23 May on Crete

All hope of holding the airfield at Maleme was given up. Once that had been decided, the men of the New Zealand Division had moved into a defensive posture. Freyberg and Puttick met at 11am. They decided that the 5th Brigade would be in reserve. The 4th Brigade would have the units of the 10th Brigade. They would now hold the right oh the new lime. The Australians of the 19th Brigade would hold the left of the line. They would be west of Perivolia. In the aternoon, the 2/8th Battalion move forward to the creek on the west of Perivolia. The 2/7th was there already. The 2nd Greek held a line to the southwest. They were the left flank. 

All the soldiers near Platanias pulled back behind the 4th New Zealand Brigade. The few vehicles carried the hravy weapons and the wounded. The isolated force at Retimo were handicapped by the lack of ciphers. The ciphers at Heraklion had been destroyed on 20 May. On 23 May, Freyberg ordered one company of the 1st Randers to take two anti-tank guns to the road to Retimo. That did not work well because there was a strong group of Germans on the road. 

This is based on the account in "Greece, Crete, and Syria" by Gavin Long.