Escape from Crete

Discussion in 'General' started by colin holmes, Jul 13, 2009.

  1. colin holmes

    colin holmes Junior Member

    My Father James served in the Royal Marines throughout WW2 & was stationed on Crete in 1941. My dad never talked much about the war but I remember asking him once if he had every come close to being killed.
    He told me that durin the invation of Crete he was in was part of a squad carrying out a night patrol in a village. They had been told that there was no Germans in the area. The Sargent leading the sqaud was suffering with toothache so he got his head down in an empty house and squad agreed to pick him up on their return.
    This left my Dad at the head of the squad, as he turned a corner he came face to face with a German Machine Gun nest, he threw himself back around in the direction he had come from and as he did the machine gun took away the coner of the wall. The sqaud then used grenades to take out the machine gun. Allthough un-hurt he said his legs had turned to jelly.
     
  2. Sven Hassel

    Sven Hassel Junior Member

    Thanks for that. My father is from Iraklion Crete. Although he was a boy, he remembers a bit from those days. Like your dad though, he doesn't want to talk about it much.
     

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