Chapter Nine
In the daylight hours of 22 May 1941, while the 5 NZ Brigade’s soldiers were struggling to maintain their counter attack on the airfield, Ju 52s were landing at the rate of twenty per hour, delivering the remainder of Oberst Utz’s Gerbirgsjägerregiment 100 (GJR 100) and I Battalion GJR 85. With a growing strength, the enemy’s lodgement in Maleme was beginning to slip beyond the New Zealanders’ capability to destroy. The tide of the battle for Crete had turned.
While the New Zealanders were falling back from Pyrgos to their original position, Hauptmann Gericke and his much reduced Fallschirmjäger followed and occupied the ground. On the inland flank, reinforced by the newly arrived Gerbirgsjäger, Oberst Utz was able to exert mounting pressure on 21 NZ Battalion. Later in the day the Gerbirgsjäger’s Pioneer Battalion 95 took responsibility for defence of the airfield, on arrival, releasing the Luftlandesturmregiment (LLSR) to be reconstituted into Kampfgruppe Ramcke. This was the situation at the time Generalmajor Julius Ringel and his headquarters 5th Gerbirgsjägerdivision took command of the battle.
Back in Athens, with Hitler and Göring furious at the delay in the redeployment of von Richthofen’s VIII Fliegerkorps to its BARBAROSSA positions, rivalry came into play. With Student suddenly out of favour, he was to be excluded from further operational control, although for reasons of morale, he was to remain ‘in command’ of his Fliegerkorps. Consequently, Ringel was ordered to fly to Crete to take command and Student was instructed to remain in Greece. General der Flieger Lohr (HQ Luftflotte IV) and his staff were to take a more active role in supervising the campaign’s conduct.
The German Advance and the Withdrawal of 5 NZ Brigade
With the airbridge from the Greek mainland to Maleme now well established and, with a growing strength, Ringel set about implementing his orders from Lohr; linking with the other airborne lodgements and clearing the island from west to east. The advance would be on two fronts. Kampfgruppe Ramcke would advance towards Hania using the Coastal Road, while Utz’s mountain troops would strike towards Galatas and link up with Fallschirmjägerregiment 3 (FJR 3), via the foothills of the mountains to the south. Meanwhile, FJR 3 was to attack north from Prison Valley, between 5 and 10 NZ Brigades and cut the Coast Road near Agh Marina. These moves were aimed at of outflanking 5 NZ Brigade and of course, mitigated against another attempted counter-attack, would have sucked additional Commonwealth troops into the encirclement.
On 23 May, as the Germans resumed their advance, Brigadier Hargest’s command was already withdrawing in small groups to reduce the effect of enemy air supremacy. The commanding officers ‘All were of the opinion that we could hold the position’ but the progress of Oberst Utz’s flanking move confirmed that holding was not actually a viable option. The Brigade would fall back to positions adjacent to 10 NZ Brigade in the area of Agh Marina and be in position by late morning.
General Julius Ringel.
Lieutenant Farran was again mobile in his Light Tank, the REME fitters having carried out front line repairs. He wrote:
I received orders to proceed back up the road towards Maleme to cover the withdrawal of the New Zealanders … I took up my position in a garden half-way between Platanias and Maleme. I had been told to fall back on the Platanias position … but when the time came to go back, there was still one company of Maoris to return. I could see long lines of grey figures advancing towards me across the fields and I knew them to be Germans. An anti-tank rifle began to snipe at my turret, but he was not much of a shot. There were bullets whistling about everywhere. And then the last Maoris came along with the Germans hard on their heels, but not a shadow of fear showed on their smiling, copper faces. As they passed my tank, they winked and put up their thumbs. Some fifty yards behind the rest came two Maoris carrying a pot of stew across a rifle. There is something so engaging about this cheerful race that it is no wonder that there is no colour bar in New Zealand.
28 Maori Battalion withdrew to their old positions around Platanias. D Company was, however, ordered to counter-attack their former trenches around the bridge, a mile in front of the village. Captain Baker led his men forward to see off the Fallschirmjägerwho could be seen bringing up mortars in captured RAF trucks. Even though they tried to move discreetly they were seen at about 800 yards from the bridge and were deluged with mortar and machine gun fire. Captain Garriock wrote ‘We were not there long before Jerry turned all his fury loose at us. MG and Mortar fire was terrific, I think it was the hottest hour I had during the war’. However, small groups of determined Maoris avoided the enemy’s fire:
Lieutenant Markham with one party, by taking advantage of the bamboo clumps skirting the road, got to within 100 yards of the bridge and Lieutenant Maxwell, with another, reached the river bed. They captured a Bofors gun and put another out of action, but casualties, shortage of ammunition, and the sight of more enemy approaching with more guns necessitated a speedy withdrawal.
