The situation in the Middle Bast might have been worse, he declared, but for the brilliant resistance put up by the British troops.
It is agreed that Britisti casualties in Crete' were heavy, but the safe evacuation of 15,000 men under severe enemy pressure Is considered a remarkable achievement in itself.
'A British naval vessel slipped stow-into a Middle East mainland port on May 29 bearing the first contingent of battle-weary troops from Crete. They were New Zealanders, and their cheerfulness was undiminished despite having faced for two months the full power of the German onslaught in Greece and Crete.
With the darkness other troop-laden ships followed, with the skirl of highland pipes coming across the waters amid the cheers of men whose spirits cannot be broken.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.