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Second Lieutenant Geoffrey Cox, a war correspondent, talks about the war in Crete and the type of warfare encountered from an enemy force using modern equipment and planes.
Part 1:
In Crete, the New Zealanders fought two types of war: men against men, and men against machine. They won the battle against paratroopers, but the fight against the German aeroplane was the one they lost.
After two hours of continuous bombing and strafing, the parachutists came. Once they landed, the allies were back into the old type of warfare, and that is the battle the New Zealand troops won. The New Zealand troops showed they were masters against the picked German infantry, who used the bullying methods and tactics of the Nazi Stormtroopers.
Part 2:
Not only were the Germans bombs made to whistle and their aeroplanes made to screech, but the Nazi troops were trained to make wild yells as they came into an attack. They would shout orders in English to cause confusion, and would advance in mass columns which was a terrifying spectacle. The New Zealand troops weren't taken in by this.
The New Zealand troops copied the German signal system to the aeroplanes overhead, and received stocks of ammunition, bicycles, and medical supplies dropped by parachute into our lines.
This fight of "man against man" didn't last long as the German paratroopers sorted themselves out and enabled the German Airforce to come to bear against the allied troops - and that was the battle we lost.
Part 3:
At midnight Lieutenant Cox received orders that he and his personnel were to withdraw from Canea.
If there was one thing that the New Zealand Forces in Crete could reasonably claim was the fact that "They Did Their Job". At times this was an ugly, unpredictable job of having to cope with machine warfare to which we had no reply.
When the history of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force is written, places like Melame, Galatas, Platanias will be the ANZAC of this war.