Also taking part in the withdrawal was the sixty strong Divisional Field Punishment Centre, made up of staff and soldiers serving ‘a few days’ detention’. They had fought very well during the first day of the battle under command of 22 Battalion. Now they too were withdrawing westward in small groups. Private Follas’s group were reluctant to abandon their large collection of enemy weapons and ‘found’ a donkey, ‘loaded it with four spandaus, carried the ammunition themselves and, after taking part in a brisk skirmish yielding twenty prisoners, met 22 NZ Battalion in their new position’. Follas recalls seeing Colonel Andrews, looking approvingly at the donkey, the spandaus, and the ammunition and asking ‘What have you been pinching this time?’
During this period Sergeant Alfred Hulme, Provo Sergeant of 23 NZ Battalion and staff member of the Field Punishment Centre was also active against the enemy, in actions that contributed to him being awarded the VC.
Hulme returned to the 23rd the day before the unit left its area near Maleme. By this time he had acquired two items from parachutists he had shot which gave him some protection on his stalking patrols and may possibly have misled the Germans. These were a camouflage suit or blouse which he wore over his battle-dress tunic and a camouflage hat, which could be worn either rolled up like a balaclava or down in a hood, with eye-slits, over the face. He killed two other Germans before the order to withdraw came. On a visit to Brigade Headquarters, he ran into a small party of New Zealand engineers held prisoner by one German sentry. Afraid to shoot for fear of hitting a New Zealander, Hulme crept up behind the sentry, jumped on him and killed him with a short German bayonet. Directed to find out how many Germans were in Pirgos, Hulme ran into two unguarded aircraft which he set on fire with German fusee matches.
Sergeant Alfred Hulme VC.
Stalos
After ‘quiet’ days in Prison Valley on 21-22 May, the part to be played by Oberst Heidrich in the German plan to envelope 5 NZ Brigade was the dispatch north of a force from FJR 3, who would advance into the void between the two New Zealand Brigades. In the event Brigadier Hargest’s Brigade had already started to move back and Colonel Kippenberger, active as ever, did his best to strike into the flank of the Fallschirmjäger with his temporary infantrymen. The result was a sharp encounter in the village of Stalos.
One hundred and fifty men of Kampfgruppe Heilmann, the remains of III Battalion, were on the move north from Prison Valley and occupied Stalos shortly after dawn. Meanwhile, Kippenberger ordered the ‘Infantillery’ of the Composite Battalion to advance westward by a thousand yards to narrow the gap between the two brigades. This move was preceded by patrols that were told by civilians that Stalos was occupied by the enemy, which proved to be Fallschirmjäger pioneers who had taken over from Heilmann’s men, as the Kampfgruppe continued north. The historian of the New Zealand artillery wrote:
Two strong patrols, one from the RMT [NZ Army Service Corps] and one from the 4th Field [artillery], went forward to snipe and observe. One of these sent a detachment forward towards Stalos and it engaged in a skirmish which lasted for an hour, caused the enemy the loss of 14 men and two machine guns (at a cost of one RMT man wounded), and ended only when a company of 18 Battalion arrived to take over. A platoon of this company attacked and brilliantly captured the village, driving out or killing the strong enemy force. While this action was going on the Composite Battalion formed a forward line of standing patrols to guard against further infiltration in this area.
Major Evans, of B Company 18 NZ Battalion decided to attack Stalos with a single well supported platoon. ‘He set up the 3-inch mortar, which the company brought and selected 11 Platoon to make the attack.’ By about 1100 hours, the platoon was forming up and, after a short mortar bombardment, it attacked, one section going south of the village, one north of it, and the other into the village itself. The divisional history records:
The attack went very well and the enemy was driven out of the village, leaving behind at least five dead and two machine guns. One house, however, kept on holding out with a machine-gun post. As the platoon was about to deal with this one also, an order came forward from Major Evans for the platoon to withdraw; for Evans had by now come to the conclusion that the enemy in the area was about 200 strong and so too much for his force. The platoon therefore reluctantly let go its grip and fell back to its original positions.
Fallshirmjäger section advancing across low walls that surrounded many Cretan villages.
A tripod mounted MG 34 covers the advance of GJR 100.
