i

To the attack in the Canea-Galatas sector the enemy planned to devote the first wave of Group Centre. The second wave was to take Retimo in the afternoon and then divert troops westwards to the support of the first wave already attacking Canea and Suda.

The troops available for the first wave were the remaining half of I Battalion of the Assault Regiment—1 and 2 Companies¹—

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landing by glider; and 3 Parachute Regiment, which would be accompanied by the Parachute Engineer Battalion and elements of the Parachute MG Battalion and of the Parachute AA MG Battalion. Headquarters of 7 Air Division to which these forces belonged would travel with this wave, as would Lieutenant-General Suessmann—the division's commander. The object was the capture of Canea and Suda. Strong forces of 8 Air Corps were in support, and it was hoped that the attack would not only destroy the defending forces in the area but would eliminate the defence headquarters and thus put an end to co-ordinated resistance in the whole island.

The plan was that the two companies of I Battalion, the Assault Regiment, should land by glider and destroy the two AA batteries which the enemy considered most dangerous to landings in the Canea area: one on the Akrotiri Peninsula and the other about a mile south of Canea.¹

To carry out this attack on the two AA batteries the glider groups were organised into two detachments. One detachment, under the command of Captain Altmann, was to attack the Akrotiri battery, flying in 15 gliders. The second detachment, under the command of Lieutenant Gentz, was to attack the battery south of Canea as well as the wireless station in the same area.

The parachutists of 3 Parachute Regiment under their commander, Colonel Heidrich,² were to land on either side of the road from Alikianou to Canea. There were four parachute battalions in all: I, II, and III Battalions of 3 Parachute Regiment and the Parachute Engineer Battalion. Of these I and II were to land south-west of the prison on the road about two miles south of Galatas, were to drive east towards Suda—bypassing Canea—and link up with Altmann's glider force. III Battalion was to land east and north-east of Galatas, to capture the ‘tented camp’ two miles west of Canea³ and the villages of Karatsos and Galatas, and then attack Canea from the west. The Engineer Battalion (three companies and a Parachute MG Company) was to land north of Alikianou, act as rearguard to the other three battalions, seize the Aghya power station and the Alikianou road-bridge, and investigate the tented camps at Fournes and Skines which were believed to contain Italian prisoners of war.

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It may prove helpful if this plan is set out in tabular form and with slightly more detail:

The working out of the plan in action—so far as it did work out in action—determined the initial pattern of the fighting in this sector, and so a beginning will be made with what happened to these forces when they reached the ground.

It was Altmann's intention to seize a number of tactically important points east of Canea (and presumably on the Akrotiri Peninsula) at the same time as he attacked the AA battery, which was his main objective. But during the approach flight his force lost its cohesion and the towing aircraft came under AA fire when they reached Akrotiri. The gliders cast off and came down dispersed and unable to find their allotted landing points. Several gliders were damaged on rocky ground, and there were heavy losses in killed and wounded from the first. The crews were too scattered to give one another support. The AA position they were to attack proved a dummy. The area was strongly held by the Northumberland Hussars. The glider troops held out as best they could in isolated groups, but after a few days the remnants were forced to surrender through lack of supplies. They had had 48 killed and 36 wounded.

Lieutenant Gentz was luckier. Of his nine gliders one was lost through breakdown in the approach flight. Three landed in Canea, but their crews managed to make their way to the main body, which had landed near a troop of 234 HAA Battery at 8.15 a.m. Except for seven prisoners, the gun crews were killed in a stubborn engagement. But a counter-attack prevented Gentz from following up his success with an attack on the wireless station farther south. Instead, on the orders of Colonel Heidrich—with whom he had

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wireless contact—he withdrew his force during the night and broke through past Perivolia to 3 Parachute Regiment, reaching it early on the morning of 21 May with three officers and 24 men out of the ninety-odd with whom he had left Greece.

The Headquarters party of Group Centre had also elected to travel by glider. The glider carrying General Suessmann, however, lost its wings early in the flight and crashed on Aegina. All its occupants were killed. The other four gliders landed according to plan something under a mile east of the Aghya reservoir.¹ Command of 7 Air Division passed to Colonel Heidrich, who also retained command of 3 Parachute Regiment.

The glider attack had not therefore been notably successful, though its nuisance value was considerable for days afterwards and the fear of similar landings to follow may have played its part in holding down troops in back areas. But the main brunt of the attack lay with the parachute troops proper of 3 Parachute Regiment.

