Then the Next Morning, April27th , We Disembarked at Crete - Marched Through Sudabay And

3.0 Crete

Then the next morning, April27th , we disembarked at Crete - marched through SudaBay and bivouacked for the night close to Carnia. The next day we marched up to Galatos and bivouacked in the hills – armed platoons were formed to do beach guard and other strategic points – it was for 48 hours on and 48 hours off. I was in the first guard – sections were detailed and then positions. Ours was near a farm and we did alright for cheese, wine and bread. The second day I was detailed as company runner – at company HQ I met Stan Christenson who I found out belonged to the Belfast branch of our Lodge. He and another fellow were fairly tight and still had a large bottle of wine -as we were shifting I helped them out in emptying it . We adjoined to the road to wait for the company and orders. Close by was a wine shop in which we waited – numerous more wines were drunk. A crowd of our fellows went marching by in which I saw the boys of our troop. They said they were going to the transit camp so I joined in with them. I was feeling pretty merry then and at the transit camp I found out that it was only men with rifles ( the unarmed party) who were going off back to Egypt. I didn’t know what to do - I had a rifle and should have been back with the armed party, so , dodging the officers I walked back along the road , getting a lift on a truck part of the way. Eventually I found the platoon again and joined them , no one knew that I had been missing.

We did well here . Stangy Bunking going round the district collecting vegetable sand making lovely stews in a kerosene tin. We kept shifting around the hills taking up positions and digging fortified positions. We were now turned into an infantry unit . Jerry planes were appearing frequently over Sudan and Carnia doing plenty of reconnaissance and bombing. An armed picket was formed ( I was one ) to go to Carnia - we were stationed in an Italian’s residence – previously evacuated. Another boy and I were lucky enough to get the double bed . We did well here – using the kitchen for cooking purposes. Our guards in Carnia were every other day – and it was mostly spent in keeping clear of our fellows whom we were ordered to look out for and if they were drunk or causing trouble to arrest – also in wine shops and wandering around admiring the sights. We had some good bombing raids here – some Jerry planes being brought down – we used to stand on the back verandah and take pot shots with our rifles. We were relieved by an ASC regiment and marched back to our company. Had a few days of rain. Fortunately our section had pinched a big tent fly and had quite a waterproof shelter. Days and nights spent in digging and guard work. Every few hours we had spare we walked into the village of Galatos to try and buy bread and wine. Moved over to a new section – dug slit trenches and machine gun posts. Received mail and plenty of food parcels , also papers. Jerry planes were coming over fairly frequently now – reconnaissance work and bombing. The recy planes flew low and the machine guns sprayed the groves of trees to see if there were any troops under them. The bombers were blitzing Carnia and SudaBay and our intelligence reported that the Jerries were expected May 19th. They came on the 20th..

We had just finished breakfast when the bombers came over again for their daily round as we thought - then out of the skies came waves of transport planes – a lot of them towing big gliders which when they got near enough were unhitched to glide their own way over the land- our AA’s opened up and as the gliders and transports spewed the parachute troops rifles and machine guns opened up. We ran for our rifles and slit trenches – fortunately for us no parachute troops were dropped around our sector – but as the transports flew low over the hill on which we were we opened up on them – we could see the parachutists leaving their planes – some chutes failing to open and the Jerries plummeting down to death – others were caught up in the tails of the planes and then were unlucky enough to get in the way of other planes coming in - it was a rifleman’s paradise and our boys certainly opened up with everything they had – and still the transports came over - our AA’s did some great work especially in face of the stukas who were concentrating on them - the Jerries were trying to land an army by sea , but our Navy intercepted them. We could se the flashes of the guns and the glow from the fires as the transports were accounted for .