Major Evans may well have overestimated the enemy in the Stalos area but the Fallschirmjäger pioneers ‘make much of the fighting it had that day, so 11 Platoon must have given the enemy a sharp shock with its spirited assault’. The effect of this lesson and the closing of the gap between the two brigades meant that the German encircling operation failed.
However, the threat remained and, at 1700 hours, detailed orders arrived at Brigadier Hargest’s HQ for a further withdrawal of 5 NZ Brigade, this time through both 10 and 4 Brigades into reserve in the east of the Divisional area. The withdrawal of the 800 men still on their feet began with evacuation of as many of the wounded as possible at 2100 hours; with the fighting units leapfrogging back an hour later.
We withdrew under orders soon after midnight, carrying our wounded on improvised stretchers down the steep cliff face and then along a difficult clay creek bed to the road. Then we marched until nearly dawn. I was very impressed by the continued discipline of the men. Mile after mile we trudged. Everyone was tired. All were vaguely resentful, although none of us could have put a finger on the reason. Those who could bear the strain better carried the rifles and Bren guns of those who were fatigued. Len Diamond, a rough and lovable West Coast miner with a difficult stammer, raised a smile whenever things seemed a bit much.
Gerbirgsjäger officers plan the advance.
It is interesting to note that the Field Punishment Centre, whose staff and inmates had performed so well in battle, ‘dissolved itself’ during the withdrawal, as:
The sight of their own units in the withdrawal had been too tempting for the men. They had one by one slipped away and, back with their own battalions, they could be sure of a welcome and not too many questions.
In recognition of their stout service in Crete, the bad lads were formerly pardoned after the campaign.
Advance through the Hills
Oberst Utz’s ten mile advance through the inland hills had begun on the evening of 22 May and by the following morning his men were beginning to make their presence felt. While two battalions of Gerbirgsjäger Regiment 100 were advancing across the hills, I/GJR 85 were heading further inland.
With only their motorcycles, mules and half-track motorcycles to transport heavy weapons, equipment and ammunition reserves, the rugged Gerbirgsjäger were in their element, although the heat of a Mediterranean spring was testing. Gefreiter Karl Meyer wrote:
The first night in Crete we dug [trenches] on Hill 107, fought all day and now on the second night we march. In the morning, I was more tired than I had ever been and hot – so hot - in full battle equipment and load. The hills were dry, there was no water and the advance march became slow. A few comrades left the column as we climbed the hills in the unaccustomed heat. The mortar Kompanie, whose vehicles we normally envied, were worse than we were.
With the eventual arrival of II/GJR 100 south of Stalos, in the afternoon of day four of the operation, the reinforced Gruppe West had finally linked up with Gruppe Mitte in Prison Valley. However, before Ringel could mount a proper attack on the Galatas Heights he had to build up his combat power, particularly in respect of artillery and other support weapons.
With Maleme now securely in German hands and now out of range of Commonwealth artillery, General Ringel could count on more speedy reinforcement and plan the capture of Souda Bay, his next objective. Encouraged by the New Zealanders’ sensitivity to moves on their southern flank and 5 NZ Brigade’s withdrawal, GJR 85 were tasked to take a wide sweep through the foothills aimed at Souda Bay. Kampfgruppe Ramcke would continue to exert pressure on the coastal plain, GJR 100 would assault the Galatas Heights from the west and the much reduced FJR 3 would push east up Prison Valley towards Hania to the south of the Hania–Aghya Road.
Brigadier Puttick also made a few changes of disposition on the Galatas Heights. 18 NZ Battalion took over responsibility from the ‘Infantillery’, who in a static role under constant fire from ground and air had become ‘dispirited’ and were moved to supporting positions near the Divisional Petrol Company. The Divisional Cavalry remained west of Pink Hill. Even though 10 Brigade was now subsumed into 4 NZ Brigade, Colonel Kippenberger remained in command of the Galatas sector under Brigadier Inglis.
A Gerbirgsjäger photographed on the Galastas Heights looking north to the coastal plain, illustrating the key nature of this ground.
The final move of the 23rd to consider was the reinforcement of 19 Australian Brigade which was deployed by Major General Weston, under MNBDO command to block Prison Valley. Brigadier Vasey received his fellow countrymen of 2/7th Battalion who with 2 Greek Regiment formed a line through the hills south-east from the Hania–Aghya Road.
The Attack on Galatas
The renewed German attack on Galatas began on 24 May, as enemy artillery and reinforcements poured into Maleme and moved up to face the new Commonwealth defensive positions. The Luftwaffe, some of whose fighters were now operating from Maleme, had focused its attention over the previous day on Souda Bay, were now softening up the New Zealand positions on the Galatas Heights. Throughout the morning, across the hills and into the valleys the number of German troops steadily increased, filling the vacuum left by the withdrawal of 5 NZ Brigade during the night.
