GREECE AND CRETE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 7 August 1941, Page 7

GREECE AND CRETE

MORE ESCAPES FOREC AST Auckland, Aug. G. Confidence that New Zealanders left behind in Greece would be drifting hack over a period of years if the war continued was expressed by Colonel R. A. Row. D.S.O-, N.Z.S.C., who recently returned from the Middle East, in an address to the Royal Empire Society yesterday. Colonel Row said he was certain they would get all help possible from the Greeks. Many had ecaped to islands in the Aegean and were probably living as civilians among the Greeks until a suitable opportunity arose for them to get away. New Zealanders who had been taken prisoner by the Germans in Greece and subsequently escaped to Crete said they had been treated quite well. They had been given the same food as the Germans. Colonel Row said he did not think the Germans bombed hospitals and villages for the sake of killing wounded or civilians in cold blood. The general hospital bombed in Crete, for instance, was built on the best area of flat land for landing parachute troops, and the Germans were evidently trying to drive the British from the area. Similarly, villages were bombed to drive the population on to the roads to cause congestion. Fortunately in Greece there was no refugee problem or the result would have been most serious with only one fairly good road available. The people had been told to stay where they were, and they did so, suffering fewer casualties as a result. I One of the chief lessons of the campaign was that the German was not I invincible if reasonable air and tank ! support was available. Even if the [troops in Crete had had their normal | equipment 'and had not been lacking in guns, transport, signalling gear and j other material destroyed before leaving Greece they would still have been in I control of the island.