FIGHTING IN GREECE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 June 1941, Page 4

FIGHTING IN GREECE

EKETAHUNA SOLDIER'S IMPRESSIONS. Writing to relatives in Ekctahuna, Lance-Bombardier R. P. Graham, gives some indication of the nature of the fighting in Greece. He stated that it was a nightmare returning from the war zone. The fighting was harder on the infantry and divisional cavalry than on the batteries. The Germans did not have much heavy artillery, but what they did have used mostly shrapnel. The dive-bombing and ma-chine-gunning from the air was terrifying, but not very effective so far as casualties were concerned. No country in the world had been harnessed for the war effort so completely as Greece, the soldier added. Wherever the troops went, there were only old men, boys, girls and women working. It was pathetic to see mere children and girls using picks and shovels on the roads to prepare them for use by the army. The most outstanding quality of the Greek people was their honesty. The peasants lived in villages and worked on the land around them. No fences, hedges, walls or any obstructions were used as dividing boundary lines on the land, which was closely cultivated and mostly in crop of some sort. The Greek people were very friendly to the British troops.