Rupert McCall

There on the ship – on that whispering ship
The abyss of uncertainties rest
There on the ship – in the night’s eerie grip
His heart leaping forth from his chest
He senses adventure but riding the tide
Is the ripple of chaos to come
His lips hold a prayer that inspires his mind
To be sparing a thought for his Mum
Khaki surrounds him in similar veins
Character ready to flow
Now the landscape is forming – the moment is nigh
Ninety years ago

There on the beach – on that desolate beach
Dawn filters through as they land
There on the beach some would not even reach
Nothing unfolded as planned
Running and falling – confusion defined
He scrambles and clambers and claws
The ridges rain venom - he somehow survives
But his innocence dies on those shores
From the dearth of a trench – through the fly ridden stench
Shines the grin with a knockabout glow
Where the slouch hat is worn, a new species is born
Ninety years ago
 

Here in my heart – with the beat of my heart
I can’t help but tremble and shiver
Here in my heart – it's so hard to depart
From the pride that these spirits deliver

For the courage – the kinship – the duty – the dove
The flame of our freedom ascends

There on the hill – that un-winnable hill
He is scared but by God, he’s committed
There on the hill, so much young blood would spill
The word "sacrifice" tragically fitted
In protecting their homeland, the Turks never budge
The high ground is theirs to defend
Death blows a breeze that puts ice in his knees
He prepares now to meet with his end
For a moment, the sky turns a calm shade of blue
And with that, the commander yells "GO!"
He is hit and it burns – then to peace he returns
Ninety years ago
 
There on his grave – on that lost lonely grave
With the others that grimly abound
There on his grave – wooden crosses stand brave
An ANZAC lies under the ground
Australians – New Zealanders – brothers in arms
Mates on the same team today
"Goodbye and God bless cobber"  so say the words
In a strength we could never betray
And this on the face of a small humble stone
That in winter, is lashed by the snow
"Please cry no tears" he was seventeen years
Ninety years ago

Landing on Crete 1941

My dad was born 23 July 1917. Geoff Coles, Sgt Royal Marines Commandos was 24 when he wrote this journal at the start of the battle of Crete 5 May to 6 June 1941. The loss from this battle was killed and missing, Axis: 3,986 Allies 1,751. Dad survived the war and died in 1981.

We sailed from Port Said in the ‘City of Canterbury’ a proper troop carrier, a fine ship. Sighted the island on the third day, saw three Hurricanes on patrol and watched them chase off two Iti planes. As soon as they were out of sight two more came out of the clouds and one came straight for us and the other went for a store ship following us astern.

The one who came for us was surprised when about 30 Lewis guns and Bren machine guns let rip, and quite a number of bursts took effect. He sheered off rapidly & although damaged, managed to get clear alright. The other was luckier he dropped an aerial torpedo which caught the store ship in the port bow and gave her a terrific blast. This ship only had two Lewis guns to defend herself with. We had to leave her astern but we afterwards heard that she was beached & some of the cargo saved.

We expected plenty of air activity the following morn. & boats crews & guns crews were closed up all night but had no raids the next morning. Sailed into Suda Bay about 9 or 10 o.c. docked & were ashore before midday. Suda Bay a beautiful spot hills along both sides & a valley at the end of bay & also to the right near our battery.

Marched out to some olive groves about two miles out of town. While on the march some Aussies who were leaving cheered us up by telling us we were welcome to the “isle of the doomed”. Still although our boys remembered it afterwards we were too taken up with the thought of action to be disheartened at the time.

There was plenty of green vegetation & fruit trees grapes etc. We bivouacked under the olive trees for several nights while waiting for our guns and stores.

we chummed up with the Aussies & found they had come from Greece & been dumped on the island & were waiting to be taken off and rekitted. I went into the village one evening and bought a bottle of cherry brandy us sergeants had a good night.

We finally moved off on Monday evening back to the docks & went on board a covert. The other section were not so lucky & had to travel in an M.L.C. troop carrier. We sailed from Suda about 80 miles round the island to Candia or Iraklion. Candia is the biggest town on Crete. 

We landed about 2 o. c. in the morning & went out to the olive groves to sleep until daylight. When daylight came we were surprised to see people (Cretians) coming out from the caves round about & getting ready for the days work.

Just before six I heard a plane over & when it came into sight was surprised to see it was a flying pencil Dc 17? There was absolutory no opposition it just circled round looking for a target, dropped his eggs & scrammed. Our lads were riled about this & the main idea was “wait until we get our guns”.

After this we went for breakfast with some Black Watch then marched back into town. When marching into town the whole section was singing all the way the only time they sung while on the island.

Started unloading ammunition but were soon packed into lorries & sent off to our gun site. This was the first sight we had of our guns & instruments. The site was in the centre of a freshly cut corn field absolutely no natural camouflage at all. We set up the guns & instruments & were ready for action by midday.

We got our action at 2.o.c. Five meschersmitz   ……. Seen coming round Crocodile Island. This Island was facing us across the sea to our front, on our left was a big prison where we were bivouacked. On our right was a Barracks, in the distance the airdrome.

They came our way & we fired a few shots which were pretty good considering it was the first effort for nearly 6 months they then came in close & split up & the order “open sights” was given. We drove them off. We kept going getting things up to scratch until we then made our way up to the prison for supper.

While having supper a warning sounded & we dashed out to man the guns & ran right into low flying Heinkels machine gunning. This was our first taste of strafing & we didn’t like it a bit. He was using incendiary bullets & all you could see was flying flashes all around you & twin streams of fire coming from these planes. It was practically dark & it was a brilliant fire work display.

The next day we found the fields looking as though they had been ploughed up, he must have used thousands of bullets. When they had cleared off we went up & started work. We worked for 4 days & nights right through filling sandbags & digging slip trenches by night & manning the guns from dawn till half hour after dusk.

Second day there we were getting ready to close up at 3.30 am & a warning went off. We made a dash for the guns but could not see anything.  For an hour we were heavily bombed roughly 90 to a 100 dropped in our sector. Queer sensation you could hear the whistle of every bomb he was dropping some in sticks of 15 some 17 some 5 some 9.

We had several near misses one dropped close & I afterward found the edge of the crater 4 ft away. I was in a shallow slip trench at the time. We afterwards used this hole for putting in a water tank which was just as well because we would have had to dig it, so really Gerry did us a good turn.

We had three or 4 days early morning bombing but not much damage done. Most damage done to nerves. During the days we had several fighter & bomber attacks averaging about 12 hours each day. After 4 days we got some sleep & then managed to get a few hours sleep at nights.

End of notes

When the German paratrooper’s airborne invasion occurred my dad and many others were cut off and spent some time living off the land before making it back through the enemy lines in time to be evacuated.

Ian Coles (Sunflower)