ROBERT MILLER CORRESPONDENT IN CRETE

Robert [Robin] Miller New Zealand war correspondent in Crete describes events during the ten-day campaign.

Part 1:
The first event he describes is the descent of German paratroopers in the Galatas area, from large troop-carrying aircraft and the grim, fierce, and close range fighting that followed.

He then goes on to tell about the opening blitz of areas that held no particular targets, which was a textbook prelude to a landing by paratroopers. Explosive bullets were fired from the German fighters as they criss-crossed the allied ground forces. As the German pilots couldn't see anyone to shoot at they strafed the area indiscriminately to frighten the ground troops.

Then Miller gives his impression of seeing his first enemy troop-carrying glider with its massive wing span, and describes the killing of the German Paratroopers as they landed within our infantry positions.

Part 2:
The New Zealand troops shot the German paratroopers as they tried to assemble, and an olive grove was littered with dead Germans. The only trouble spots left after the initial invasion were a prison near Galatas and the aerodrome at Maleme. These areas were the scene of some of the fiercest fighting of the war.

When the enemy found the parachute invasion had failed, they threw all their available air power into Crete and every day became one long air raid.

Towards midnight on the second day hundreds of allied troops watched from the coast as the Navy smashed an ill-fated attempt by the Germans to land seaborne troops.

Part 3:
Miller describes the Royal Navy attack on, and the complete annihilation of, the German invasion fleet carrying several thousand soldiers intended to be used in a seaborne attack on Crete.

That same night was the bitterest land battle of the war. South Island troops joined the Māoris in a fierce attack on Maleme aerodrome, which included bayonet attacks and fist-fighting against strongly reinforced enemy troops. Unfortunately, when dawn came German bombers and fighters brought the heaviest blitz the Allied troops had ever seen. While the allied casualties were severe, this battle took an immense toll on the German forces.

Part 4:
Scores of Junkers troop carriers and gliders lay at grotesque angles on the fields and beaches. Some crash-landed, some were shot down, but they still came at the rate of one every few minutes.

The scene of the battle shifted from Maleme to Galatas, where on the sixth day of the invasion New Zealanders fought their second greatest engagement. Galatas had been held against a large body of paratroopers by a New Zealand force made up of Army Service Corps drivers, artillery men, cavalry men, and Greeks.

After the withdrawal from Maleme, the Germans threw in masses of troops against the town of Galatas and entered it. In darkness, New Zealand infantry men careered in a bayonet charge through the town, leaving dead Germans everywhere.