"Here we sit on the Isle of Crete" (1941 Anzac Song)

Sfakia shelter
(wiki: Battle of Greece - wiki: Battle of Crete)

(image links: Hellas stamp 1940 - Operation Marita map - Greece and Crete 1941 - Perilous Commitments - horsa glider - from Lesvos to Cyprus - Operation Lustre - Operation Demon - until taken in tow by Greek scow - British troops surrender - North Africa 1942 - Maori escort NZ PM Helen Clark in Galatas for 60th Anniversary of Battle for Crete - The Maori choir singing a hymn during the memorial service in Crete - A Brenda gun crew of HMAS Perth rests after a full day of returning fire from German fighter aircraft during the evacuation of Allied troops from Sfakia, on the southern coast of Crete, 30 May 1941 - Australians from Alexandria to Greece - March 5, 1941 - Webbing Load - Stukas over Greece - German planes over Acropolis - German bombing Piraeus - Junkers Ju 87 -7th April 1941: Disaster in Piraeus Harbour, SS Clan Fraser - next day - RAF Elefsina, Attica - Radiomen - London calling - Churchill BBC -  Gloster Gladiator, Ioannina, March 1941 - funny camouflage - Red Arrows visit Greece - Jewish brigade on Crete - HMS Dido being bombed by German aircraft in the Mediterranean off Crete, May 1941 - Nazi invasion of Greece map, 6 April - 9 April - Chinese Wall - pic at Molos - Battle of the Passes - Battle of Thermopylae, 1941 - newspaper - German artillery - Battle of Vevi, 1941 - Evacuation from Greece - Shell cases used by HMS Dido - Nafplio Greece 1941 - Landing in Crete - Disembark on Crete - marching on Crete - Vimy Ridge - Brits in shorts - Chrysi/Gaidouronisi island - German soldiers sunbathing - Sea casualties - Anzacs and Greeks feasting - Sfakia shelter - Brits at Suda Bay - Chania Lighthouse by Vaggelis Fragiadakis - Cretan Farewell by Dodo - Maleme sand - Doves flying - collage WWII - Soviet flag on Berlin - V-J Day in Times Square - Ross Daly - Ross on motorcycle with dog - Ross at Matala - Matala festival - Germanikon Nekrotafeion - Poppy on the cross - Kreta Soldatengräber - Maleme German cemetery - Schlacht um Kreta - Battle for Crete Jon Hall Spencer - Merkur Fallschirmjäger - Falling plane - Germanoi alexiptotistes - German paratroopers - Cretan resistance - Battle at Vromonero Krousona, 14th July 1944 - Maritime museum of Crete - German stoned by Cretan - painting - Fallen parachutist - Soldatenfriedhof - The day Hitler thought about coming to Cyprus - Hitler's Malta Option: A Comparison of the Invasion of Crete - Mercury & Operation Market Garden - Cretan girl with peace dove - NZ 4th and 6th RMT companies Henderson

Here we sit on the Isle of Crete

Spelling up our blistered feet.

Little wonder having blues

With feet encased in tight canoes.

Khaki shorts instead of slacks,

Living like a native clan

But tribesmen don't sit and brood

They get about and search for food.

‘Twas just a month ago, no more

We sailed to Greece to win the war.

We marched beneath webbing load

and Jerry bombed us off the road.

They bombed us here, they straffed us there,

The bastards were everywhere.

And as they cast their loads of death

We cursed the absent RAF.

One day we heard the radio news

And Winston Churchill gave his views.

‘The RAF,’ he said, ‘in Greece

Are fighting hard to bring us peace.’

I shook my head and said: pig's arse!

‘That smells a lot like something farce,

For if in Greece the Air Force be

Then where the flamin' hell are we?’

At last we met up with the Hun

At odds of just on five to one.

And when the going got rather hot

We ran to get another shot.

The bullets flew, the big guns roared,

We called for ships to get aboard.

At length they came, aboard we got

And hurried from that gloomy spot.

