ARDUOUS ESCAPE
SIX DAYS IN OPEN BOAT To have been saved by a German bomb, or at least spared a great deal of hard fighting and hardship, was the paradoxical experience of a young member of the divisional cavalry. His unit had been one of the first to make contact with the Germans before the > battle for Mount Olympus, and he was I among the men being evacuated later from Greece to Crete. A bomb, however, damaged the ship sufficiently to make it necessary for her to make port, so the boat was headed straight for Alexandria. A member of a rifle battalion which was cut off had not the same speed of escape. He and others had to rely on an open boat — 1 a rowing-boat—and for six days they j went from island to island down the | ! Turkish coast until they reached j ■ Cyprus. From then on a scow and a i steamer completed their trip. The I ! man was looking none the worse for j his gruelling experiences, and when ; that was mentioned to him as he lay | cn a stretcher he said the main difficulty of the voyage on the hospital ship had been “putting away the quantities of good food —he thought most of the men had gained a stone in weight. _
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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 10 September 1941, Page 7
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217ARDUOUS ESCAPE Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 10 September 1941, Page 7
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