18 NZ Battalion, on whom the brunt of the defensive battle would fall, were in an unenviable position. They held a long frontage (2,500 yards) and Ruin Hill, which had steadfastly been held by the Composite Battalion, was no longer occupied and, consequently, Red Hill could be completely and Wheat Hill partly overlooked. As already recorded, the trenches and weapon pits were in a poor state and there was little effective protection in the form of mines or wire. 18 NZ Battalions historian wrote: ‘The position had to be accepted for what it was, although there was some resiting of section posts during the morning. ‘The Petrol Company was still on the slopes of Pink Hill, as already recorded, supported by a platoon of ‘infantillery’.’ The official history records that ‘Morning on the Brigade front was one of great tension and feverish preparation for what was expected to be a formidable onslaught and one that would come soon’.
See map map page 202
However, to the surprise of the New Zealanders and the annoyance of General Student, nothing in the way of a ‘formidable onslaught’ materialised on 24 May. 5th Gerbirgsdivision described its actions of the morning and early afternoon as ‘a reconnaissance in force’ but these operations saw I/GJR 100 occupying Ruin Hill, bringing fire down on 18 NZ Battalion and mounting probing attacks, which led to minor withdrawals and counter-attacks. Meanwhile, 19 NZ Battalion was unsuccessfully attacked by FJR 3whose advance towards Hania failed.
The battle for Galatas proper began the following day and the course of the day’s fighting, despite Student’s criticism, supports Ringel’s assessment that he lacked sufficient combat power on the 24th to take the Galatas Heights. The attack was to be delivered by the two battalions of GJR 100, now enjoying the full range of fire support normally to be expected from a division. The remains of FJR 3 were to fix 19 Australian Brigade in its position by maintaining pressure on Brigadier Vasey’s units deployed in blocking positions across Prison Valley. GJR 85 was at last beginning to make progress through the hills to the south. Akampfgruppe of two motorised units, Recce 95 and 95 Anti-Tank Battalions, were to form a reserve for exploitation of success. General Student was finally released from Athens and arrived at Ringel’s HQ that morning (25th May). One commentator wrote, ‘The attack was not likely to lack élan with him to spur it on’.
Oberst Ramcke greets General Student on arrival in his HQ.
Ringel’s subsequent objective remained Souda Bay and the road to Rethymno, avoiding becoming embroiled in Hania.
The assault was to be preceded by air attacks at 0800, 1230 and 1315 hours, ‘with all the aircraft the sky could find room for’. Zero-Hour for the attack on Galatas was at the relatively late hour of 1320 in order to ensure that all the artillery resources would be concentrated. An indication of the level of artillery support that the Germans could now call upon is given by Captain Sinclair, who reckoned that ‘shells and mortar bombs were bursting at a rate of perhaps twenty a minute’. Added to this, fire from captured Bofors and from Spandaus ‘the storm of sound’ made it difficult for officers to exercise any control.
Pressure mounted as the Gerbirgsjäger advanced and a growing stream of New Zealand casualties were making their way to the rear. 18 NZ Battalion, with its extended front was being pushed back by Ramcke and II GJR 100 but Russell Force made up of the ‘Infantillery’, the Petrol Company and the Divisional Cavalry in the Pink Hill area were holding firm, despite ‘the usual stiff thrust against them’. Local counter-attacks resulted in hand to hand fighting. One such attack was mounted by the CO of 18Nz Battalion on the right flank, against Kampfgruppe Ramcke, which Corporal Bishop describes, as viewed from his position behind D Company on the battalion’s right flank:
Some D Company posts at the seaward end of the line had just been overrun and had surrendered when Colonel Gray hove in sight armed with rifle and bayonet and leading perhaps 20 men and yelling to Don Company ‘No surrender. No surrender.’ Sergeant Scott asked if we were to join in but was told to wait for the second wave. However, he took half a dozen men with him and left almost immediately, the rest of us following. We had just got to the top of the ridge when we met the CO coming back, Sgt Scott and others having been killed.