The next morning our HQ advised us that the Jerries were making their way to Maleme aerodrome which they had taken the previous day after heavy fighting. The general idea was that they were evacuating – especially as their planes were coming in and leaving quickly - unfortunately they were bringing in more men , guns and small tanks and motor bikes corps. We were ordered to a different section to be in reserve to an infantry battalion – we dug new positions on the side of a hill. From here we saw waves of Stukas bomb our hospital – later we learnt that parachute troops were dropped and the hospital taken with no fighting. Some of our boys there on guard were taken prisoner . Noel was amongst them . POW’s for some hours - then recaptured by an infantry battalion – the hospital grounds were a wreck – the tents machine gunned and burnt. We were ordered to advance up a valley and be in reserve to the infantry around Galatos – the positions we had just left were subjected to a heavy mortar bombardment – the trees all around were stripped of the leaves and branches

We did not go into action here but kept very low as planes were machine gunning the trees and hillsides – and machine gun and rifle fire made a terrific row all around us. Later we withdrew to another olive grove and had a lot of slip . We were lucky enough to get some rations here - a half a slice of bread and margarine. Then orders to go up and reinforce a battalion near the coast road – Our route took us along a sunken path then out in the open , over the crest of a hill – Jerry planes were flying overhead, machine gunning at random – our platoon was cut in half here as when we were going over the hill planes came over and the men at the back took shelter. After awhile we set off again. I was first over the hill and took shelter in a sunken path on the other side as machine gun bullets spattered all around – the Jerries had seen our first lot of fellows over the top and had enfiladed the path. Bullets zipped a foot above our heads as we crouched there –the lieutenant from the platoon behind us came up and told us to wait there until he contacted the rest of our fellows. He didn’t come back and later at an opportune moment we dashed down the path and found him with a bullet through his head – this was the first one of our fellows I had seen killed.

