BACK ON CRETAN AIRFIELD

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 10 April 1945, Page 2

BACK ON CRETAN AIRFIELD

ALLIED PLANES RETURN GERMANS ON ISLAND NOW RESIGNED (Rec. 10.50 a.m.) London, April 9. Cretans decorated with flowers the first R.A F Greece-based Hurricane to land on an airfield there since the evacuation ol the island in 1941, says Reuter’s correspondent at Allied Mediterranean Headquarters. The R.A.F. now, for the first time since the evacuation. is using an airfield which was the scene of vicious fighting during the German airborne landings in 1941 Cretans after 10,000 Germans ing were pinned down on the western end of the island, helped to prepare the landing strip on the liberated part of the island After the first Hurricane landed a regular service of supplies was maintained by R.A.F. Dakotas. Hundreds of British troops left behind after the evacuation in 1941 have already been brought out by the R.A.F. The British officer commanding Cretan guerrillas contacted and penned in Germans who agreed to sell their arms, says the As sociated Press of Great Britain Rome correspondent. The officer stated • “We bought guns, ammunition, vehicles and stores of every description. Hundreds of Germans came over to us when the bottom fell out of the Balkans for them One drove up in a Gestapo chief's car 1 am now using it myself. Germans bottled up on the western side of the island told Cretans they know Germany is beaten. They have food for several months and reckon they wil] last out the war there.”