The withdrawal from Vevi in the face of the German attack

 General Mackay was working the withdrawal from the Vevi position. He found out from the "last Greek staff officer" that the Dodecanese regiment had more men than he expected. General Mackay learned that the Greek regiment had about 4,500 men, not 3,000. "He ordered the Greeks to start withdrawing at 3pm". He gave the Greeks some 30 3-ton vehicles to use to move their "sick and wounded". They thought that they had some 1,200 sick and wounded men. General Mackay issued orders to ther Australian 19th Brigade. The 2/4th and 2/8th Battalions were ordered to be picked up by vehicles "behind the Vevi position". The plan was for the Australian battalions to "start thinning out at 7:30pm on 12 April". They would load on vehicles at 8pm. The Rangers were sitting across the road. They would block the road to protect the withdrawing men. All the men were to be on vehicles by 4am on 13 April. Part of the armored brigade and "a company of the Rangers" would move to a place at Radona and Sotir. The aim was to be on the road to the south to protect "the main withdrawal". "The rest of the armored brigade was to a spot about three miles south of Ptolemais."  "The force at Sotir then would withdraw through Ptolemais. "The plan was that command of the 1/Rangers, the 2nd RHA, and the New Zealand machine gunners" would be commanded by Brigadier Charrington, the armored brigade commander. This is based on the account in "Greece Crete and Syria" by Gavin Long.