The official history commented that ‘The gallant and hopeless counterattack had failed. Its members were few and motley, the enemy numerous and better armed. All it may have done was to hold the enemy back a little longer’. Only eleven men of D Company, under the quartermastersergeant, got away. Meanwhile, Captain Bassett had come forward from Colonel Kippenberger’s HQ:
…flights of dive-bombers made the ground a continuous earthquake and Dorniers swarmed over with guns blazing incessantly. It was like a nightmare race dodging falling branches, and …and got on their ridge, only to find myself in a hive of grey-green figures so beat a hasty retreat until I reached Gray’s HQ just as he was pulling out. I had to admire the precise way he was handling the withdrawal — he greeted me with ‘Thank God Bassett, my right flank’s gone, can you give us a vigorous counter attack at once’, and I promised to put in the two 20th Companies and he insisted on my taking a signaller with me in case I got hit … My way led through the town, and I found all our sectors undergoing the same massed attack.
Colonel Kippenberger, still acting as forward commander of 4 NZ Brigade, supplied the promised two companies of 20 NZ Battalion. Meanwhile, Colonel Gray ‘charged madly round gathering up odd groups of stragglers, and in a little while the line was intact again’. It was, however, a patchwork line, but for the time being ‘fairly solid’ between Galatas and the sea.
Wheat Hill was now a key to the defence of the Galatas Heights. Its loss would threaten the flank of Russell Force on 18 Battalion’s left and ‘would leave a hole for Jerry to push through to Galatas and smash the whole New Zealand line’. The battalion’s history goes on to comment that ‘So for A Company it was – hang on, cling to the hill at all costs’.
A Company was, however, being steadily reduced in strength by constant enemy bombardment, and the Gerbirgsjäger were closing in and would soon ‘beyond a doubt overrun the position’. Rather than be destroyed, the company fell back through Galatas, with the enemy following close behind. The Galatas Line was broken!
The Gerbirgsjäger swarmed forward from Wheat Hill through the gap in the line, pursuing A Company right to the outskirts of Galatas. Battalion HQ, C and B Companies on Murray Hill hit a great number before they too were forced back to avoid envelopment. Other Gerbirgsjäger set up machine guns to the right of the gap and poured fire into the flank of Russell Force.
Helped by enfilade fire from Divisional Cavalry, the Petrol Company held up I/GJR 100’s attack on Pink Hill. The Divisional Cavalry also came under heavy machine gun fire, and as the battle developed Major Russell had considerable difficulty in maintaining communication with his force, as telephone lines were cut, and he had to resort to runners. Soon the elements of Russell Force were fighting independently in an information vacuum.
The Last Stand of the Petrol Company
Russell Force was by mid-afternoon ‘in a most perilous position’, not helped by the lack of information on what was happening on their right. Captain Rowe wrote:
I had no indication that there was going to be a withdrawal, but as the afternoon progressed, more and heavier fire came from our right flank and on several occasions I tried to contact 18th Battalion and at one stage sent a Sgt and runner to definitely find out what had happened. Late in the afternoon I received a call from Major Russell to say that he was hard pressed and must withdraw but would try and hold out until we came through. He said that the 18th Battalion had been withdrawn some hours before. This was my first definite advice of a withdrawal on this flank.
A little later the Divisional Cavalry retired towards Daratsos. This left the Petrol Company and the ‘infantillery’ platoon, undefeated by direct attack in an extremely dangerous position. Captain Rowe ordered the Company to retire in extended line, using the left flank on Pink Hill as a pivot in order to form a fresh line in front of Galatas facing Wheat Hill. ‘Rowe hoped in this way to contact troops who had been between Galatas and Ruin Hill in the morning. Those troops [of 18 NZ Battalion], however, had also been withdrawn…’
Private Sparks, when a lean and spry eighty-seven-year-old, described to the author how he had been on the outer edge of the wheel:
I was running hard from tree to tree, weighed down by the platoon’s only Bren gun, stopping to fire a short burst to keep the enemy back. Going back through the trees on the reverse slope, I was struggling to keep up as I had furthest to run but eventually we came to this road.
The Petrol Company wheeled their right flank back in good order, in a manoeuvre that in the face of the enemy, would have tested the most skilled infantry. The NZ Army Service Corps’ soldiers deserve the highest of praise. Pointing out the place where he had taken up a fire position, Ray Sparks continued:
I had five mags [magazines – usually filled with twenty eight rather than thirty rounds each to prevent stoppages] left and coming up the hill on the road were more Germans than I had ever seen before or since. I let them have it with long bursts. They scattered, running for cover in the scrub on either side, leaving the road covered with crumpled green heaps, some of whom screamed for help and their mothers. No one tried to help them. I fired away steadily at any of sign of movement up the hill towards me, until I was on my last mag. It was at that point we were ordered back. If we had more ammunition we could have held the bastards. At close range their bombers couldn’t get us.