I Battalion was heavily fired on as it came down, but made a fairly successful landing in the flat country just south of the prison and east of the Canea-Alikianou road. Here the commander, Captain von der Heydte, formed up his battalion. The prison was taken at once and the battalion then thrust into the heights to the east. Though harassed by flanking fire from Galatas and without heavy weapons, the attack carried as far as Perivolia, meeting little serious opposition from the poorly armed Greeks of 6 Greek Regiment. At Perivolia the battalion found 11 Company of III Battalion, which had been wrongly put down here instead of at Galatas. Thus reinforced, the thrust was carried through to Mournies. But here strong counter-attacks, presumably by 2 Greek Regiment and the miscellaneous troops thereabouts, halted it. The Germans therefore fell back on Perivolia, having taken 200 prisoners during the morning.

II Battalion with 13 Company and 14 Company—the two heavy companies—was in reserve. The battalion crossed over the Akrotiri Peninsula, where AA fire upset the formation of the transport aircraft. But the main body was dropped north of the area between the Prison and Aghya. One of its companies was put down to the north-east of this area at the request of its commander, Lieutenant Neuhof, and found itself in strongly held territory. It at once attacked up the slopes towards Galatas. Neuhof was killed and the attack failed with heavy losses. No. 14 Company took several hours to get its guns into action, and some had to fight their way out from among the defenders by whom they

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found themselves surrounded. The reception met by the whole battalion may be gathered from the following account by Karl Neuhoff, at that time a company sergeant-major in II Battalion:

The moment we left the planes we were met with extremely heavy small arms fire. From my aircraft we suffered particularly heavy casualties and only three men reached the ground unhurt. Those who had jumped first, nearer to Galatas, were practically all killed, either in the air or soon after landing. The survivors rallied to a position near the prison where we became organised, collected equipment, and formed up for an attack up the hill to the north towards Galatas. Approximately 350 men of my battalion had survived the initial landing and organising period.

III Battalion—9, 10, 11, and 12 Companies—had an unlucky start. Major Heilmann, his HQ, and 9 Company were landed wrongly along the Alikianou-Canea road south-east of Galatas instead of east of that village. Here they were in the middle of positions held by Greeks and New Zealanders. Only by a violent effort in which their machine pistols and grenades proved very useful were they able to seize one of the heights south-east of Galatas.¹

Meanwhile, 10 Company which had been correctly put down north-east of Galatas ‘immediately attacked the tented camp 2 km West of Canea, seized it and hoisted the swastika flag. 500 prisoners were taken.’² The rest of the company's adventures were known to the enemy only through the accounts of survivors. For Lieutenant Pagels, the company commander, decided in the face of counter-attacks that he must break through to his regiment; on the way he was ambushed and killed with most of his company.

The other two companies, 11 and 12, were also unlucky, but less so. No. 11 Company landed near Perivolia, where it joined I Battalion. Its commander and a few others, who had landed correctly north of Galatas, were killed in an attack towards it. No. 12 Company also landed wrongly, with I Battalion. Instead of seizing Karatsos according to plan, it had to support I Battalion.

No. 4 AA MG Company came down somewhere south-east of Galatas and under heavy fire got three or four 20-millimetre guns into action in support of the scattered operations of III Battalion. The commander of the MG battalion dropped with the company and was wounded. Four of its officers were killed. But the company managed to resist counter-attacks by tanks and even to destroy several—according to 11 Air Corps.³

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The Engineer Battalion, with 3 Parachute MG Company and a platoon of anti-tank guns in support, was put down correctly north of Alikianou, south of Kirtomadho and close to Lake Aghya. They had to free themselves from their harness and the abundant cactus while under fire from Greek troops and civilians. By the time they had done so they found that the Greeks had acquired German weapons. ‘The ranges on both sides of the dropping area are held by Greek soldiers and partisans, ably led by some British officers…. Thus the battalion is surrounded in its own landing area.’ By midday, however, some semblance of order was restored and the commanders had their companies in hand. No. 2 Company then began its attack towards Alikianou. Some progress was made at first, but determined resistance by the Greeks—women and children among them and armed mainly with shotguns—halted the Germans, after heavy casualties, about half a mile from the road-bridge.¹

Meanwhile 4 Company had failed to advance south of Alikianou or to capture the power station. About half past twelve it was directed to support 2 Company by attacking the ridges east of the road. In this, too, it failed and with considerable losses.

At 2 p.m. seven transport aircraft brought arms and ammunition, all of which fell into the Greek lines. But this disappointment to the enemy was mitigated by the capture of the power station which took place shortly afterwards. This and the fact of a successful landing were the only successes for the battalion that day.

