N.Z SOLDIERS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 17 May 1941, Page 5

N.Z SOLDIERS

EXPERIENCE IN GREECE ASTOUNDING STORIES DRAMA OF EVACUATION i (From the Official War Correspondent with I j the N.Z.E.F. in the Middle East.) Cairo, May 15. ■ Early in May, while the Navy and j merchant service in brilliant co oper- j | ation and with skill and daring per- j formed feats of evacuation which took ' . whole brigades at a time to safety from j i the beaches and harbours of Grece, j j little unplanned acts of deliverance; ; were taking place at many points along; i the rugged coastline. Scows and fishing- ! boats carrying strange cargoes of ex- 1 hausted and hungry men by slow and | ! devious routes to friendly ports, have,. j brought a different and even more dra- i 1 i rnatic side to the picture of the evacu- j* j ation. As these troops, many of whom t I are New Zealanders, rejoined their , i units, the lists of missing men have i, been diminishing every day. There will be no end to the stories: of astounding escapes, not only from < Greece itself, but also from the very. hands of the enemy. They are the ex-1 periences of as yet countless soldiers i* ' who, after being separated on special! j ‘ tasks from their regiment, were cut . off by the enemy drive before they | could rejoin the main withdrawal movements. Their adventures make,] those of most of us seem mild by com--1 i parison. ■ 11 VOYAGE IN ROWBOAT , From a small dog-tired party of; . New Zealanders I heard to-day how | they had just reached safety after a , . forced march across the mountains j from the Corinth Canal area and a j . voyage of 140 miles in an overcrowded. |: leaky rowboat. They were a dozen cavalrymen and Maoris who had fought j I their way through parachutists in the J j canal zone, escaping along the south-j cast coast road till it petered out. They | trekked 35 miles in ten hours over high, I | stony country to the Argos Gulf in the hope of finding a ship. As they rested in an olive grove last Monday morning they learned that . German troops had been sighted only four miles away. They decided they I must find their own way out, so they j gathered a little food and rowed to an island, three miles off. in an 18ft. boat . found on the beach. From a high point an officer in the pax*ty saw British troops successfully engaging the enemy on the mainland while other small boats left the shore amid mortar fire, j The parly stt out again that night, calling at another island to replenish their water supply and dine well off wild goat. Then, crossing to the mainland on the other side of the gulf, they ! reached a hospitable village, where they bought a sheep and made a house- ; to-house canvas for bread, greens, cheese and olive oil. After again eating as much as they could, they left the mainland for the last time. They sailed along the coast from Tuesday night till Thursday morning, when they reached the southern end of Greece : and struck out toward Crete, whose ; hills were visible on the horizon. SAFE AT LAST “That evening we landed on an island 30 miles from Crete and made a glorious stew with mutton bones, eggs and tinned rations. The Greeks there treated us like long lost brothers. The same night we were aboard a motorvessel on our way to Crete, cold and exhausted but safe.” The feat was extraordinary when it \ is considered that the men were so , weary that some fell asleep during their hourly shifts on the single pair M of oars which the boat possessed. The ' i ood was severely rationed, each of the * 1 two daily meals consisting only of I' small portions of meat, bread and j ‘ water with one spring onion and one j 1 iettuce leaf. That crowded rowboat was only one 1 of a veritable flotilla of assorted craft which carried hundreds of stragglers 1 to safe lands. Parties and individual ‘ soldiers cut off in the earlier stages of 1 the withdrawal took coastal routes to skirt the enemy lines and used dinghies 1 to cross the gulfs and bays. After * the retii'ement to Thermopylae Pass 1 ore battalion commander sent a boat ; to an island on speculation and thus 1 recovered a mixed party of isolated troops. ( Travelling by night and hiding by 1 day, another party which in- t eluded a New Zealand medical officer, j escaped to Crete from the coast near Athens in an auxiliary scow when parachutists were reported to be close Though their only navigational aids were a cheap map and knowledge ot the whereabouts of the North Star, they were so well provided with fuel and food that they were prepared to make for Palestine if necessary. HIGH COURAGE Often linked with the miracle of t escape was a demonstration of high : Anzac courage in the face of almost ) impossible odds. During the withdrawal , from Servia Pass a Canterbury infan- 1 try commander remained till daylight ( with a few of iiis bren carriers and a c detachment of sappers to see the New ! Zealanders safely out and the last ! mines exploded. After both tasks were J completed his little column had just r c’ ared the pass under bombing attacks when they ran into German medium £ tanks who had crossed the mountains ; from another sector. Though tremen- J dously outnumbered and outclassed in ; armaments, the New Zealanders engaged the enemy as a matter of course, 1 even befoi'e orders could be given. T Wnile they sent a hail of fire at the German force from a roadside position, the crew of an Australian carrier also c in the column sacrificed their lives in r an apparent headlong charge at one ' tank. The odds were too great, however,and the colonel with his surviving men had to withdraw across the foothills. Captured shortly after the same incident, an Auckland infantryman escaped to tell how the Germans put him j to work with parties repairing bridges demolished by our sappers. After bejing two days in enemy hands he wani -p 'i.c,; a village, whttv he obtained I f j . iar. • -loth? and merged i-m t.u, ' ■ this guise he passed unmolested through 1 ; the German lines and joined an Aus s I tralian unit, wiiich was strongly sus- e I picious of his identity till he guaran 2 teed it in rich Digger language.