"It is one thing to take off 17,000 men with side-arms and another to land them in fighting condition with guns and material. It is a wonderful thing that as many as 17,000 got away in face of the enemy's over-"whelming command of the air. We should not regret the battle of Crete. The fighting there attained a severity and fierceness which the Germans bad not previously encountered in their walk through Europe. In killed, wounded and missing and prisoners we lost about 15,000 men. This takes no account of the losses of the Greeks and Cretans who fought with ihe utmost bravery and suffered so heavily.
"On the other hand, from the móst careful and precise enquiries, we believe that about 5,000 Germans were drowned in trying to cross the sea &nd at least 12,000 were killed or wounded on the island itself. In addition the air force, which the Germans employed, sustained extraordinary losses, about 180 fighter and bomber aircraft being destroyed and 250 troop-carrying "planes.
"This, when our air strength is overtaking the enemy's, is important.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.