Colonel Heidrich himself had landed near the prison about nine o'clock with his regimental signals. He must quickly have appreciated that the plan had gone awry and that the hills to the east and those round Galatas were vital. I Battalion could deal with the former without much alteration of plan; but it was clearly pointless to send II Battalion in the same direction. He therefore put 5 Company under III Battalion and deployed 6 Company and II Battalion HQ south of the prison to protect his right flank.²

With 5 Company, probably part of 9 Company, and 12 Company he seems then to have attacked Pink Hill.³ This attack failed, and

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in the afternoon he was forced to bring in 6 Company and II Battalion HQ as well. Better progress resulted and after dark, because of a temporary withdrawal by the defence, the enemy took possession of the hill.

ii

With the enemy on the ground and the rough pattern of his landings apparent, the point of view can be switched to that of the defence. And on this first day General Freyberg's forces in the general area of Canea-Galatas were to be found fighting in many different places. As by the end of the day it was sufficiently clear that the Galatas area held by 10 Brigade was to be the main front, it will be convenient to dispose of the subsidiary—in some cases literally ephemeral—fronts first.

Broadly, these may be summed up as three: the area round Canea held by Suda Force and 2 Greek Regiment; the area of 18 Battalion and 7 General Hospital; and that held by 19 Battalion and 1 Light Troop RA.

The opposition on the first front came initially from the glider troops of Captain Altmann and Lieutenant Gentz. The fate of Altmann's men has already been described from enemy sources, and it remains only to add that though a few parties survived the attention of the Northumberland Hussars and the gunners in the area and lingered for a few days about the Akrotiri Peninsula, they could never be more than a nuisance and in due course ceased to be even that.

Gentz's glider company had overwhelmed the troop of 234 HAA Battery about eight o'clock. It was some time before Major H. V. Wolstenholme of the same unit was able to complete a reconnaissance and then gather a party of Royal Marines for counter-attack. But by the afternoon this had been done and about four o'clock the enemy had been driven off the guns.¹ Inasmuch as this glider party had managed to keep the guns of the troop out of action while the parachutists were landing, it had done the enemy good service.

The only other actions of importance on this front were due to those paratroops of 3 Parachute Regiment who had landed out of their intended areas and perhaps to the eastward thrust of I Battalion. Thus a party variously estimated at between twenty and forty landed east of Platanos in the area of Transit Camp A. The camp contained about 700 soldiers and sailors from many different units and ships. Its commander was Captain W. S. Page, RTR, and the New Zealand element in it, under Captain Hook,²

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came mostly from 1 Echelon of the Divisional Supply Column. Some confused fighting followed the parachute landing, and much enterprise was shown by various small parties of the defence in seizing enemy weapons and going into action. Most of the enemy were killed and the remainder made their way westward, though isolated paratroops and perhaps a few surviving glider troops remained in the area to make themselves a nuisance to communications in this vulnerable headquarters area.

Another parachute party had landed close to the house in which the King of Greece, guarded by B Company of 18 NZ Battalion, had been staying until the day before. This house was a little north of the transit camp and, in the course of the fighting that followed an attack by the paratroops, B Company had a busy day patrolling and fighting in general concert with the men from the transit camp. The attack was broken up, and because of their help in what was assumed to have been an attempt to capture the King the troops from the transit camp were dubbed by General Weston ‘The Royal Perivolians’.

The King had in fact moved on 19 May to a house about two miles south of the transit camp, escorted by 12 Platoon of B Company under Second-Lieutenant W. H. Ryan. His subsequent adventures fall outside the main narrative and are dealt with separately in Appendix II.

One other group on the Suda Force front saw some ground action this day. The 2nd Greek Regiment, with a party of five New Zealand instructors under Major H. G. Wooller¹ attached, held a position running south from the southern exit of Mournies to the hills and then west along the northern slope of these. Most of the enemy paratroops landed outside the regimental area. In fighting with about thirty who landed inside the area, the regiment's few rounds of ammunition were used up and Wooller spent a good part of the day trying to obtain more. In the end he secured a truckload of grenades and, armed with these, the Greeks made a substantial advance from Mournies in the direction of Perivolia, where the first paratroops—presumably from 11 Company—had been despatched by civilians with axes and spades but where reinforcements from I Battalion had found their way later.

In the evening this part of the front was considerably strengthened by the advent of 2/8 Australian Battalion which General Weston had ordered at 4.30 p.m. to move from Georgeoupolis,² where it could effect nothing, into the Mournies

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area. It took up its new positions about eight o'clock between 2 Greek Regiment and the Royal Perivolians and dug itself in.

At the end of the day, therefore, in the Suda Force area there had been no serious alteration in the general position, except for the potential threat west of Mournies and the move by 2/8 Australian Battalion to help check it.

iii

The next area in which there was fighting on any scale this first day was that of 18 Battalion, 4 Brigade HQ, and 7 General Hospital.¹ The whole of 18 Battalion, except for B Company on its royal escort duty, was disposed on either side of the Canea-Maleme road about half a mile west of the turn-off from the main road that ran to Galatas. The commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Gray,² had three companies forward and astride the main road and one in reserve.³ The positions took full advantage of the cover given by the olive groves but there were big gaps between the company areas.

