Daily Post - 30.05.1941, Side 1

DAILY POST
11-126 Friday, May 30, 1941 Pric*: 1S mm
Flghting continues in Crete
Another British cruiser lost
LONDON, May 29th-
The communiqué friom Cairo issued late
this aftemoon states that the British
tncops at Canea have withdrawn to por
sitions east of Suda Bay in the face of
furither attacks by German forces. Dive-
bombing’ again continuecL on a large soale.
Heavy casualties have been inflicted on
the enemy.
The Admiralty has announced the loss of
the third crufeer off Crete. It is tiie 8,000-
ton cruiser “York“ which had been damia-
ged before the invasion of Crete and wias
lying' for repairs in Suda Bay. The criu-
iser miust now be regarded a total Iqss.
The situatiion at Canea has not changed
nrn'Ch during the last 24 hours. [tcporta
are ooming in of fienoe hand to hand fíght-
ing in the locality of Canea. The Gennans
have thnown in mone airborne toops, but
sio far thehe has been no oonformatien in
London of the German claim that Canea
has been captuned-
An H. A. F. pilot, reoently neturned from.
Crete to Cairo, has told the B. B. jC.
observer in the Middle East the story of
the first days of the attack.
He said he doubted thene had been a
single moment when there was not a Ger-
man plane in the sky, or parachutists dnopp-
ing to earth. The attack was begun by a
heavy “strafing“ and next the parachutists
began to come. Some of the pilots did not
allow for the height of the hills and many
of the poor devils were dropped from only
a f*w mqt«r».
'It was about o’clo'ck in the morning that
the first parachutists arrived and when they
had got hold 'Of the Maleme aero'driome
tliey immediatöly started a regular plane
servioe, 10 Junkers 52 icioming over every
quarter of an hour. Sorne of the parachut-
ists dropped in the fields nearby some in
the water. ►
The pilot together Avith s*ome of his oom-
rades joined a batch of Maoris- The air-
men, many of which had never handled
a rifle before, fought magnifioently,“ but
you should have seen the Maoris,” he sa-
id, “they laughed at their wounds and
fought like devils.“
German parachutists, lariding in an R.
A. F. eamp at Maleme, captured some 40
airmen and drove them in front of them
towards some Australian machinegunners.
The Australiáns refused to surrender ánd
waited calmly untii the Germans were quite
near. Then, on a signal from the squad-
ronleader the British airmen dáokcd and
rolled down the hill- The AustraUans fired
over their heads and got all the Germans.
The pilot estimated that some 5,000 Ger-
(man parachutists had b'een droppéd on the
first day iof the attack. The parachutists
were dressed in a sort of green-grey over-
alls and some had even paintéd their hands
green. Many used their Tommy guns while
ooming down- Special camouflage parachuts
were used to carry down containers with
food, ammunition, mortars and even wire-
less s«ts.