to England, where they caught the Mooltan for New Zealand. Before the war, Corporal Nathan was farming in the Dargaville district and he and his wife intend to settle there.