W Group being loaded onto ships

During the night of 24 to 25 April saw the  frst group of W Group loaded onto ships. Some 6th Division Australian officers were in charge. The 5th New Zealand Brgade Group  were loaded onto the amphibious transport Glengyle and the cruiser Calcutta using two landing craft. About five thousand men were in the Glengyle and seven hundred in the Calcutta. The ships got underway at about 2am. 

Other groups were loaded onto ships at Navplion and Tolos Bay. The staff at Tolos were Australian and the staff at Navplion were British. The men embarked were from base units and were not well-organized. Early on 24 April, Navplion was packed with "men and vehicles". And this was just a "small town". They had only planned for five thousand men at Nzvplion, but there were actually seven to eight thousand present. At  about 10:30pm. Then there was a major incident when the Ulster Prince grounded in the harbour entrance. Some 6,600 men were loaded onto the Glenearn, a cruiser Phoebe, destroyers Stuart and Voyager, and the sloop Hyacinth. No one got off at Tolos. 

They attempted to load men at Piraeus, but it turned out badly. "The large yacht Hellas" loaded men but was bombed and capsized. Any where from 500  to 742 were lost. 

Allen Group traveled from Megara to Argos. Some men crossed the Corinth bridge. There was concern that there could be a German attack. 

The embarkation from "Attica and Piraeus" was slowed by the perception that they needed to protect against German attacks. Because of W Groups involvement, things were disorganized. All of 19th Brigade were loaded from beaches. At Corinth, air attacks were a problem. There was eventually a paratroop attack. General Freyberg was left as the only general in Greece. 

Loading at Rafina and Porto Rafti went well. The later attemts at loading were bombed and were pretty much failures. This is based on the account in "Greece, Crete, and Syria"  by Gavin Long.