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German troops in Milos, Greece, waiting to board their Junkers 52 transport aircraft for the invasion of Crete, May 1941.

[AWM 069214]

And so the Bren was relayed through the section until it almost reached the well in the hands of the last runner; and he too was killed as he went down kneeling over it, guarding it even in death.

[Captain Ralph Honner, quoted in The 2/11th (City of Perth) Australian Infantry Battalion, 1939–1945, Perth, 1984, pp112–113, hereafter The 2/11th]

The German paratroopers came to Rethymno shortly after 4.00 pm on 20 May 1941. Along the coast, between the villages of Perivolia and Stavromenos, a distance of some eight kilometres, 161 slow moving Junkers JU-52 transports from a height of 120 metres dropped 1500 men of Colonel Sturm’s 2nd Parachute Rifle Regiment. Private Tom Halliday of the 2/1st Australian Machine Gun Battalion watched the Junkers fly down the coast as his Vickers heavy machine gun went into action:

Our positions were unknown to the Germans who flew along the beach at exactly the right height for our guns to do the most damage and they certainly did … several Junkers crashed, no troops jumped from others and few planes did not suffer some casualties. Many paratroopers landed in our gun position and were all killed. One by Ted Banfield with the spare barrel!

[Halliday, quoted in Philip Hocking, The Long Carry — A History of the 2/1st Australian Machine Gun Battalion, 1939–1946, Melbourne, 1997, p.88]

At Rethymno the Germans fell to earth in an area where the defence was composed mainly of Australians — the 2/1st and 2/11th Battalions, supported by elements of the 2/3rd Field Regiment, the 2/1st Machine Gun Battalion, a Greek battalion and about 800 ‘well-disciplined’ Cretan policemen. Lieutenant Colonel Ian Campbell of the 2/1st Battalion commanded the force and its task was simple — to deny the Germans the airfield at all costs.

A considerable number of paratroopers dropped straight on to one of the most vital points at Rethymno — Hill ‘A’, overlooking the eastern end of the airfield. As the paratroopers landed, the fighting on Hill ‘A’ turned into a series of isolated small actions fought by individuals to kill the Germans or drive them away from their positions. The gunners of the 2/3rd Field Regiment were virtually defenceless as few of them had rifles or machine guns. Soon Germans were moving around looking for Australians to kill and one of them found three gunners hiding in a slit trench:

The machine-gunning had scarcely ceased … when a German appeared on his hands and knees at the edge of the trench … and facing me [Doug Morris]. He had a hand grenade in his mouth, a machine pistol in one hand, and an automatic pistol in the other. There was a split second’s shock delay during which time it came to me that he was too far away to grapple with — nevertheless I made a move towards him, but had scarcely risen when he fired … Fortunately he was a poor shot, or still shocked, since he merely hit my steel helmet … he then emptied his pistol into us at random and I received multiple wounds … I was in great pain but unable to get out of the trench.

[Morris, quoted in Bishop, Thunder of the Guns, p.336]

By nightfall on 20 May the Germans had established themselves on Hill ‘A’ and further to the west around Perivolia village. On the following morning a strong counter-attack by the 2/1st Battalion drove the enemy from the hill and, with Greek help, into an area in and around the olive oil factory at Stavromenos. For five days the paratroopers held on in the factory but on 26 May the building was finally stormed and taken by a company from the 2/1st.

The main battle at Rethymno, however, developed not at the airfield but further to the west at Perivolia. Here the 2/11th faced a strong group of paratroopers under Captain Weidermann. These men had been able to collect up their heavy weapons after landing and they attempted to take Rethymno itself but were beaten off by the Cretan police. They then established themselves in Perivolia. Between 21 and 28 May, the 2/11th in a series of counter-attacks attempted to drive the Germans from the village.

One of the most determined of the Australian attacks on Perivolia was made at dawn on 27 May. Before the infantrymen of the 2/11th could advance, supported by two tanks, a particularly threatening enemy machine gun and observation post in the tower of the nearby St George’s Church had to be removed. This task fell to the 2/3rd Field Regiment:

We felt our way around the dark deserted group of houses and selected the kitchen of a house which had a window facing Perivolia. The gun squeezed into the room and the long barrel poked out the window … At first light we trained the gun on the dominant steeple of St George’s. We observed through our binoculars and could see movement in the three small windows of the steeple. The gun was loaded and we aimed at the top of the window. The recoil was like the kick of a dozen mules and the bark was deep and metallic. We were using armour piercing shot and we followed the track of the tracer. It curved in a flat trajectory and the shot was a bullseye. It punched a hole clear through the back wall of the steeple. In quick succession direct hits were scored on the other two windows … There was no further movement from the steeple.