 And then they landed us on Crete

And marched us off our weary feet.
Hungry, sweaty in waters cool,

 swam inside and fished for food.

On that night we drank
counting stars upon the sand

Oh, when the bloody war gets beaten

A Briton will become a Cretan

And spend his days in fine tour

On Adolf Hitler's Isle of Doom.


The Battle of Crete was the first mainly
airborne invasion by paratroopers
the first time invading Nazi troops
met mass local resistance.
 Because of the heavy casualties,
Adolf Hitler forbade further
large-scale
airborne operations.

Εδώ καθόμαστε στης Κρήτης το νησί

ξορκίζοντας φουσκάλες απ' τα πόδια μας.

Διόλου παράξενο που πίκρες μας ζώσαν

με πόδια κασωμένα σε λέμβους στενές.

 Αντί για πατελόνια φαρδιά,
κοντόστενα χακί, σαν ιθαγενών φυλή.

Μόνο που κείνοι δεν κάθονται να κλωσούν

μα τρέχουν τροφή να βρουν.

Δεν ήταν παραπάνω ένας μήνας που σαλπάραμε

για την Ελλάδα, τον πόλεμο να κερδίσουμε.

Yπό φόρτο μάχης βαδίσαμε,

και ο Τζέρυ μας βομβάρδιζε στο δρόμο.

Mας μπόμπαραν εδώ, μας θέρισαν εκεί,

οι μπάσταρδοι ήτανε παντού.

Κι όπως ρίχνανε του θάνατου τα βάρη,
την απούσα σιχτιρίζαμε ΡΑΦ.

Μια μέρα ακούσαμε στο ράδιο

τον Τσώρτσιλ να δηλώνει:

"Η ΡΑΦ, είπε, στην Ελλάδα μάχεται σκληρά

ειρήνη να μας φέρει".

Κούνησα το κεφάλι μου και είπα "κολοκύθια!"

καμιά μας κάνουν φάρσα!

Αν στην Ελλάδα είν' η ΡΑΦ,

πού στην κόλαση βόσκουμε εμείς;

Στο τέλος τον Ούνο ανταμώσαμε

σε αναλογία πέντε προς ένα.

Και όταν η τροπή παράγινε θερμή,

φύγαμε να βρουμ' άλλην εύκαιρη βολή.

Σφαίρες έβρεχε, κανόνια βρούχονταν,
 πλοία καλέσαμε να φύγουμε.

Επιτέλους ήρθανε, βιαστικά μπαρκάραμε

από τον μαύρο τόπο εκείνο.

Μετά, μας γείωσαν στην Κρήτη,

και τα κουρασμένα βαδίσαμε πόδια μας.

Δρωμένοι, πεινασμένοι σε δροσερά νερά
κολυμπήσαμε και ψαρέψαμε.
Εκείνη τη νύχτα μεθύσαμε
αστέρια μετρώντας στην άμμο.

Αχ, όταν νικηθεί πόλεμος λυθρός,

ένας Βρετανός θα γίνει Κρητικός,

και θα κάνει διακοπές παντού

στου Χίτλερ το νησί του χαμού.


"Η Μάχη της Κρήτης ήταν η πρώτη κυρίως
αερομεταφερόμενη εισβολή αλεξιπτωτιστών.
Η πρώτη φορά που εισβάλλοντα ναζιστικά στρατεύματα
συνάντησαν μαζική εγχώρια αντίσταση.
Από τις βαριές απώλεις ο Αδόλφος Χίτλερ
απαγόρευσε περαιτέρω
μεγάλης κλίμακας αεραποβατικές επιχειρήσεις".


...στίχοι κομμένοι από το Υπουργείο Τουρισμού...

The food was scarce, the water crook:
I got fed up and slung my hook.
Returned that night filled up with wine
And next day stopped a ten bob fine.


My pay book was behind to hell.
When pay day came I said ‘Oh well
‘They'll not pay me, I'm sure of that.’
But when they did I smelt a rat.
But next day when the rations came
I woke up to their wily game.
For sooner than lie down and die
I spent my pay on food supply.


