tour.’
Peploe grimaced. ‘Fate has rather conspired against it, hasn’t it? I’ve got his books, but it’s not quite the same. He was a great man, though. It’s sad, very sad.’
‘But at least the rest of you got back,’ said the colonel. ‘That’s something.’
‘Yes,’ agreed Peploe. ‘I was half convinced you’d all come croppers out there.’ He now looked at the bloody mess of Tanner’s side. ‘Is it bad?’
‘No, sir, just a graze. Bloody hurts, though.’
‘Take him to the MO, Peploe, and then you’d better go and see Captain Vaughan.’
‘Sir?’ said Tanner, as he stood up once more. ‘Tonight? Are we counter-attacking?’
‘I’ve had no orders to that effect.’
Tanner’s wound was not serious. An unpleasant gash, but when it had been properly cleaned, treated and bandaged, the MO assured Tanner it should heal quickly. His light-headedness had been compounded by too much sun, extreme fatigue and not enough water. The doctor urged him to drink more and gave him a couple of benzedrine pills. ‘One of those will perk you up in no time,’ he said cheerfully.
Tanner swallowed one with a large draught of water and by the time he and Captain Peploe were back outside in the street he felt decidedly better.
‘Do you want me to come with you to see Captain Vaughan?’ he asked.
‘Perhaps it might not be a bad idea. I’m sure they can spare us both another half-hour.’ Peploe squinted up at the deep blue cloudless sky, then whisked away a fly. ‘Bloody hell, it’s hot.’
A loud boom of guns made both men flinch, and then they heard the tell-tale hum of aero-engines. A high- pitched whine – and Stukas were high above the town, ten of them, peeling off one after the other and diving, sirens screaming. The guns around the harbour and edge of the town thundered, the ground shook, and bombs were crashing down once more.
‘Come on, Jack!’ yelled Peploe. ‘Captain Vaughan can wait. We should hurry back to the gate.’
In the ten minutes it took to reach the company at the wall, the Stukas had gone and were now pasting the area to the east of the town around the airfield. Much of Heraklion lay smothered in a cloud of slowly rolling dust and smoke. Bombs had landed just to the west of the town and several buildings had been destroyed, but as Tanner and Peploe climbed up onto the wall once more, they heard more aircraft, transports this time, and the sky was filling with parachutes.
‘Sir, with your permission, I’m going to try a little experiment,’ said Tanner.
‘What is it?’
‘Green flares, sir. To attract the transports.’
Peploe grinned. ‘All right.’
Tanner grabbed Woodman and Hepworth, hurried across the road to retrieve a Very pistol and green flares from his pack, then ran back out through the Canea Gate and to the house where they had earlier paused. A wave of Junkers was now thundering over so, aiming his Very pistol into the air, Tanner fired. The flare crackled with a green light. He fired another and, sure enough, moments later, four canisters were floating down towards them.
‘Neat trick, that, sir,’ grinned Hepworth.
‘Thank you, Hep. Now we just have to watch where they land and retrieve them.’
Two were beyond daylight reach, but Tanner carefully noted where they had come to rest; they could be collected at dusk. However, the other two landed close by – one in a grove less than fifty yards away, the other drifting down among the houses behind them.
‘Would you bloody believe it?’ laughed Woodman. ‘That’s going to really piss off Jerry, that is.’
‘And we like pissing off Jerry, don’t we?’ said Tanner.
They collected the container from the olive grove, cutting away the silk parachute, folding it up, then dragging the long, rectangular aluminium box back to the safety of the house. It was heavy – too heavy to be easily dragged as far as the wall. ‘Hep,’ said Tanner, ‘run back and get a few of the lads from your section to help pull this in.’
While Hepworth hurried off, Tanner and Woodman retrieved the second canister, which they found lying in an alleyway. Several Cretan boys and old men were already standing around it, but they moved away as Tanner and Woodman approached. This one was lighter and they moved it easily, dragging it down the dusty road to where they had left the other.
‘It’s like Christmas, Jack,’ said Woodman, rubbing his hands. ‘What d’you reckon we’ve got here?’
‘Hmm,’ said Tanner. ‘Rations in the lighter one. Ammo in the other? Let’s have a look.’ There were indeed rations in the first, but also medical supplies.
‘
‘How’s your wound, Jack?’ said Woodman. ‘You can try some Jerry medicine on it and see if it’s any better.’
Tanner grinned. ‘Hold on, Woody,’ he said, pulling out a cardboard box. ‘See what that says?’
‘
Tanner ripped open the box. ‘Tennis Meister! Never heard of that one before. More of a cricket man myself, but I’ll give ’em a go.’ He pocketed four packets and gave the remaining four to Woodman.
‘Finders keepers, eh, Jack?’
Tanner lit one and inhaled. ‘It’s all right,’ he said, breathed out the smoke, then delved back into the canister. There were more cardboard boxes, and Tanner lobbed one with ‘
‘Oh, no,’ said Woodman, opening his. ‘Hard-tack biscuits and tinned fish. Just what I wanted.’ He rolled his eyes.
‘Bad luck,’ chuckled Tanner. ‘I’ve got more beadies in this one, and some chocolate. Bloody hell, there’s even sweets and a couple of cigars. Bloody brilliant rations, these.’
Hepworth arrived back with two other men and Tanner lobbed him a bar of chocolate. ‘Here you go, Hep. This one’s on me.’
‘Cheers, sir,’ said Hepworth. ‘What’s in the other container?’
‘Haven’t got that far. Hold on.’ Tanner opened it, then his face creased into a smile. ‘Beautiful,’ he said. ‘Will you look at that?’ Inside was an MG34 light machine-gun, spare barrels, oilers and two aluminium tins of ammunition.
‘We’ve had one of those before, haven’t we, sir?’ said Hepworth.
Tanner nodded. ‘The barrels get bloody hot, but they can chuck out the bullets, all right.’ He closed the lid again. ‘Anyway, enough of the chat. Time to get them back.’ He stood up and looked at the sky. The Germans had gone, and the guns were quiet once more. It had been a good ruse, firing those green flares, but there was no doubting that many more canisters had fallen further to the west, among the enemy. Presumably more would come the following day. He felt a fly settle on his neck and slapped it, but it buzzed away.
If only they received orders to counter-attack that night. Time was everything, and he felt certain they should attack right away, while they had the chance. He wondered what was holding Brigadier Chappel back. Did he know something, some piece of intelligence, or was it just caution? Tanner shook his head. ‘Iggery, lads,’ he said. ‘Back to the walls.’
Around the same time, Major General Freyberg was holding a conference with his commanders in the Canea sector at the Creforce Headquarters quarry, although Brigadier Vasey had also driven over from Georgioupolis near Rethymno, to report on the situation there. Overnight, the enemy paratroopers at Maleme had occupied the perimeter of the airfield and taken command there. Yet this did not unduly worry Brigadier Hargest, commander of 5th Brigade around Maleme, since he still had two battalions, plus two companies from the 22nd Battalion within shouting distance. Having talked to his divisional commander, Brigadier Puttick, that morning, he had agreed that there was no need to launch a counter-attack on the airfield until dusk. With his guns and infantry all around the south and east of Maleme, there seemed to be little the Germans could do. He would let the Huns fry in the sun all day and finish them off that night.
