It seems that the bridge being demolished at "the north side of the River Crna" had slowed the German advance into Greece. Early on 9 April 1941, General Mackay and "his chief staff officer" met with a Greek general Karassos "at Kozani". The meeting lasted three hours, partly due to the need to rely on interpreters. General Mackay had thought that the meeting was wasted time, because he had not learned anything. The British increased their anti-tank gun support to the Greeks "from a troop to a battery". During the day, the 1st Armoured Brigade and two battalions of the 19th Australian Brigade "arrived and began deploying". The 6th New Zealand Brigade got "warning orders". Men had traveled all night in conditions that meant that there was no way to sleep. The men therefore had arrived very tired. Where they were, they had to deal with snow without any shelter. On top of that, the men then had to move to new positions at Vevi which were only accessible by marching on foot. The men were forced to carry everything they took, so that made their situation even worse.
A feature of Vevi was that the Monastir valley narrowed. To the immediate west, there were "steep hills". To the east, there were two lakes that "sat across the path over the foothills". Through the pass was a "winding course through a defile". The path was lined with steep hills with "no trees". While this was a good defensive position, the units had to be spread wide. To support each other, they would need to "patrol in the gaps". The hillsides were steep and lacked tracks. That meant that the men would have to carry "weapons and supplies". In the center were the artillery, consisting of medium guns, field guns, and machine guns. They had a platoon of New Zealand machine gunners. They were with the 2/8th Battalion (Australians). This is based on the account in "Greece Crete and Syria" by Gavin Long.
No comments:
Post a Comment