To this day Sparks knows that he and the Petrol Company were not defeated and proudly, and justly, tells how the Service Corps took on everything the Germans could throw at them.
The Fall of Galatas
The Petrol Company was ordered to fall back through Galatas with the aim of linking up with 19 Battalion behind the village. This was extremely hazardous, as the remnants were exposed to enemy fire as they stood up. CSM James says:
Passing through the southern outskirts we discovered the Div Cav was being fiercely attacked and we carried out some of their wounded. Pet Coy had very heavy casualties. These seemed to come from box barrages laid by mortars sited on Ruin Hill, which overlooked the whole area.
Galatas was a hell of exploding shells, burning buildings and falling masonry.
While the Galatas front was failing, to the north of the village, Colonel Gray was struggling to stabilise a line with the remnants of his battalion, the Composite Battalion and the 20th’s reserve companies. The situation was, however, becoming desperate and Brigadier Hargest’s very last and unlikely reserves were sent forward, including:
… such reinforcing parties as could be scraped together from his own Brigade HQ. He at once set to work having these latter organised, and as a result an officer and 14 men from J Section Signals were hastily sent forward, the Brigade Band, the pioneer platoon of 20 Battalion, and the Kiwi Concert Party. All these were promptly put into an improvised line along the stone walls north of Galatas…
Around the village, where the situation was at its worst, Colonel Kippenberger was trying to stem the dangerous tide of withdrawal. He recorded:
Suddenly the trickle of stragglers turned to a stream, many of them on the verge of panic. I walked in among them shouting ‘Stand for New Zealand!’ and everything else I could think of. The RSM of the Eighteenth, Andrews, came up and asked how he could help. With him and Johnny Sullivan, the intelligence sergeant of the Twentieth, we quickly got them organised under the nearest officers or NCOs, in most cases the men responding with alacrity. I ordered them back across the next valley to line the ridge west of Daratsos where a white church gleamed in the evening sun. There they would cover the right of the Nineteenth and have time and space to get their second wind. Andrews came to me and said quietly that he was afraid he could not do any more. I asked why, and he pulled up his shirt and showed a neat bullet hole in his stomach. I gave him a cigarette and expected never to see him again, but did, three years later, in Italy. A completely empty stomach had saved him.
Amongst others, the Australian gunners of C Troop 2/3 Field Regiment RAA, with their four 75mm guns, on the outskirts of Galatas did a great deal to stabilise the situation. Each gun fired at point-blank range, under its own commander’s orders. Major Bull wrote:
When I got to C Troop, stragglers were starting to come through them and from the ridge you could see Germans on the outskirts of Galatas. The only thing to do was to protect ourselves so we hauled the guns up to the ridge. It wasn’t very difficult to persuade the stragglers to lie down along the ridge to form a sort of firing line on each side of the guns. It was all very primitive but it seemed the only thing to do. There was a little potting but no one in the position got hit. Our gun fire was gloriously accurate using the open sights and [individual] gun control, and very soon all Jerries hastened out of sight.
The Galatas Counter-Attack
Still struggling to establish a line east of Galatas, Colonel Kippenberger in his roadside HQ received word that 23 NZ Battalion were on their way to help but as the 23rd advanced towards Galatas, Colonel Leckie was wounded by machine gun fire and Major Thomason took over command. Already arrived with Kippenberger were Lieutenant Farran and his two remaining Light Tanks. He volunteered or was sent (the Farran and Kippenberger accounts differ on this detail) into Galatas on a recce and it was soon apparent that the village was filled with Germans. Farran wrote:
They were in all the cottage windows, in the orchard, behind chimney stacks and in the schoolyard. I, the leading tank, sprayed one side of the street, while my corporal sprayed the other. When we reached the far side of the village, we turned round and came back in the same fashion. An antitank rifle pierced the turret of my corporal’s tank, wounding both the commander and the gunner, but it did not put the tank out of action.
On his return, Farran reported to Colonel Kippenberger that ‘The place is stiff with Jerries’ and requested for two men, who understood Vickers guns, to replace the two wounded turret crew. He recalled that ‘About three hundred volunteered’.
The Colonel described the troops of 23 NZ Bn assembling who were to deliver the attack:
The men looked tired, but fit to fight and resolute. It was no use trying to patch the line any more; obviously we must hit or everything would crumble away. I told the two company commanders they would have to retake Galatas with the help of the two tanks. No, there was no time for reconnaissance; they must move straight in up the road, one company either side in single file behind the tanks, and take everything with them. Stragglers and walking wounded were still streaming past. Some stopped to join in as did Carson and the last four of his party. The men fixed bayonets and waited grimly.
