Evening star., 1941-05-26
Nozis Penetrate Allied Lines
As Planes Lond Tanks in Crete;
II Cruisers Sunk, Axis Claims
New Zealand Forces
Attack; Additional
'Chutists Arrive
BACKGROUND

BACKGROUND
German inudSion OF Crete, last
refuge OF Greeks and their British
allies, Who lost fight in the
Balkans, began last Tuesday
NTH Nazt planes and gliderS
dropping thousands OF parachute
troops on Eastern Mediterranean
island Royal Air Force Nth
dratOn to preUent its destruction
and Germans faced only ground
fire in their landings. British
feet opposing landings by sea.
BY the Associated Press.
CAIRO, Egypt, May 26.-Ger-
man forces on Crete, reinforced
by air-borne tanks, have pene-
.trated British positions around
Nazi-held Malemi Airport, west
of Canea, and fierce fighting is
raging, with New zealanders
stubbornly counterattacking, the
British announced today.
A Near East communique said the
Germans, battling desperately to
broaden this major foothold on the
embattled island, lashed out at the
British lines under cover of an in
tense air bombardment.
The communique did not mention
tanks in connection with this action,
but unofficial British sources said
the Germans had managed to land
some by plane,
British marines have joined the
defenders of the island, informed
sources said. Suggestions that this
meant the British were landing
strong reinforcements by sea were
not confirmed officially.
In London Reuters, British
news agency, dispatch from Cairo
said there were signs the Ger
mans are running short of para
chute troops. What these signs
were che dispatch did not say0
,-. More Air Reinforcements.
The Nazi assault started after addi-
tional air-borne reinforcements had
been landed, the war bulletin said,
adding that the imperial troops in
f1icted heavy casualties on the Ger
mans.
At British-held Gambia and Re-
timo, where heavy fighting has de-
veloped in the seven-day battle
of Crete, the official announcement
said the situation remained un-
changed.
British sources said that although
the Germans have landed tanks on
Crete, they have not yet been re-
ported in contact with the defenders
of the Greek island.
The battle ragged through its sew
enth day. British observers had
seen hopeful signs in earlier reports
OF a substantial reduction in the
number of Nazi parachute and glider
reinforcements and the statement
of a high military official that Il
think it will be possible to hold
Crete"
Saturday Landings Reduced.
After terrific German bombings of
Canea, Retimo and Gambia, the
islands principal cities, the British
general headquarters declared last
night that German chutists con-
tinued to land Saturday-but on a
Substantially reduced scale"
The announcement said the fierc-
est fighting was in the northwest of
al prit
forces we're reported to have fol-
lowed up intensive shelling of Nazl-
held positions at Malemi airdrome
with attacks in which hand-to-hand
fighting ragged between Malemi and
Canea, Just west of Suda Bay.
Other German footholds near
Gambia and Retimo were reported
under continuing attack as the
British attempted to pinch out
forces landed there from the air.
The report of a reduction in the
German parachute landings came
after the R. A. F. re-entered the
fight, from which British planes
had been withdrawn last week be-
cause of inadequate airfields on the
island.
During the week end the British
reported sending long-range planes
some of them bombers with added
armament - from North Africa
desert airdomes in an effort to fight
off the Nazi aerial troop-carriers.
The belief that the British could
hold the island was expressed last
night by Maj. Gen. T. B. Haywood,
chief of the British military mission
to the Greeks, who came here with
King George II of Greece.
Gen. Haywood said the Germans
were finding it difficult to reinforce
the troops they had landed and
that the British and Dominion
troops were showing up well in the
hand-to-hand conflict.
Reports reaching here compared
the bombing of the islands prin-
cipal cities to the devastation of
Rotterdam when the Germans struck
into the Low Countries last spring
Greeks and natives of Crete were
said to have escaped heavy casual
ties, however, partly because of the
deep caves they could use as shelters
and partly because most of the pop
ulation of the cities had been moved
out in advance.
British sources took cheer from
(See CRETE, Page A-5.)