Crete Article in London paper

[jerry]

Travelling home today on the London Underground I came across this little article in the London Evening Standard;

Fortunes of Waugh amid defeat in Crete.

Today is the 70th anniversary of a military defeat recalled by Evelyn Waugh in his novel 'Officers and Gentlemen. On June 1, 1941, German paratroops took Crete, and Waugh was one of the survivors who escaped on a boat while many of his fellow soldiers were taken prisoner.
Waugh wrote in his novel that it didn't make sense leaving brave troops behind and records the following snatch of conversation: " The General's off in a flying boat tonight.... Not staying with the sinking ship."
"There was a good deal of bitterness among the PoWs about who got off and who was left behind to finish in Germany," says John Hall Spencer, whose book, The Battle for Crete, is just republished in paperback.
"The Germans won but at a very heavy cost. The Duke of Gloucester has just been in Crete to commemorate these events"

A nice timely piece that I wished to share.

[les hearn]

thanks jerry well spotted

[dagda]

Nice One Jerry!