Evening star., 1941-05-04

blood-stained American flag out on
the deck.
We were nearly shipWrecked in a
storm on the rocky island of Sas-
sense, the Gibraltar of the Adriatic.
We had to row, soaked to the
skin, all one stormy night through
| mountainous waves when our two
cylinder outboard engine went dead
and high winds made it impossible
| to hoist sail
Finally, We put in at Corfu just
in time for the first aerial bom-
bardment the island had had in
a month. ..- ....-- 10y.
We persuaded Greek authorities
to allow US to set out on the Ionian
Sea aboard Greek food ship. We
| left just after an air attack wrecked
a destroyer lying in the port and
made a shambles of the port au-
thority offices and a nearby hotel.
For three nights we lodged
through mine fields, circled around
islands and pushed toward the
Greek mainland under the cover
of darkness.
For three days we hid in woods
while our 200-ton schooner was an
chored out Of the way in a cove.
One day We spent hiding on the
Island of Leukas, watching Italian
bombers circling over nearby Ithaca
birthplace of Ulysses.
Another day we hid on top of an
island already occupied by the Ger
mans, in an ancient monastery
where the monks fed us goats
| cheese, raisinS. almonds and honey,
| then hid us until dusk.
The moment our schooner touched
her nose to the wharf at Petras, air
raid sirens began to scream. We
scrambled over the side of the YES
sci and made for shelter beneath
l2-foot blocks of concrete. Stukas
roared into sight and bombed a
hospital ship loaded with 5000
wounded Greek soldiers
From our hideout we could see
destruction wrought by the raid of
the night before. Dive bombers had
| attacked the water front while TOO
refugees were attempting to dis
embark from flat-bottomed boats.
Seventy had been killed and their
mattresses and bedding still lay
scattered on the quay, blood soaked
and torn to shreds by bullets.
Later, while 100 to 200 dead were
being taken from the hospital ship,
we hid from another raid in shell
ter dug out of mountainside and
labeled built with American help
We fled on from Petras toward
Athens in a Greek troop train along
a high cliff overhanging the sea
Suddenly a Messerschmitt roared
alongside the train with its two
machine guns roaring.
Men riding on the top of the train
tumbled to the ground. Those of
us inside sprawled on the floor. I
got one bullet in the leg and White
got two serious wounds in the thigh
Cars Sprayed With Bullets.
AS hundreds of soldiers scrambled
up the mountainside, Hill and !
struggled to get White to safety
under the train while the plane
roared back and forth spraying cars
with bullets.
What possessions we had saved
from Belgrade we lost when the
trains engineer suddenly put on
steam and left the dead and wound
ed behind. We carried White to a
road and hailed an R. A. F. truck
loaded in the wounded and sped to
Corinth.
But while we sped, so did the
Luftwaffe. AS we pulled into town
Stukas dive-bombed a 30-car hos
pital train, setting fire to many
coaches which soon were a flaming
pyre.
All afternoon gritty volunteers
carried stretchers loaded with hor-
ribly mangled men through the
streets to the little dressing station
where plucky Greek girls tried to
do the work of doctors-for there
were no doctors here and no time
| to dress mere machine gun bullet
wounds when men were dying by
the dozens.
The parade of wounded men on
stretchers went in one hospital door,
4 a parade of dead men on stretchers
came out through another.
We persuaded the r. A. F. to lend
us truck and pressed on. At Argos
all seemed calm at last. The lit
tie city had never been bombed,
but before Whites serious and my
1 minor wounds could be dressed, the