For Lieutenant-Colonel Gray the first warning that this was not to be like other days was the sight of a number of gliders whose disappearance towards Canea was followed by the arrival of about a dozen Junkers 52. Corporal Howard,⁴ then with D Company, gives a description which is typical for what many men saw that morning:

… through the trees I saw large troop-carrying planes lumbering through the air while from their bellies dropped little dots which were steadied in their descent by the sudden billowing of parachutes. The Blitz was on. Soon the sky was full of airy mushrooms and, as they descended, ME fighter escorts roared overhead—just overhead too, for they skimmed the tree tops, the roar of their engines was intended to distract us…. I took up position at the base of a tree and opened fire with tracers on the dangling figures descending…. Shooting was general and as parachutists reached the ground, 150–200 yards away on tussocky ground and in vineyards, they provided fairly good marks. Many were shot before they got clear of their envelopes. Very few survived in our area.

Colonel Heidrich's 10 Company and the strays from other paratroop companies were not numerous enough to provide serious

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opposition and indeed were mainly preoccupied with their task of seizing the ‘tented camp’. Operations were thus mostly of the mopping-up sort. For Battalion HQ they began briskly with a dash into action led by Gray:

… gathering up everybody at Bn HQ, even to the cook, we went up on the ridge in the direction of the enemy. Arrived there, one saw the parachutists still descending and the last planes just turning away to go home. The parachutists dropped from an average height of about 300 feet, and took about half-a-minute to come down. Many had reached the ground. They were dropping on a ridge about 700 yards or so away, among olive trees, and there was an intervening ridge between ours and theirs.

Down and on to the next ridge. There we stood for a few moments shooting at the last ones in the air. Then on again to get in among them. I looked round. My batman, George Andrews, the RSM, and Cpl Dick Phillips, one of the orderly room clerks were with me. I felt the others were coming. There was nothing for it but to go on and trust to the rest following.

I saw a parachute hanging in a tree and detected a movement round the left side of it. Fired quickly with my rifle—every officer in the battalion had a rifle. Then advancing very softly and quickly up to the parachute I looked round the side to see a Hun lying on the ground beside a gaily coloured container fastened to the parachute. He moved, so I shot him at once to make sure, and then moved cautiously from cover to cover.

I shot another hiding behind a tree, and wounded him. He was very frightened, but I told him to lie still and he would be looked after. Took his pistol away and gave it to Dick Phillips who was just on my right. No sooner had I handed it to him than he was shot through the knee. Two Huns about 30 yards away hiding behind a tree were shooting at the two of us. Two careful ones immediately despatched them both. There were plenty of bullets flying round but one had no time to bother about them. I saw George Andrews sitting on the ground taking careful aim at some cactus bushes behind us. “Steady on George,” I said, “You will be shooting one of our own chaps.” “No bloody fear, it's a Hun,” he said, and fired, “Got him.”¹

Once Gray had satisfied himself that all was going well, he returned to his HQ. Here he was found in the middle of his morning shave by Brigadier Inglis and his Brigade Major. They told him that 7 General Hospital had been attacked and that they had ordered A Company of his battalion, which happened to be the nearest company, to clear out the enemy. Upon this Gray sent a second company and two Bren carriers to take part in this movement on the left.

The enemy with whom Gray and his men had been dealing were probably for the most part from 10 Company who had been landed

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too far west or who were acting as flank guard for the main body directed on the ‘tented camp’.¹

In the morning, about the same time as the air attack broke out elsewhere, 7 General Hospital and 6 Field Ambulance were both subjected to a severe bombing and strafing attack which lasted for about an hour and a half. At the end of it, about half past nine, paratroops had been landed and suddenly appeared in the two areas.

In 6 Field Ambulance the commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Plimmer,² and his second-in-command, Captain Lovell,³ were both ordered to surrender. Unarmed, they were both shot at. Plimmer was hit and died soon afterwards. The staff, which numbered about a hundred, and the patients, of whom there were about forty, were then rounded up and put under guard in the MDS clearing with its Red Cross flag.

Meanwhile 7 General Hospital, which had had several tents destroyed in the bombing, was similarly attacked. Patients—some of whom, perhaps as many as twenty, were killed—and staff were driven out and herded over to 6 Field Ambulance. Among them were some bed patients—although a number of bad cases were allowed to remain, the choice probably depending on the temper of the individual parachutist.⁴

At 6 Field Ambulance patients from both places were held under guard. By this time they numbered about 300 in all. Permission was given for the burial of Lieutenant-Colonel Plimmer. Food from a small dump was distributed. Some water was also given out. Once during the morning a carrier—no doubt from 18 Battalion—appeared but, unable to effect anything in the confusion of enemy and prisoners, turned back again to report. Not long after a tank came on the scene. But it too withdrew.