Further down we had just vacated another shelter when trench mortars came over – at the bottom of the valley we were fairly safe in the sunken path and joined the rest of our platoon just as the valley was machine gunned by planes – we took to what cover we could. I lay in a dry creek and once thought I was hit in the leg, but it was just a chip of flying stone or wood.. Orders from the infantry officer to “fix bayonets” and advance down the valley to the hill on the coast where an infantry company was hard pressed – to us this was a bit humorous as we didn’t have bayonets, still , we went along - taking cover from every available bush and tree – we advanced to the hill – some charged up it and some of us worked around the side of it. Across the road was a Greek house which we thought might be a machine gun nest. Snowy Hale and I went across and investigated – we found it empty and went inside – looking out the door I saw some Jerries working their way around the side of the hill. I took a pot shot at them and received a reply of bullets back which chipped the door posts a bit .I suggested to Snowy for us to get behind the rocks outside and try and pop the Jerries off. Snowy was all for getting back along the beach a bit so off we went - we were covered by the house for a while and then bullets were zipping around our feet – to this day I do not know whether the bullets were from our own fellows up the valley a bitor from the Jerries. Reaching the shelter of the next house I had another shot at the Jerries from the cover of the earth wall, then followed Snowy who was a good way along the road. Just before rounding a corner of the road trench mortars landed on the house we had just left – along the road Ian Romans sang out from a hill close by wanting to know where we were going. I called to Snowy to come back and join Ian and his platoon but he kept going – I learnt that we were lucky Ian’s platoon didn’t open up on us. Ian told me to join his boys up on the hill. I hopped into an empty slit trench and had a few pots with my rifle . Planes came over machine gunning the hill slopes – and our own bofors which the Jerries had captured from Maleme aerodrome were used in shelling our positions. Things were getting hot. Something pinged into the ground beside me where I was lying – then we received the order to withdraw and we learnt that Ian Romans had been shot through the chest but still alive and Freddy Henderson shot through the leg. We carted them back into the olive trees and were told that we were withdrawing further back to a position near SudaBay. The two wounded were sent along to the hospital dressing station. We withdraw under all possible cover we could find. We had no officer with us and S.M. Noatis took charge – no one didn’t know a thing, what we were doing ,or where we were going to. Further back we joined up with some of our officers and men who were just as wise as us as to what was happening. Our traveling was very arduous – diving for cover from planes and dashing along from cover to cover –going through an olive grove that had been machine gunned we saw some of our fellows lying about including a chaplain. Passing some food dumps we had a look for some tinned foods but they were all nearly riddled with machine gun bullet. Near SudaBay we stopped at a hospital unit – earlier in the day they had been bombed fairly heavily causing some damage and wounded. We stopped in their slit trenches as Jerry planes flew around –A German plane dropped hundreds of pamphlets over Suda – written in Greek and English. Nightfall we continued our way meeting General Freyburg on the road who told us that the transit camp was a few miles up the road – those few miles were many – we walked most of the night and slept a few hours as dawn under the trees. We had an idea then that an evacuation was in progress so a party of us set out on our own - we traveled in daylight and as we had to keep taking cover from planes so much. We split the party in two – three of us stopped near a Red Cross hospital and nearly drank a Greek well dry – growing around the well were mulberry trees and we had a feed of nearly ripe mulberries – traveling along a valley we had to take cover under some trees near a creek as Jerry planes came over and machine gunned the slopes of the hills across from us – some of our fellows had been making their way along the road and must have been spotted. Some Greek owner joined us here and when the planes were flying over they would persist in moving about. It was just as well they couldn’t understand English or else they may have objected to the names we called them . We made a feed from some Greek gardens – spring onions and small lettuces and green apples. When evening fell we continued our way along the road joining in with hundreds of soldiers making their way over the hills – army trucks conveying wounded passed us . We passed through Greekvillages that had been bombed and machine gunned – in one some buildings were on fire- fellows were dropping out and falling asleep in the sides of the road – tired out with continuous machine gunning – one poor fellow fell asleep too close to the road and had one of his feet run over by a Bren carrier- it happened just as we were passing – his screams were a bit nerve racking – hills and still more hills. Over the edges of some we could see where trucks had misjudged corners and crashed over. What happened to their occupants I don’t know. We marched all night- one hill after another- around one bend after another –always climbing – keeping on and on- it was imperative that we kept going as the hills did not afford much cover from planes and if we were still on the hills in daylight well, we would have been just machine gun fodder – then at last the top –what a God send – we dropped down the other side just as dawn was breaking – passed through a Greek village where a Greek gave us a drink of water- as it was getting tool light we hid out in a dry water ditch and had a few hours sleep – planes were passing over occasionally and just after midday we made our way down the valley towards the coast which we could see in the far distance – we kept off the road and as planes came over we hid in the trees and bushes – by this time the route was fairly thick with soldiers and if a plane came over and any of the fellows moved he was cursed up hill and down dale – further down the road we had to pass through a Greek village but we were directed to hide up in the hills as this was the transit camp where they were organizing the batches for evacuation – we were lucky enough to scrounge a couple of biscuits here and a ton of bully beef between us – what a luxury – while we were hanging around the village a couple of Stukas came over to visit it – one lot of bombs dropped fifty yards one side of us and another about twenty yards the other side – fortunately for us they didn’t decide to split the difference – although they loosed off their machine guns a bit too uncomfortably close to be good – we definitely lost no time in getting up into the hills when they had gone. We were made up into two parties of fifty – put into our different units – told to go here and there. Fellows were calling out for their mates and units – it was a bedlam and no one seemed to know what was happening – we spent a couple of days here - organization seemed very badly lacking – then at dusk orders to march – when night fell we were waiting on the road to march away – one or two lights appeared in the fields over towards the hills and whether they were Greeks, fifth columnists or our own fellows we didn’t know but rifles and machine guns opened up on them – with the road so crammed full with men we couldn’t afford to have Jerry over bombing us - we marched, we stopped, and at long last after climbing down steep grades we arrived close to the coast.

Day light broke and we spread out all over the place and under wrecked trucks- rocks anywhere for a bit of cover- there Stukas flew round but fortunately didn’t pay their compliments- we made our way up to the water well which was well patronized then climbed over high rocks and lay down into a ravine where we had a sleep- we decided to make our way to a village that we could see where all the boys were making for- just entering the village when some commanders who wanted our rifles and ammo- as they were going to fight a rear guard- down in the valleys around the village we joined up with some of our own fellows- hundreds upon hundreds of soldiers were lying everywhere under what bit of cover they could find- in caves, under rocks.