Thompson - ANZAC Fury: The Bloody Battle of Crete 1941

Born in Melbourne and educated in Brisbane, Peter Thompson now lives in London after a successful career as a journalist in the UK. His most recent books are Pacific Fury , The Battle for Singapore and, with Robert Macklin, The Big Fella: The Rise and Rise of BHP Billiton , which won the Blake Dawson Prize for Business Literature in 2010.

Anzac Fury a companion volume to Pacific Fury , published in 2008 commemorates the 65th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe when thousands of Anzac prisoners of war captured in Greece and Crete were released from captivity. It is 70 years since the 2nd AIF arrived in the Middle East to begin their extraordinary adventures in battles against the German and Italian armies in North Africa, mainland Greece and Crete prior to the outbreak of the Pacific War.

The immense contribution made by the New Zealand Division to the new Anzac Corps gives the book an exciting added dimension. Wherever possible, I have combined the personal memories of Anzac combatants with combat action. I have also returned to the original sources of many existing works on the battles of Bardia, Tobruk, Greece and Crete, including the war diaries and histories of units involved in those encounters, the official reports of commanding officers and the memoirs and/or biographies of the main participants.

I am enormously grateful to Louise Morris, Lieutenant Michael Clarkes daughter, for her recollections about her father and for permission to quote from diaries and letters in his extensive archive at her home in Tallarook, Victoria, and from his self-published memoir, My War .

I am similarly grateful to Barbara Daniels, daughter of Lieutenant John Peck, an Anzac soldier who joined the Special Operations Executive (SOE) while on the run from the Germans and assisted the escape of hundreds of Allied prisoners of war from Italy. In 1950, John Peck wrote an account of the strictly personal experiences of a young man caught up in unusual circumstances of war after being in action as an infantryman in Libya, Greece and the Battle of Crete. It was, he explained, almost a diary which could not be written at the time and reflects the immediacy of the events and impressions without the benefits of hindsight, explanations or literary merit. It is a fascinating and insightful document and I have quoted extracts from it in this work.

Special thanks go to Dr Sally Vickery of Brisbane for permission to quote from family records concerning her mother, Sister Mabel Johnson, and Mabels cousin, Sir Charles Spry, Australias post-war spymaster and keeper of the nations secrets.

I would like to thank the following people for interviews: Joan Bright Astley, Les Cook, Miriam Dillon, Keith Horton Hooper, Watty McEwan, Anthony Madden, Arthur Midwood, Desmond Morris, Ann Robertson, Bill Rudd, Norman Simper, Harry Spencer and Katrina Swift. The Imperial War Museum Sound Archive, London, provided audio interviews with the following: Admiral Desmond McCarthy (HMS Ajax ), Leo Brown (HMS Ajax ), Herbert Rawlings (HMS Barham ), Albert Pitman (HMS Barham ), Adrian Holloway (HMAS Nizam ), Frederick Winterbotham (Ultra), Ken Taylor (HMS Formidable ), Major-General Michael Forrester (Queens Royal Regiment), Denis Vellacott (RAF), Lord (John) Harding (General OConnors chief of staff), General Sir Richard OConnor, Richard Green (HMS Hasty ), Frederick De Fries (HMS Formidable ) and Peter Wilkinson (SOE).

Anzac Fury also commemorates the outstanding service of Royal Australian Navy ships attached to the Mediterranean Fleet, particularly those involved in the Battles of Cape Spada and Matapan, and to the heroic crews of all ships that took part in the extremely hazardous and sometimes fatal evacuations of the Anzac Corps from mainland Greece and Crete. In all naval matters, I have consulted Lieutenant-Commander Mackenzie Gregory, RAN (retired) and am most grateful for his guidance.