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| The following notes and maps are from the Official
History by Davin. The maps are copied from the book1
while the notes are just extracts from the 70 pages that cover the
escape across the mountains to Sphakia. |
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| Anyone who has been to Crete will know that
the march must have been hard, even without the added pressure of having
the German army after you. The climb was from sea-level to around
3,500ft, it was hot and there was very little food and water.
Also, the men had been fighting for over a week, and many had also
endured the withdrawal from Greece in April. One can imagine that
they were not enjoying it. The ground is very hard, a kind of
brittle rock covered in scrub. Any bombs would have caused a lot
of flying rock splinters. En-route the officers and NCOs tried to
keep units together, but many fell apart, it was a hard march.
Also, the route was littered with discarded equipment and transport that
was either out of fuel, or had been hit by German aircraft.
For those at Retimo they were unaware of the evacuation,
communications had broken down. Freyberg tried to get messages to
them, some of them relayed via Cairo to aircraft who were to physically
'drop' messages to the garrison. The plan did not work. In
the end they had to surrender.
Those at Heraklion were luckier, most got away by sea, but then had
to run the gauntlet of air attacks as they rounded the eastern end of
the island through the Kaso Straight.
The bulk of the Allied forces who were making their way to Sphakia
had some initial luck. The 85th Mountain regiment was heading
east, unaware that the men were heading south. This gave them a
start before the Germans realised what was happening. |
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This map shows the route back on the 29th; the men
come south through the Askifou Plain with the Germans behind them.
It was very much a case of units holding a rear-guard while the rest
passed through them. A sort of leap-frog all the way south. |
By the 30th the men are above Sphakia, the route down
is a steep path. The map shows 2/8; 2/7 battalions and the Royal
marines holding the northern line while Layforce cover the right
flank. Just above the flag for Creforce HQ there is a dotted line
going out to the left. This is Upham's patrol against a German
point, for which he won the VC. |
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By the 31st many have been evacuated, but there are
still some 9,000 men left, and the map shows Utz's 100th Mountain
regiment pushing down on them from the north, but also having two
flanking forces out to try to get behind them and cut them off from the
sea. |
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| Freyberg had hoped that the Navy would be able
to extend the evacuation to include the night of the 1st June, but this
was not possible. As a result, 5,500 men were to be left to
surrender. A sad end to the fight that the men had put up. |
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| 1 Davin
D.M., Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939-45,
(Nashville, 1997) |
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