The enemy must have used this pause to consider their position. It could hardly have seemed cheerful. Whether they were able or not to communicate with the rest of their battalion, they must have realised that something was wrong. They were isolated and had probably already begun to feel pressure from 18 Battalion. They had a large body of sick and wounded prisoners on their hands. In this situation their best course was to try and make their way back to the main body near Galatas, taking their prisoners.

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Accordingly, not long after midday, they began to shepherd their charges in the general direction of Galatas. But this was also the general direction of 19 Battalion's right flank. On the way the column was fired on. One of the guards was wounded. Three members of 6 Field Ambulance staff were killed and one wounded. A party from D Company was soon encountered and in the engagement that followed most of the guards were killed. A few patients were also wounded, but by 5 p.m. the survivors were all rescued and they spent the night with 19 Battalion.

Not all the patients and staff had gone with this party. Captain Lovell and Lieutenant Ballantyne¹ and two NCOs had been escorted to 7 General Hospital to treat a wounded German. Meanwhile 18 Battalion appeared on the scene and rescued the others. A new dressing station was set up, with equipment salvaged from the old one, in a culvert under the main road. The General Hospital was also re-established by officers and orderlies who had escaped or remained hidden. The new location was in caves by the shore. Operations were carried out all night by Major Christie² and Captain A. Gourevitch, and next day the rest of the patients and staff returned. By 23 May faith in its protection had recovered sufficiently for a Red Cross to be displayed, and the enemy did not molest either ambulance or hospital any further.

iv

For 19 Battalion, closer to the dropping area, the day was not easy. There were only four companies—B Company had been lost at the Corinth Canal—and although the battalion was part of Force Reserve its positions were important from the first as a support to 10 Brigade. The companies were disposed south and south-east of Karatsos, between the village and the Alikianou-Canea road. Farthest west was D (Taranaki) Company; C (Hawke's Bay) Company was a little south-east of D; A (Wellington) Company adjoined C still farther to the east; and Headquarters Company held the eastern flank³

Also in the area were two troops of artillery. F Troop of 28 Battery was in A Company area about 200 yards west of Karatsos church. And on the south side of the Alikianou-Canea road was 1 Light Troop RA.

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Accounts of the numbers of parachutists landing vary from one hundred to four hundred. If we allow for double counting and the speed with which they were brought under control, 200 seems a probable maximum.¹ To the commander of 14 Platoon in C Company, Lieutenant Cockerill,² who was in a good position to observe, it seemed that the greater number landed south of the Canea-Alikianou road; and this is likely enough in view of the German story that, although III Battalion was to have landed east of Galatas and taken Karatsos, only 10 Company was correctly landed, the others being dropped too far to the south and east. We may surmise that elements of all four companies landed actually in 19 Battalion area but the main body of the battalion outside it.

Of those who were correctly put down very few must have survived the fusillade that began while the parachutes were still dropping and continued throughout the earlier part of the morning. By 10 a.m. all four companies of 19 Battalion were reporting their area clear.

For F Troop the silent passage of a glider overhead while the gunners were at their breakfast was the first intimation that this was to be no ordinary day. A party at once set off for the observation post on Cemetery Hill. It had covered only 200 yards when it was forced to ground by paratroops landing all around. The party ‘put in some fairly sporting work with their one and only rifle.’³ But when news came that the Greeks had been forced off Cemetery Hill and the observation post was therefore in enemy hands, there was nothing for it but to return to the guns. Here the rest of the gunners were found armed to the teeth with enemy weapons and busy dealing with snipers. The guns themselves, deprived of their observation post, could now be fired only over open sights at whatever tempted attention. Enemy parties visible from about half past nine on the hills to the south came under this heading. An abortive attack on the gun positions themselves yielded eleven prisoners.

