Tuesday, February 14, 2023

The situation 25 May

 An order was sent to the 20th Battalion to pull back and line  up on the right of the other groups that were present. The 23rd Battalion was just arriving at the battle scene. Kippenberger thought that needed to strike the Germansnnot just keep adding units to the line. He sent two companies from the 23rd Battalion to retake Galatas. The companies would advance on both sides of the road. Two light tanks would lead the advance. The infantry followed the advance with the men giving cheers and shouts. The men advancing could see flares and tracers. The streets of Galatas had cobble stones. The front tank lost a track. The other tank kept moving forward. Germans in second stories threw grenades. The attacking men reached the city center. In the square, the leading tank was disabled. The attackers were in an intense battle with hand-to-hand fighting and shooting from rifles and submachine guns. The were able to drive out the Germans. The Germans retreated into olive groves west of Galatea. 

The 19th Brigade was just to the west. There were no attacks against them that day. The Australian 2/8th Battalion were to move forward as much as a thousand yards. This was cancelled since the New Zealand attack seemed to be successful. The situation seemed worse during the night. 

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

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