After fighting the Germans for some six hours, the 2/8th Battalion was still holding on, although they had been hit hard on the left. They were lucky to still hold the heights after the fighting that had occurred so far As we have seen, the Rangers had pulled back about two miles. They blocked the road at that point. One bad thing was that the 1/2nd Anti-Tank Gun had five of six guns abandoned after losing protection. The 2/8th position had degenerated into a "deep salient".
The 2nd RHA now only had "a platoon of New Zealand machine gunners" for infantry support. The commander at the Australian brigade headquarters kept insisting that the Rangers had not pulled back. The truth was that they had now pulled back a second time to "the pre-arranged rearguard position at Rodona."
The last of the Greek Dodecanese had left by 4pm, leaving the 2/8th Battalion in a weaker position. The battalion now was receiving German machine gun fire from higher ground on the right. The left side now was receiving German machine gun fire on the battalion headquarters. They now had lost phone connection to the brigade due to the Rangers pulling out.
By 5:30pm, some 500 German infantry, some tanks, had run into the 2/8th Battalion position along the entire front. The left company in particular was in trouble. This is based on the account in "Greece Crete and Syria" by Gavin Long.
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