1 Light Troop RA was less fortunate. Its position south of the Canea-Alikianou road was well suited to the troop's role—to fire on the beaches and the prison area in support of 4 Brigade. Indeed, no better site was thought to be available for this purpose. But the site also invited parachutists, being low-lying. Major Blackburn,⁴ commander of 19 Battalion, had been worried about the troop's

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position because of this and because it lay outside the perimeter of his battalion and so lacked infantry protection. He had no choice, however, but to accept the assurances of the troop commander, Captain J. Dawney, that no alternative site would permit the troop to carry out its role.¹

The troop's position—taken up on 17 May—was a roughly rectangular clearing, bounded on the west and east by olive groves, on the north by the road, and on the south by a stream. The guns were dispersed among the trees but by 20 May were still not completely ready for action.²

As soon as he found Captain Dawney determined to keep to his position, Blackburn had offered him infantry protection. The offer was refused, however, until about six o'clock in the evening of 19 May. Blackburn thereupon ordered A Company to provide the protection and Captain Pleasants³ decided to send 8 Platoon. By this time the platoon commander, rather remissly, thought it too late to do more than reconnoitre and arrange for one section to move in at first light next day and a second to follow after breakfast.

About six o'clock next morning the first section duly arrived, and as soon as the aerial bombardment slackened the men joined the breakfast queue. The rations were in their hands but not in their mouths when the landing began. The paratroops seemed to them to land mainly along the road or north of it, and the section had quickly to alter its targets from transport planes to enemy on the ground. At first a ditch along the west side of the clearing made a useful trench; but fire from the right flank made this untenable and, after casualties, the men of the section were forced back to slit trenches in the clearing itself where they hoped to get support from the gunners.

From here it was obvious that the gunners, too, had suffered casualties and that little or no support would be forthcoming from the survivors, who had gone to earth somewhere. The conduct of one n.c.o., however, was outstanding. One saw him extract the breech blocks from at least two of the howitzers nearest to where we were, dumping them down in holes as far away from the guns as was possible under the circumstances. After this he took shelter with us for a few minutes and said that the rifle he was carrying he had retrieved from one of our fallen comrades. As they were lying in the olive trees on the prison side this n.c.o. must have been there and it is possible that he managed to get round all the guns and disarm them. It was apparent, also, from the way in which he spoke

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regarding the rifle, that the gunners were entirely without personal weapons. It was not surprising therefore that we were not receiving any support from them.¹

Meanwhile the enemy fire got heavier and the section found itself reduced to six men. When finally the enemy ‘got close enough to trundle egg grenades at us’, they decided to withdraw to the south-east corner of the clearing. Here they found the troop's GPO and a dozen or so gunners.

Attempts by reconnaissance upstream to locate any missing having run into strong crossfire, the party, gunners along with infantry— now reduced to four—made their way downstream and by about midday had managed to cross the road, hand over the gunners to Headquarters Company, and get back to A Company. Captain Dawney himself, along with another party of gunners, had already found his way to F Troop. Of the four guns three remained out of action, but the enemy seems to have been able to use the remaining one against F Troop.

News of 1 Troop's disaster could not reach 19 Battalion until the survivors began to come in. For line communications had been cut at the outset. Moreover, the men of 19 Battalion had not had long in which to congratulate themselves on their first success. Further aircraft came over between eleven o'clock and midday and dropped containers and more troops. A and D Company sent out patrols which cleared out about twenty of the enemy near Karatsos. Other parties were sent to locate and take over the dropped equipment, dealing with isolated groups of Germans as they did so. In spite of this single snipers began to give trouble, and the enemy had machine guns and mortars in action to which the battalion's three-inch mortar proved a fairly effective counter.

It was nearly four o'clock in the afternoon before communication to 4 Brigade was restored; and by this time some pattern could be discerned in the enemy's doings. The slackening air attack suggested that he was consolidating, and the flares sent up to show his aircraft what were his positions were helpful to the defending troops as well. Thus the battalion was able to conclude and report to Brigade that the main attack seemed to be directed from an east-west line roughly along the heights between the prison area and Perivolia: A smaller attack appeared to be developing towards the Canea-Alikianou road where 1 Light Troop RA had been. North of the battalion's positions patrols were clearing the enemy from between Karatsos and the sea. The battalion's own casualties were between fifteen and twenty men. This message also informed 4 Brigade of the fate of 1 Light Troop RA.

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A written message sent at 4 p.m. to Division summarises the situation on 19 Battalion front at what was roughly the end of the first phase of its fighting. About 100–150 enemy had been put out of action. An enemy party of perhaps 200 men was attacking the slopes held by A Company and Headquarters Company. Another group in even greater strength was attacking Cemetery Hill. But the ammunition position was satisfactory and patrols were engaging enemy north of Karatsos.¹

v

The main enemy landings had taken place between Galatas, the Prison, and Alikianou. Here in the next few days there were to be a front and fighting second in importance only to Maleme, with 10 Brigade the front line of the defence. It will be best to dispose first of the outlying units which by reason of distance and lack of communication were virtually outside the control of the brigade commander.

