1941-07-12 — Page 6

Fage 6

THE CHINA MAIL, JULY 12, 1941.

FIRST FULL STORY OF GREEK EVACUATION:

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(From RICHARD MCMILLAN, who was a Special Correspondent with the British Forces in Greece)

I CAN NOW TELL THE FIRST FULL STORY OF THE EVACUATION OF GREECE AND THE HEROIC REARGUARD ACTIONS WHICH MADE THIS SECOND MIRACLE OF DUNKIRK POS- SIBLE.

had it not been preceded and covered by a magnificent rear- guarded action.

4

Anzac forces with British gun- ners behind them held up the Germans day after day until

sheer numbers and mechanical strength forced them to retreat.

The German infantry were driven like cattle to the slaughter against the New Zealanders fight- ing to the last in the Pass of Thermopylue.

There New cluding many

Zealanders, in- Maoris, mado

their names as deathless as the ancient Spartans as they took the full shock of fresh onomy divisione and

tank squa- drons,

new

Under their withering fire the pass was filled with the bodies of German dead. Grimly hanging on to their lines in a magnificent de- laying action the New Zealanders held up the Germans while the bulk of the Expeditionary Force hurried to a secret rendezvous on

While the New Zealanders held Thermopylae, Australian units, backed by British artillery, held the Brallos Pass in the mountains south of Lamla.

In some ways the safe withdrawal of the majority of our 60,000 troops from Greece was an even greater achievement than

Flanders the evacuation.

That at least is the All day long, too. the enemy dropped magnetic mines into the opinion of scores of men harbour. They bombed the docks with whom I talked who and fired a Greek munitions ship, They strafed every inch of road had been in both opera- and every acre of the adjoining tions.

flew to sea to the coast. "The bombing we fields, and then

meet the incoming armada which had at Dunkirk was noth-had been sent to rescue the B.E.F.

Early In the ing to what we had in

evening the word came to us that the Navy Greece," they all told me.

and the Merchant Marine were hastening to our rescue. Our major then gave the order: the road, three "All proceed by

breast. If anybody falls out on account of bombing or machine-

A New Zealander who fought gunting, he will be left behind."

We had a four-mile trek before at Thermopylae told me: "It was US, We joined in with winding sheer weight of numbers, com- In the day time the troops wait-

columns of men, Australians, Bri- bined with overwhelming

air- mg to be embarked hid from thetish, R.A.F. and infantry, until, superiority, which won the battle Nazi bombers in wheatfields and

in the darkness, we reached the for the enemy. among rocks, just as at Dunkirk

crossroads 2254

the harbour. "Our platoons were sometimes they hid among the sand dunes.

There another river of humanity separated by a third of a mile The evacuation was carried out

was flowing from the front, somewhile, when we sent out patrols from three purts. 1 embarked on

in lorries, many walking,

of live and six men, they en- a convoy with 11,500 troops from

"Jerry is near Athens," they countered enemy patrols 49 of these ports after hiding

told us.

strong as 400 mien. a whole day on the shore while the German bombers tried to blast the harbour into a flaming ruin.

In other ways it was like Dun- kuk all over again. Transports and warships worked inshore to the beaches in spite of hordes of German dive - bombers and brought off many thousands of men night after night.

D

Crowded Convoy

Our convoy consisted of large merchantmen, cruisers and des- troyers, all loaded almost to the rigging with troops.

und

R.A.F. nurses were there, too, number of Australian nurses, although the majority of

nurses were British.

There was one unforgettable sight. As the B.E.F. moved down to the beaches, the British wounded who had been tended in Greek hospitale got out of hobbled along their beds and to join them.

They hopped along through the twilight singing the songs of their fathers. There was "Tipper- ary" and "Pack up your troubles." More than 50 wounded were loaded from barges to our ship. They were tended by a famous Australian doctor, by a Canadian ship's doctor and by other doctors. All day and all night long operations went on, while the ship zigzagged to try to avoid the dive- bombers above.

On shore one R.A.F. surgeon had operated for 36 hours in a church, his operating table 3 stretcher placed on two chairs, while overhead waves of Nazi bombers poured down their rain of bombs on the town.

No Disorder

There was no panic, no dis- order. The troops filed back from the front three abreast in endless file. They marched under the scented and bomb-torn sycamore trees, flanked by fields of scarlet poppies, much as they looked in Flanders more than 20 years ago,

The scene at the embarka- tion port was a fantastic one. Day and night thousands upon thousands of men had poured into the town from all parts of the line.