So now it looks like even bettin'
A man will soon become a Cretan
And spend his days in deepest gloom
On Adolf Hitler's Isle of Doom.

Η τροφή σπάνια, το νερό μάπα,

μου την βίδωσε και έφυγα.

Γυρνώντας την νύχτα εκείνη μέθυσα

και την επομένη μου δώσαν δέκα σελίνια.

Kαθυστερούσαν να με πληρώσουν

και όταν ερχόταν της πληρωμής η μέρα

έλεγα "σιγά και μη".
Και την επαύριο που οι μερίδες ήρθαν,
κατάλαβα το πονηρό παιχνίδι τους.
Απ' το να κάτσω να ποθάνω,
έδωσα τα λεφτά μου να φάω.

Τώρα μοιάζει σαν να στοιχηματίζει κανείς μονά ζυγά

κάποιος θα γίνει Κρητικός,

και θα περάσει τις μέρες του σε πίκρα βαθιά

στου Χίτλερ το νησί του χαμού.


από
 New Zealand Electronic Text Centre
CHAPTER 3 — GREECE

CHAPTER 4 — CRETE
που έμαθα από την Dodo σε σχόλιο της
σε ανάρτηση μου πριν έξι μήνες για Κάλαντα Ωκεανίας.
Μερικά παραθέματα:

...Greek way of waving goodbye is the opposite to ours, as though they were beckoning the men to come back again....

...As the convoy passed through Kozani German bombers began attacking the town....


...Another swarm of fighters and bombers droned high over the snowy Olympus range and made for Larisa, the sun glinting on their wings and bodies and sending shadows skimming like nightmarish fish along the fields below...

....Alf still remembers the parting words of a rejoicing British major:
You Kiwis would find rations and drink in hell...

...A warm welcome from the friendly Cretans helped them on their way....

Lots of us were enthusiastically welcomed back, because many stories had been going round about us being seen dead or wounded...

Down to the hostile Galatas and the Prison Valley, firing as they came....some meeting death in the air, more killed on landing, a few entangled and slain in the trees.

...To watch them was like watching white handkerchiefs being let go out of a carriage window....

...One German, landing on the cookhouse, was shot by the cook...

...The German paratroop uniform was of greyish blue material....

...Each German carried in his wallet two photographs of Hitler—one in Air Force uniform, coloured, and the other in Army uniform....

...About this time an aircraft dropped roughly printed pamphlets which warned soldiers and civilians against mutilating the German dead, otherwise nearby villages would be burned to the ground. Such mutilations had taken place, for the collecting of ears and noses seemed to be an old Cretan custom....
.......


Our Cretan guide was proudly showing us the contents of a tin which he evidently prized and at first I couldn’t make out what the wriggly looking things were, until he proudly told one and all that these strange objects were human ears, cut from dead Germans! We commented that he would be in a bad way if Jerry ever caught up with him. One of the comedians among the Kiwis said he had wondered what were the chewy bits in the soup....

.... exhausted men, mainly New Zealanders with a large number of Maori who had reverted to their tribal custom of cutting off the enemies ears as war trophies....
...Because of my beard and being a sailor, which was held in high esteem, I was called Jack, and that name stuck with me through the years of captivity.
During that day the skies clouded over ominously, but no rain came. That evening there was a special numbering session in the hut and after the issue of bread and whatever it was we were told that next day we would begin the journey to Germany, to enter Kriegsgefangenschaft.

http://www.naval-history.net/WW2Memoir AndSo07.htm
("Captured at Sfakia, on to Suda Bay, steamer to Salonica".)

So now it looks like betting even
A man will soon become a Cretan
And spend his days in blackest gloom
On Adolf Hitler’s Isle of Doom 
http://www.dva.gov.au/aboutDVA/publications/
commemorative/GandC/Pages/11_adolfHitlers.aspx