The 8th Greek Regiment was in difficulties from the start, cut off from 10 Brigade by the landings in the Prison area and the eastward thrust of I Battalion, and threatened on its left and front by the Parachute Engineer Battalion. Attached to the Greeks were a party of New Zealand instructors led by Major Wilson² of 20 Battalion. Wilson had decided beforehand that when battle began it would be best for the New Zealanders to concentrate separately; for there was reason to fear that otherwise the Greeks would disregard their own officers and, as the New Zealanders knew no Greek, the system of command would be dislocated.³

Accordingly, Wilson had his supplies dumped at the pumping station on top of a hill half a mile south of the reservoir. On the morning of 20 May all of his men hurried to this point—which we now know to have been a German objective—all, that is, except Lieutenant Brown⁴ and Sergeant Smith,⁵ who were both cut off and remained with the Greeks.

Thus the battle began with the New Zealanders at the pumping station and the Greeks in their three companies lining the ridges south of the road to Alikianou and overlooking it. The Greeks were too strung out to fight as a battalion—their HQ was in a

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schoolhouse north of the road. About 250 of them, who had arrived the previous night and had neither arms nor training, scattered inland when the paratroops came down. None the less, as we have seen, the Greeks fought well in their separate companies, acquired some German weapons and held on all day, inflicting severe casualties and what amounted to a local defeat.

The enemy attacks in the afternoon, at both ends of the Greek front, brought fierce fighting on either side of the road. In the battle round Aghya itself the commander of the regiment, two majors, and most of the staff were killed; and not far away the enemy managed to get possession of the pumping station hill. But when dark came the Greeks still held the ridges, the Alikianou road-bridge, and Alikianou itself.

The New Zealanders with 8 Greek Regiment were unlucky. Lieutenant Brown, who fought alongside the Greeks all day was captured next morning.¹ Sergeant Smith made his way out next day. Major Wilson's party were surrounded at their rendezvous, the pumping station, and forced to spend the day and night there, unable to rejoin the Greeks or take any important part in the fighting. On 21 May Wilson attempted a sortie and was killed. Shortly afterwards his companions were captured.

It is clear from Brown's account and the developments at a later stage that 8 Greek Regiment continued to hold the main portion of the ridges. The more northerly ridges were lost during the night. For Major Liebach, commander of the Engineer Battalion, got orders to send at least a strong company to Colonel Heidrich and decided that the best way of doing this was to break through with his whole battalion. No. 1 Company, with machine pistols, grenades and flame-throwers, set out after dark and 4 Company followed. Between them they cleared the heights south of Aghya. No. 2 Company and 3 Parachute MG company disengaged and came on behind. Thus the whole battalion was able to break through to Heidrich at his HQ near Mandra.

The enemy makes no further mention of fighting in this sector till 23 May, and there are no Greek accounts available. It may be assumed that after the enemy had gone the Greeks, with the additional weapons they had acquired, manned the greater part of their line once more. Heidrich was in no position at this stage to dispute this. He needed all his strength for Galatas and was satisfied so long as no attack was made on his south flank. Thus elements of 8 Greek Regiment and partisans held on and supplied

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the opposition when the enemy later tried to cut his way to the coast by this route. It was not till 26 May, when a full regiment was brought to bear, that he made any progress.¹

vi

Another outlying force was the Divisional Cavalry in the hills north of Lake Aghya. They were about 190 in number and were divided into three squadrons under Major John Russell. Colonel Kippenberger had from the first felt uneasy about their isolated position and had ordered Russell to withdraw to the main body of 10 Brigade whenever the situation seemed to warrant it.²

On the morning of 20 May the troops were about to stand down for breakfast when they saw the troop-carriers go in over Maleme and others, preceded by gliders, flying straight across the Aghya valley, emptying out their parachutists as they went. Most of these landed out of range, and when they formed up attacked east and not west. So the Divisional Cavalry had to content themselves with potshots at strays. On the plain where the main landings took place there was plenty of cover and, once grounded, the paratroops were hard to see.

To Major Russell staying where he was seemed pointless. His men had no long-range weapons and so could not damage the enemy in the valley. Still less could he support 8 Greek Regiment; for an open space strongly held by enemy lay between, even if it had been practicable to move an organised body of men over it under an enemy-thronged sky. And soon at this distance it seemed as if Greek resistance, at least at the prison end of the front, had been overcome. The telephone line to Brigade had been cut half an hour after the landing, there was no wireless, and a runner sent out returned wounded with the report that it was impossible to get through by the direct route.

Russell determined to use the discretion given him and by striking into the hills north of him to make his way round into Galatas.