Then like the children who followed the Pied Piper, they dis appeared into the hillsides and the wheatfields and were merged with the countryside.

All day long we lay hidden among the rocks and the fields of popples while the German pilots scoured the countryside seeking

us.

Dawn Dogfights

After that, they all had the same story

"Their to tell:

bombers never left us. If only we could have fought them off, we could have held Jerry."

! handled

The big German assault came in two prongs against this British line. one uftack directed at at Thermupylae and the other Brallos.

"We smashed plenty of tanks, but still they came on. The in- fantry was entirely Austrian, and of poor quality-just 'can- non fodder.

but "We took 200 prisoners,

machine-gunned them Jerry from the air and killed some of them."

By the flickering light of the burning munitions ship the Navy A young British artillery cap- the embarkation with tain, whose home is in Wolver- usual efficiency. We poured into hampton, and who fired the first the bowels of ships loaded with shot in the battle for Servia pass. soldiers and surrounded with told me: "We got direct hits on warcraft of all sizes.

the German lorries Alled with troops and blew them skyhigh. their tanks in guarded by We knocked out fighter-bombers, the same way. which drove off the dive-bomb. "It was a massacre and it was for us to ers in dog-fights as the armada physically impossible drew off from the shores of keep on killing." Greece a couple of hours before

The skles were fighters and

dawn.

Imagine 5,000 officers and men

Navy Braved Bombing

at

under the heaviest

The story of the heroism of jammed into a cargo boat and you the rearguards is matched by that will get an idea of our overloaded of the Royal Navy, which ship. In the small saloon sleep-many points carried out the re- hungry officers sprawled over each embarkation of bombings. other.

R.A.F. pilots who had lost their One of the barges conveying.

the planes were there, still in their our contingent capsized in

Two ship's officers flying kit. There were brass hats darkness.

rescued heavily ac- and young subalterns, padres and dived and

coutred Tommies who blackbereted tank men.

were drowning.

Valiant Gunners

Standing in a corner as the ship zigzagged over the warm Mediter- ranean under a burning sun, an Australian brigadier recounted with glowing praise the valour of the artillery:

and

The cruisers and destroyers which protected the embarka- tion had twice engaged in an A.A. duel "with German and Italian

the dive-bombers in open sea before they reached their destination.

The three main causes of the, "The Jerries came through en fallure of the Balkan campaign masse

the artillery gave were: them hell," he said, "We saw a 1. The curtailment of our effort More thousands came on, to meet

diversion in thousand at a time

by the German disappear.

Libya. the same fate.

"The gunners held their 'posi- tion and kept firing until the enemy

infiltrated and opened

on them with rifles."

The' brigadier related how: Aus- tralian gunners, south of Elassan, found a dump of 10,000 rounds of ammunition for 25-pounders.

•

!

2. The Greeks could not stand the strain of mechanised and air warfare against an enemy vastly superior to the Italians. 3. The numerical superiority of the Germans; both on land and in the air, was too great.

in

Hitler and Brauchitsch threw masses of Austrians to be killed en masse, while Goering "They fired every round of used vast numbers of planes ás artillery in the front lines and It, causing a holocaust among as ground strafers behind the the enemy," he cald.

lines. The same officer said that the He also checked the RAF's casualties of the Imperial Forces counter-offensive by bombing. would have been heavier if it had every airfield we used. not been for the sappers: blowing up bridges to delay the Nazi ad- vance,

ན

"Thank God for them," he said. PAPER CLOSES DOWN Once we ventured out and

Another Australian told me were caught in a terrific bomb how his brigade, escaped disaster After an existence of 111 years, and machine-gun attacks, One at Servia by withdrawing over a the Boston Evening Transcript, bomb fell a few yards ahead of | bridgeless 'river 160ft wide. The one of America's most famous. a car on the running board of cappers made a trestle bridge, newspapers, suspended publica which I was riding.

but this left a gap of 50ft. tion with the afternoon edition,

The gap was filed with a huge says Reuter. tree-trunk, and every Aussie | Last-minute efforts to raise sufficient. financial support to there passed over it safely.

The evacuation, of course, carry on the paper were unsuc- would never have been possiblo cessful.

A great wall of flame curtain- ed the road and the blast blew over the lorry behind us, killing two occupants and wounding a third.