Lieutenant Roy Farran.
In almost full darkness, with 23 NZ Battalion ready, the scene was now set for one of the extraordinary feats of arms in the history of the Commonwealth.
On the right, C Company was to attack along the road; on the left, D Company was to follow a route parallel to the road, and another platoon was to come in from the left flank.
The 150 men of the 23rd were joined by detachments from 18 and 20 NZ Battalions, in additions to stragglers from various other units. All were hastily briefed, ‘bayonets were fixed and all were ready’. But what was it like waiting for that order? Platoon commander Lieutenant Sandy Thomas provides an insight:
Everyone looked tense and grim and I wondered if they were feeling as afraid as I, whether their throats were as dry, their stomachs feeling now frozen, now fluid. I hoped … that I appeared as cool as they. It occurred to me suddenly that this was going to be the biggest moment of my life.
The Battalion’s history records:
About 8.10 p.m. Colonel Kippenberger gave the word to the tanks to lead the way and the attack was on. This time the 23rd was not withdrawing, as had been too often the case, but was going forward to attack the enemy. The onset of darkness meant an end to Stuka raids … Their spirits rose! As the tanks moved off, the infantry gave a cheer and the cheer changed quickly to a deep shout of defiance and determination.
Lieutenant Thomas recalled:
… suddenly … I found myself shouting to my men and we were away … And then it happened. I don’t know who started it, but, as the tanks disappeared as a cloud of dust and smoke into the first buildings of the village, the whole line seemed to break spontaneously into the most blood curdling of shouts and battle cries…the effect was terrific – one felt one’s blood rising swiftly above fear and uncertainty until only an inexplicable exhilaration quite beyond description surpassed all else, and we moved as one man into the outskirts… By the time we entered the narrow streets, every man was firing his weapon to the front or in the air and every man, you could feel it, was flushed with confidence. Nothing could stop us.
Those who heard the counter-attack have left graphic accounts of its chilling sound. Colonel Gray, 18th NZ Battalion’s CO, is quoted in the official history: ‘I shall never forget the deep throated wild beast noise of the yelling charging men as the 23rd swept up the road. There was a hell of a battle in the village.’ Private Adams of the 18th’s ‘I’ section recorded how he was too late to join in the attack but how, ‘It was quite dark now and suddenly from Galatas 400 yards away we heard the most ungodly row I have ever heard – our chaps charging and yelling and screaming to put the wind up them, cat calls and battle cries, machine guns, rifles, hand grenades all going at once’.
Lieutenant Farran’s tank, finally knocked out in Galatas.
Private Ferry, a volunteer gunner in one of Lieutenant Farran’s tanks, said: ‘The howling and shouting of the infantry sounded like the baying of dogs … as it rose and fell, it made my flesh creep.’
Lieutenant Farran’s tanks led the way and blazed away at ‘the slightest sign of the enemy, who shot up flares, called for mortar fire’. Fortunately most of this fell behind the advancing Kiwis. The Gerbirgsjäger threw stick grenades and fired from the buildings. On the right, C Company cleared the first few houses one by one but, finding more Cretan civilians than enemy, they pressed into the centre of the village, not bothering to clear the houses.
A matter of a few hundred yards across the valley, 18 NZ Battalion could hear and understand what was happening. Captain Dawson, witnessed the reaction to Colonel Kippenberger’s message and told them ‘to join in’. ‘I … found that amazingly virile warrior, John Gray, who no sooner grasped Kip’s message than he fixed his own bayonet, and jumping out of the ditch cried “Come on 18th boys, into the village.” And blow me if most of the line didn’t surge out after him.’ Gray led the few dozen survivors of his battalion into battle. Private James was amongst those who followed Colonel Gray across those few hundred yards:
Suddenly we were going forward; I followed at the run, joining in the mindless war cries. We were going forward across the valley and at last were going to give it rather than take it. I wasn’t frightened, I was elated! And the climb up the slope to the village, where we could see the towers of the church silhouetted against flame and explosion, didn’t cool our determination.
Falling on the enemy, who we hit in the flank in the main square, we gave vent to all the frustrations of the last days. On guard! Thrust with the bayonet. Take the Jerry down. Stamp on the body, twist the rifle, pull the bayonet out and on guard again. Parry a German Krupp steel blade and up with the butt below his chin. The enemy run and we follow them through the streets crazed and still elated, still killing.