In the early afternoon the force set out and, after a long and rugged climb and some unpleasant moments in the approach to the front line held by the Composite Battalion, eventually found its way into Galatas, meeting on the way a patrol sent out to bring it in.

vii

The line held by the 1400 men of 6 Greek Regiment under Major Gregarius ran from the Prison-Galatas road³ to Cemetery Hill and thence across the valley to the Turkish fort. The troops

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were ill-armed¹ and, though ammunition had arrived some days before the battle and been distributed to companies, there is some doubt whether it had been issued to the men. Whether or not it had been issued, however, the length of the line, lack of training, and weakness of armament sufficiently explain the disaster that quickly overtook the regiment. With I Battalion attacking hard on the south flank, 11 Company in the rear, 12 Company to the front, and 9 Company on top of the positions—all troops heavily armed and highly trained—defeat was inevitable. The defending forces south of the Canea-Alikianou road and in the valley between it and the Turkish fort were overwhelmed. Some no doubt made their way east to 2 Greek Regiment or into the hills towards 8 Greek Regiment. Others reached Galatas or 19 Battalion and were to reappear. But as a unit 6 Greek Regiment ceased to exist.

North of the Canea-Alikianou road on Cemetery Hill was the regiment's HQ. Here there were about thirty Greeks being trained in field engineering by a party of New Zealand sappers, and here also was Captain Smith² of 23 Battalion with a further party of New Zealand instructors. The Greek trainees had only about ten rounds of ammunition each, and when the parachutists began to drop this supply was quickly exhausted. For this reason an attempt by Smith to rally the Greeks and counter-attack could not be carried through. Without ammunition there was nothing that the defence could do, and Smith therefore collected all those who had not already melted away and led them back into the area of 19 Battalion. Here Major Blackburn gave them an area in which to reorganise, and they obtained some German ammunition which approximately fitted their weapons. That night, when two 19 Battalion companies went forward to counter-attack, the Greeks were able to replace them in the battalion perimeter.

Another group of Greeks made its way into Galatas, about 200 strong. Their condition may be gauged from an account by Captain Bassett,³ Brigade Major to 10 Brigade. ‘Here I found hundreds of Greeks in flight, rallied and railed at them and turned them back down the valley; but they showed that they only had three rounds each which they blazed at high-flying planes. That bloody Colonel had not issued his ammunition, and his dump was captured at once.’⁴

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Eventually Bassett ‘Rallied some in the village and put them under a hero, Captain Forrester, a young blond Englishman (Queen's Regiment) who had trickled in the night before to liaise and report back. He nonchalantly forgot about reporting back in person until our scrap there finished a week later.’¹

Since this was the end of 6 Greek Regiment, the part played from now on by those Greeks who remained in action will be treated in relation to the main narrative of 10 Brigade.

viii

The remainder of the 10 Brigade front was held by the Composite Battalion in its three main groups: the RMT group between the coast and the northern slopes of Red Hill; a central group which consisted of two companies formed from 4 Field Regiment and 2 Echelon of the Divisional Supply Company, and which held Red Hill and Ruin Hill; and a mixed group from 5 Field Regiment on Wheat Hill and the Divisional Petrol Company on Pink Hill.²

As it was in the sector of this last group that the main fighting of the day took place, the other two sectors may be dealt with first. A sprinkling of enemy landed in the lines of the RMT but were quickly eliminated, their weapons making a desirable addition to the defenders' fire power. The 4th Field Regiment on Red Hill acquired neither enemy nor spoil, but the Divisional Supply Company on Ruin Hill was able to enjoy some long-range shooting at paratroops in the prison area and had a few strays nearer at hand to dispose of as well. On Wheat Hill the men of 5 Field Regiment had only a few intruders to silence and, apart from some forward patrolling, spent most of the day watching the enemy form up in the prison area and expecting orders for a counter-attack.

The day passed so easily for these two northern sectors because the enemy's main landings were to the south and south-east. For the most southern group of the Composite Battalion, the Divisional Petrol Company, it was another matter. The company had four sections disposed from the foot of Wheat Hill to the Prison-Galatas road, with two sections on Pink Hill itself which was to prove a key position. Wire had been erected about fifty yards in front of the forward posts and the troops mostly occupied trenches dug by their predecessors, 1 Welch. In armament the company was weak: the rifles were without bayonets and five fewer than the men who needed them, and besides rifles there were

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only two Bren guns, one Lewis machine gun, and an anti-tank rifle. The men themselves were for the most part drivers and technicians and so ill trained for infantry fighting.

Pink Hill gave such good observation that Colonel Kippenberger had established his battle HQ there. Daylight had found him in Galatas itself, shaving in his billet while an enemy fighter flew up and down the main street. As he was contemplating, the shave finished, a more than usually watery porridge, four gliders passed overhead ‘in their silence inexpressibly menacing and frightening.’¹ He seized his rifle and binoculars and raced towards Battle HQ, the horizon full of falling parachut