Crete 1941

On the night of the evacuation from Heraklion, the Royal Navy took off the first 1,000 Allied troops from Sphakion in four destroyers. Meanwhile, the Allied main force continued on its trek south, covered in turn by 19th Australian Brigade and the 5th New Zealand Brigade. The troops, weary and thirsty, trudged up the mountain road from Vrysses encountering one ridge after another, but were finally greeted by the sight of the Askifou Plain, a fertile, flat-bottomed valley of fields, meadows and small orchards. By this point, the German advance was led by the two battalions of the 100th Gebirgsjäger Regiment. It was halted by a determined rearguard action by the two Australian battalions under Vasey, the 23rd New Zealand Battalion and the last three light tanks of the Hussars. The action at Babali Hani had made the Germans wary of taking risks, but with the end now in sight the mountain troops had adopted a somewhat light-hearted approach. Many had discarded their winter jackets and trousers, wearing odd items of British tropical clothing, which occasionally caused confusion. A somewhat bizarre situation occurred when the Germans took the village of Askifou and raided the richest house in the village, owned by a newly married couple. The Gebirgsjäger proceeded to wear the new wife’s embroidered knickers and petticoats on their heads, to act as improvised protection from the baking sun.