37 mm anti-tank gun was more than a match for the thin armour of the Light Tanks.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Farran was in front of the charge up the ‘High Street’:
… there was a blinding flash inside the tank and my gunner sank groaning to the bottom of the turret … I felt a sort of burn in my thigh and thought it probable that I also had been wounded. I told the driver to turn round, but as we swung broadside to the enemy we were hit again. My driver was wounded in the shoulder and in consequence pulled the tiller too hard, putting us into the ditch. We sat there, crouched in the bottom of the turret, while an anti-tank gun carved big chunks out of the top. … Stannard, my gunner, was in a bad way, having stopped one in the stomach. I pushed them both out through the driver’s hatch and crawled out myself. I pulled myself along on my elbows until I was under cover of a low stone wall. There I lay in the infernal din … praying for the New Zealanders to arrive.
They came up the main street in a rush, but were met by a hail of machine-gun bullets on the corner. Several went down in a heap, including the platoon commander [Thomas]. I shouted, ‘Come on, New Zealand! Clean ‘em out, New Zealand!’
The other tank withdrew but was turned back by Lieutenant Thomas and returned to the village as the New Zealanders surged forward. ‘Streams of tracer bullets came from the windows and from behind low stone walls. They were ill-aimed but caused casualties nonetheless.’ Against the surging tide of New Zealanders, many yelling school or club hakas to add to the bedlam, the Germans fell back. Lieutenant Thomas described the scene in the Square where his platoon joined Colonel Gray’s men.
The boys rose as one man, we jostled each other for the lead, and firing from the hip we advanced across the square. The consternation at the far side was immediately apparent. Screams and shouts showed desperate panic in front of us and I suddenly knew, with that peculiarly clear insight which sometimes comes in battle, that we had caught them ill prepared and in the act of forming up…By now we were stepping over groaning forms, and those which rose against us fell to our bayonets, and bayonets with their eighteen inches of steel entered throats and chests with the same horrible sound, the same hesitant ease as when we had used them on the strawpacked dummies in Burnham. The Hun seemed in full flight. From doors, windows and roofs they swarmed wildly, falling over one another to clear our relentless line. There was little aimed fire against us now.
Galatas is a traditional village little changed from the time it became a bloody battlefield.
Galatas the following morning. The remains of Farran’s knocked out tank can be seen at the end of the road.
The hunt went on through the streets, leaving behind the wounded. Amongst them were Lieutenant Farran, his tank crew and Lieutenant Sandy Thomas who had been hit while in the area of the square. Farran continued:
The platoon commander [Thomas] was also shouting to rally them from his position in the middle of the street. I shouted across to him to ask where he had been hit and he said that he was wounded in both legs. And then someone shouted that the enemy were on the roof. I saw the Platoon Commander lift himself up on his elbows and take careful aim with his pistol. The German machine-gunner came tumbling down the slates on to the street below. It was an astonishing shot in such light and at such a range.
The New Zealanders were going in again now at the point of the bayonet and I heard a German scream like a small child in pain. Another New Zealander came up and put one foot on me as he took aim from behind the wall. I protested and he apologised: ‘Sorry, joker, thought you was a corpse!’
Both officers were subsequently evacuated but Lieutenant Farran was taken prisoner while in the field hospital.
With few surviving officers and NCOs to control the charge the soldiers lost direction in the houses and streets and the Germans were able to halt the advance and without the tanks the New Zealanders were unable to overcome the stiffening resistance. Now was the time to reorganise to hold the village against the inevitable counter-attack but such had been the ferocity of the New Zealand assault that the Gerbirgsjäger did not counterattack. Colonel Kippenberger, the architect of the sudden attack on the Germans in Galatas, at the moment when it seemed that the destruction of the New Zealand Division was already assured, sent off a report to Brigadier Inglis.
Despite the success in checking the Germans at Galatas, Brigadier Puttick had already decided that the situation required a shortening of the line by a further withdrawal to the east, in order to bring the remains of his division into line with 19 Australian Brigade. While orders were being promulgated for the withdrawal, Brigadier Inglis with a senior representative from Puttick’s HQ had to decide whether or not to counterattack in the coastal area. The situation boiled down to the fact that if a battalion counter-attack was not launched, Crete would be lost but in committing the Maori Battalion to an uncertain operation, the last reasonably complete battalion would not be available to help form a line to prevent imminent defeat. This Catch 22 decision resulted in the mooted counter-attack being shelved in favour of a withdrawal that would give a better chance of survival for the New Zealand Division. The die was cast.
An Italian 75mm gun.