[Lew Lind, quoted in Bishop, Thunder of the Guns, pp.334–335]

After the destruction of the German position in St George’s, the tanks advanced. However, they did not get far. One was hit by a shell and caught fire. The other, not realising that the 2/11th infantrymen had crawled to a ditch straight in front of them, opened fire and hit two of their own men. The tank went another 30 metres before it struck a mine, lurched a few metres further and then bogged in sand. In the first tank was Gunner George Eldridge, 2/3rd Field Regiment, who recalled the moments after the shell hit:

I was dazed and almost suffocated by the cordite fumes. When I looked down I saw my legs were almost pulp. Using my arms, I yanked myself back into the main compartment. Ian McNeilage was slumped over the breech of the two pounder. I sensed he was dead. The blast from the shell had almost cut him in half … Something told me I had to get out of the tank … The tank was still in motion. It had been left in gear when the driver jumped out … Suddenly the bullets stopped hitting the tank. I ducked my head up and saw a building was between me and the Germans. Knowing it was now or never, I heaved myself up and rolled down the back of the tank. I don’t remember hitting the road. I just kept rolling until I fell into a gutter. My last view of the tank was it lurching along the road to Rethymno.

[Eldridge, quoted in Bishop, Thunder of the Guns, p.336]

At this point, Captain Ralph Honner, 2/11th Battalion, thought that it would be pointless to press the attack without tank cover. Then he heard that one of his forward platoons might have broken through the German line into Perivolia and Honner felt he must go forward to support this platoon. As nine men led by Corporal Tom Willoughby went forward to give cover to the advance with their Bren gun, there occurred one of the tragedies of the 2/11th’s war on Crete. Honner ordered them to make for a stone wall around a well about 20 metres from the German line:

As the rest of the company opened rapid fire on the trenches and the houses to quieten the enemy’s guns Willoughby’s gallant team leaped from the ditch and started racing along a low hedge leading past the disabled tank to the well. Willoughby was nearly there before he fell. Behind him the Bren-gunner went down. The next rifleman caught up the gun in passing and went on until he was killed, and so the bren was relayed through the section until it almost reached the well in the hands of the last runner; and he too was killed as he went down kneeling over it, guarding it even in death. Eight brave men were lost there.3

[Honner, quoted in The 2/11th, pp.112–113]

Despite further efforts, the 2/11th were unable to break into Perivolia.

By 28 May, the British main force on Crete at Hania was in full retreat towards Sfakia and evacuation. Unfortunately, messages to Colonel Campbell telling him of the situation never reached Rethymno. One of these was in a code no German would have been able to decipher:

Waratahs Bulli Puckapunyals St Kilda Gropers Albany Bogin Hopit.

[Quoted in Long, Greece, Crete and Syria, p.272]

Loosely translated this indicated that New South Welshmen (Waratahs), Puckapunyals (Victorians) and Gropers (Sandgropers — West Australians) should all make for the south coast, indicated by the placenames Bulli, St Kilda and Albany. ‘Bogin hopit’, according to Gavin Long in the official history, meant ‘Fight your way; get moving’. However, by 29 May strong German forces stood between Rethymno and the road south to Sfakia. The Rethymno force was trapped and their ultimate position hopeless. While they had not been able to drive the Germans from Perivolia, Campbell’s men had denied the paratroopers the airfield, contained them to a small village, killed over 500 of them and taken 500 prisoners.

On 29 May, Colonel Campbell decided on surrender. The commander of the 2/11th, Lieutenant Colonel Raymond Sandover, gave his men the option of either surrendering or, after destroying their weapons, taking to the mountains and trying to escape from Crete in any way possible. White flags were now hung out around the Australian positions and Campbell led his men into captivity. It was a moment brilliantly captured by Captain Cliff Mott, 2/3rd Field Regiment:

I recall the march down the road at the end. Out front was that grand man, Lieutenant Colonel I R Campbell and with him, carrying a white flag, the commanding officer’s quartermaster. Our Battery Commander, Major Ian Bessell-Browne and I came next and behind us the troops — our troops, the Gunners. How, I wondered, were they reacting to capitulation? Angry? Surly? Complaining? Resentful? Noisy? I felt that I should not look round and kept ‘eyes front’ myself. But it seemed important to know and at last … I turned my head … What did I find? Every gunner was in step, every man erect, every man looking his own height and straight to the front. Not a word was spoken, not an eye twitched. Never, I felt, would 6 Battery be defeated. And never, I knew, would 6 Battery be humiliated.

[Mott, quoted in Bishop, Thunder of the Guns, p.342]

3 Those killed were Corporal Thomas Willoughby, Lance Corporal Arthur Dowsett, Privates Charles Brown, Colin Elvy, John Fraser, Francis Green, George McDermid and Ronald White. Neither Willoughby’s nor White’s bodies were later identified for burial and their names are remembered on the Athens Memorial to the missing in the Phaleron War Cemetery, Athens. The others lie buried in the Souda Bay War Cemetery, Crete.