HEROIC ANZAC RETREAT

Southland Times, Issue 24425, 3 May 1941, Page 6

HEROIC ANZAC RETREAT

Overwhelming Odds Faced SYDNEY, April 30. Stirring details of the Australian and New Zealand troops’ withdrawal from the Vistritsa river to a position behind Thermopylae are given by The Sydney Morning Herald’s wai - correspondent, who has now reached Cairo. When tire decision to withdraw to the Thermopylae Pass was made, he says, the German mechanized forces were getting round through the mountains in which the Vistritsa river rises, threatening to cut our lines of communications. One of our brigades was still north of the Vistritsa.

On our left, the New Zealanders had beaten off two strong attacks by German infantry south of the Vistritsa, near Servia, capturing 150 prisoners. In these attacks, the Germans had little artillery, but used dive-bombers and Messerschmitts instead. The aeroplanes dived low and attacked again and again. Ninety were used during one attack.

The New Zealanders held the pass against these attacks, and from that stage greater threats came from a German force pushing round the west flank across mountain roads and tracks, and from a German force driving toward Larissa through the Tyrnavo Gap. There, New South Wales troops held five separate German attacks, and mowed down the advancing German infantry. At the same time, the New Zealanders were holding German attacks on a ridge south of Elassona, where our guns put up a tremendous screen of fire which broke the German advance.

The New Zealanders in the centre and Victorian and Western Australian troops, who were watching the roads leading to Larissa from the west, fell back at night without loss. Some occupied a rearguard line through Domoko, and the remainder climbed the steep road leading up the Thermopylae Pass. GERMAN GUNS BY AIR But, as the New South Wales troops coming down the road toward Larissa in darkness found the Germans in Larissa before them, part of the brigade turned east, hoping to get back along the coast. For 24 hours the brigade felt for a way back. Eventually, part stayed on the coast, hoping to get back in boats, part found its way round Larissa across the plain, and part fought its way through the Germans in Larissa. Many trucks were bogged on the tracks round Larissa, but the crews jumped into other trucks. Probably about half of the men m each New South Wales battalion got back to Thermopylae before the final rearguard withdrew over the pass. Tne Germans were landing guns and men from aeroplanes on the plain smith ot Larissa. The withdrawal behind Thermopylae was complete on April 20. The Germans had already been strafing the roads leading from Brailos (evidently Bralo, south of Tneimopylae) to Athens for two days. There were places where the bomo craters literally lined the sides of the road for mile after mile. Sometimes bombers and fighters had been diving on the troops for half an hour at a time. All along the road, Bren gunners were standing up to the diving bombers, which roared over them at a height, ot 100 ft or so, with machine-guns spitFalse rumours about the losses which some battalions and artillery regiments had suffered were being circulated at this time. Actually, most of the Australian infantrymen got back safely behind the Brailos Pass. The gi eater part of the loss was suffered by only three battalions. Many anti-tank guns had been lost before the withdrawal behind Brailos was complete. The Australian antitank gun regiment, for example, had only 18 guns left of 48 when it was still on the Vistritsa river. On the other hand, one Australian field regiment got every gun back behind Brailos. SIX DIVISIONS TO TWO Even on the shorter line mrougli the Thermopylae and Brailos Passes, the little Anzac force, with its battered battalions and its artillery regiments, some of which already had lost part of their guns, could not hope to hold the German Army indefinitely. The Germans had six divisions, including two mechanized divisions, against two Anzac divisions, backed by a handful of British units. The Germans could bring almost limitless forces up if they needed them, whereas the Anzacs could hope for no reinforcements. The Germans had almost undisputed command of the air, and had hundreds of aeroplanes over our positions. On April 23, Germans were reported on the island of Euboea. The Australian division sent off two Victorian battalions to prevent the Germans from crossing from Euboea to the mainland and cutting off the New Zealanders who were on the right flank. Another Victorian battalion, with 12 field guns, held off a German column advancing from the west. HEAVY EQUIPMENT LEFT The first battalions to move further south were the remnants of two New South Wales battalions. They left all their heavy equipment behind, and boarded trucks, and went back in the darkness to Megara, cast of Athens, where they arrived at dawn. They dispersed among the olive groves, dug slit trenches, in case they were detected and attacked by aircraft, and went to sleep. When night came, the men got on the road again and drove in darkness over the Isthmus of Corinth to Argos, and then to Nauplia (at the head of the Gulf of Nauplia, in Morea). The last available report is that this force was compelled to move still further south. As soon as the Germans invaded Greece they began bombing Piraeus, the port of Athens. One heavy raid resulted in the blowing up of a ship loaded with explosives. This wrecked part of the harbour, and the next day there were 24 sunken ships there.