page_title: Fred Baker (soldier)
section_title: Greece and Crete
hierarchical_section_title: Fred Baker (soldier) / Military career / Second World War / Greece and Crete
caption_attribution_description: English: Captain Frederick Baker (3rd from left) with members of 28 (Maori) Battalion. Captain F Baker with members of 28 (Maori) Battalion. New Zealand. Department of Internal Affairs. War History Branch :Photographs relating to World War 1914-1918, World War 1939-1945, occupation of Japan, Korean War, and Malayan Emergency. Ref: DA-14214-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand.
context_page_description: Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Baker DSO was a New Zealand soldier who served in the Second World War, leading the 28th Battalion from 13 July to 2 November 1942. He was injured at the commencement of the Second Battle of El Alamein and his wounds were such that he was repatriated back to New Zealand. He later worked in New Zealand's public service, leading the Rehabilitation Department which assisted servicemen returning from the war into civilian life, by providing them with finance, training and housing.
context_section_description: As the battalion trained at its base in Helwan in preparation for the battalion's impending move to Greece, reinforcements from New Zealand arrived to fill the ranks, depleted by illness. Baker was placed in command of the excess troops, which had been formed into a reinforcement company. When the battalion arrived in Greece on 27 March 1941, Baker's company was responsible for the battalion's advance base outside of Athens. Attached to the 5th Infantry Brigade, the battalion made a good account of itself defending its assigned portion of the Olympus Pass against elements of the 9th Panzer Division but were forced to withdraw from its positions on 17 April. Baker, having been tasked by Brigadier Edward Puttick, the commander of the 4th Infantry Brigade, with the collection of stragglers, was captured by German paratroopers. He managed to escape and, falling in with a truckload of Greeks, returned to Puttick's headquarters. He was once more ordered to collect stragglers (this time with infantry support) and direct them to the Porto Rafti beaches in preparation for embarkation for Crete.
  On Crete, Baker was assigned to the battalion's D Company. He participated in the various defensive actions around Maleme airfield when the Germans launched their attack. Withdrawing from Maleme, Baker led a mixed force of men including infantry from 20th Battalion in an attack to recapture a bridge held by the Germans, but was repulsed. He was later appointed commander of A Company, and was wounded in defending a German counterattack. He led a party of walking wounded to an embarkation point from where they were evacuated to Egypt on 31 May.
caption: Baker, a captain at the time, sitting (3rd left) with other members of the 28th Battalion
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