Battle of Crete 1941 Part 2

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Michael Maw of the ‘Action Desk — Sheffield’ Team on behalf of Mrs Sheila Russell and has been added to the site with the authors permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Here's the escape stories of officers I met in hospital

1. A major of marines had his headquarters in a building overlooking Nalene airfield. They were pouring a deadly fire into the troop carriers as they came in. Then they were attacked by a swarm of dive-bombers. One bomb went through the floor at his feet and he fell after it. It did not explode, so he ordered his men to withdraw to some shallow trenches they had prepared earlier. Twice he was blown out of these trenches and crawled back again. He fought a long rearguard action during the withdrawal, and finally he walked 15 miles over the cliffs in the dark, ending by falling 20 feet to the beach below. All he suffered was a chipped spine.

2. A naval lieutenant, captain of one of our motor launches spent two days being dive bombed and machine gunned. At last a near miss overturned and sank the launch. He and his crew swam to the shore, which was held by the enemy, and hid in caves. By night they tramped over the cliffs towards the embarkation beach and by day they hid in caves or gullies, without food or water. They arrived at one beach only to be told no more were being taken off and the embarkation beach was another 15 miles away. They made it in the darkness and on reporting, he was told, "Here are some rifles, take your men up to the top of the cliff and cover that footpath there." Without a murmur they did so and then at a signal, scrambled down to the boat just as a machine-gun opened on it. He was only in hospital for gastric stomach.

3. A naval sub-lieutenant had his motor launch blown up under him and was machine-gunned in the water. He was wounded but got ashore and was taken to a Crete hospital. Shortly after, the Germans captured it and posted armed sentries there. The Cretian nurses supplied him and an army officer with peasant dress and then went out and talked to the German sentries while the two officers walked out at the back to the hills.
Now for the army's side of the affair:

The Germans attacked at dawn on May 22nd, which synchronised with the first day's attack on the fleet. For hours waves of dive-bombers systematically dive-bombed everything moving within a half mile radius from the centre of Maleme Airfield and the beaches at Heraklion. Then from behind the hills came waves of troop carriers towing strings of gliders also full of troops. While the dive-bombers continued to blast every living thing, the planes and gliders landed on Maleme Airfield and Heraklion Beaches. In their haste to get down quickly, they did not hesitate to crash land them. Once on the ground, the troops mushroomed out to take cover in the bomb-craters, conveniently left by the dive bombers, whilst behind them more and more arrived. Paratroops were dropped also on the surrounding hills, but most of these were picked off on their way down. Then the dive-bombing eased off, which synchronised with the increased attacks on the Fleet. Our army counter-attacked and at 1-lerakilon succeeded in wiping out the whole of the German troops. At Maleme a fierce battle was taking place, more and more Germans landing and moving up to take the place those that fell.

At nightfall they were still clinging precariously to their bomb craters round the head of the airfield, with a litter of wrecked planes and gliders about them. If our army could keep them pinned there for another day, the prospects seemed good, because they could not continue to waste men and planes at that rate. But with the dawn, again came the dive-bombers to blast our defences. Human flesh and blood could not stand up to it and we had to withdraw to the hills. Then came more and more German troops and supplies, including artillery and light armoured carriers. Now the Germans attacked and for several days, confused fighting raged along the Northern shore and among the hills.

Heraklion was captured and re-captured by a fierce counter-attack. But there was no respite from our troops from the dive-bombing and at last we were forced to withdraw to the south. Units of the Mediterranean Fleet still patrolled the coasts, successfully preventing any attack from the sea. But ship after ship suffered bomb hits, and at last the Commander-in-Chief had to warn the army that he could not guarantee to evacuate them after 31st May. So the decision was taken to evacuate and his was carried out with relatively small losses on the nights of the 30th and 31st. Yet for the next 3 nights, destroyers still cruised along the southern shore taking off isolated parties and bringing them back.
So ended the Battle of Crete

Daughter's Note: My father returned from the war a haunted man, wanting to tell someone about his war experiences, but nobody wanted to listen, not even my mother. So a few years later, to relieve himself of the trauma (no counselling in those days, there must have been thousands that needed it), he wrote it all down and I typed it out. I'm sure he felt a lot better after getting it out of his system. There were other descriptions, which he told me about on his dark days, which were too horrific to be put in the booklet, but people can use their imaginations!

Son-in-law's Note: LEONARD CHARLES EADES WAS A COMMISSIONED WARRANT GUNNER on board the HMS Fiji. Father spent more time on other ships on his return and finished his time in the Navy as a Lt. or (?) Lt/Commander at Whale Island, after being at the Normandy invasion on one of the Battleships. He passed away ten years ago now (2005), but we all in the family have very strong memories of him.

Pr-BR

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