Posted on 04/16/2006 10:42:40 PM PDT by DieHard the Hunter
The Battle of Crete took place in late May 1941, when 30,000 Allied troops, including 7700 New Zealanders, plus 12,000 Greek soldiers – driven from Greece by the invading Germany forces – hurriedly dug in against an assault that they knew was as inevitable as it would be ferocious, says the Taranaki Daily News.
The Mediterranean island, with its port and airfield, was of huge strategic value – to shore up the German hold on Greece, to protect the Romanian oil fields the Germans had already grabbed, and to launch attacks against Allied bases in the Middle East.
On May 20, the sky was darkened by hundreds of Luftwaffe fighters, bombers and paratroop-carrying aircraft.
The following days were indeed bitter and bloody, with no quarter given by either side and frequent hand-to-hand fighting.
The battle could have gone either way, with old soldiers and historians still debating whether alternative decisions might have yielded a different result.
However, it ended in 16,000 Allied troops killed, wounded or captured – although as many more were evacuated over four nights to Egypt.
Among the casualties were 671 New Zealanders killed, 967 wounded and 2180 taken prisoner.
There were also about 6500 Germans killed or wounded.
In short, it was a brief and vicious campaign in which the Allied troops were exhausted and low on food and munitions.
In this mayhem, soldiers with the qualities of Alfred Clive Hulme were invaluable.
The former Motueka farm labourer was either mad or utterly fearless – and probably both.
During the fighting he learned of his brother's death, and he was tormented by the accidental grenade-slaughter of a Cretan family in a farmhouse basement where the New Zealander thought a German sniper had hidden.
Clive Hulme killed 33 Germans on Crete, frequently on solo missions against snipers – and sometimes wearing a German camouflage smock.
He became an instant legend among his fellow Kiwi soldiers, incalculably lifting their flagging morale, and was eventually awarded the Victoria Cross for "leadership, initiative, skill endurance and most conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty".
The niceties of whether or not he should have donned the item of disguise was very far from not only Clive Hulme's mind, but that of his mates and officers – many of whom witnessed his exploits in amazement.
He was hero-worshipped when he returned, wounded, to New Zealand – with little need to embellish his extraordinary bravery and deadly determination.
In 2006 New Zealand, he has been branded a war criminal.
Auckland University lecturer and director of the Centre for Peace Studies Peter Wills says Sergeant Hulme's actions were "unsanctioned murder" and New Zealand should apologise to the families of the slain Germans.
Even discounting Mr Wills' worthy agenda in opposing international violence, this revisionism is bizarre and pointless.
Clive Hulme knew he would be summarily shot by the Germans if he had been caught in disguise.
In the morality of the day, and under the soldiers' ruling code of conduct, his actions have already been well judged.
"Pointless to put 2006 peace-time values on 1941 battle bravery"
Somebody is under the impression that 2006 is "peace-time?"
> Somebody is under the impression that 2006 is "peace-time?"
Our Prime Minister Helen Clark is on record as having proclaimed that New Zealand exists in "an incredibly benign strategic environment."
She-who-must-be-Obeyed, Herself, hath proclaimed it: therefore it be so. /sarc
Grotesque nonsense. I can just imagine how long Wills would have lasted, on Crete or in Greece. Perhaps instant desertion, then volunteering as a 'field whore, Class III' for the Wehrmacht? Off topic, I tried to buy Kippenberger's Infantry Brigadier from a Kiwi used bookseller this week, but just too expensive.
The clown Wills is trying for 10-15 minutes of fame by defaming a real hero. Absolutely nothing wrong with wearing an enemy uniform in order to kill enemy soldiers. Just don't get caught. Meantime Wills has demonstrated his absolute worthlessness and should be hung.
Wanted you to know after reading Piper's thread where you had a few problems here and there, that the whole thing seemed to me to be a misunderstanding and that you explained yourself well. It was obvious to me you are a supporter of what America stood for and what many of us hope she still stands for. Piper and I go way back and I, for one, am glad to have you on our side.
This is how socialism is winning. If you control the past, you can control the future. First thing to destroy a culture go after there hero’s. Make good bad, and bad good. Right is wrong, just like 1984.
Indeed..
> Piper and I go way back and I, for one, am glad to have you on our side.
Thanks for that -- I would not voluntarily live in a world where there was no United States of America.
It is also refreshing to see that so many of you in the US feel passionately about America enough to enter into heated debates in America's defense. It bodes well for the future of mankind, in my view.
Cheers from DownUnder
"DieHard"
> I tried to buy Kippenberger's Infantry Brigadier from a Kiwi used bookseller this week, but just too expensive.
It's a great book, a classic. I'll keep an eye open for you for an inexpensive copy if you like...
> The clown Wills is trying for 10-15 minutes of fame by defaming a real hero
I *dread to think* what Wills would have to say about Charles Upham VC with Bar...
One of only three soldiers ever to receive the VC *twice*: first in Crete, then in North Africa.
C'mon already! He used to *chase* enemy transport vehicles on foot, and then *throw grenades* into the back! Unfair! Unfair! They were *fleeing*! He should have let them get away!!! /sarc
Please do, and I very much appreciate your kind offer. PS in reference to your second post, I hope to visit Upham's grave on my next trip to Christchurch. Regards, Byron
as director for peace studies Peter Wills has missed his calling, he's about to start W.W.3 on F.R.
> as director for peace studies Peter Wills has missed his calling, he's about to start W.W.3 on F.R.
Next it will be Sgt York, then Audie Murphy. One by one, the heroes of the past will be dismantled and reconstructed.
I read "1984" in, well er, 1984, just like everyone else. I looked at the world around me and said "naw! Never happen!"
Sadly, I was wrong. The truth was that Orwell was about 25 years ahead of his time.
Yup. Without trivializing your statement, that is exactly what happens in our culture with a movie like "Brokeback Mountain"...you need to deconstruct the icons and heroes that currently exist for a society. (We all know they weren't really homosexual COWBOYS, but you know what I mean.)
These people need to read Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom". The book illustrates why so many idiots fall prey to the siren song of socialism. They have for decades, and still do, even though it has failed everywhere it has been tried.
BTW...I found Crete an interesting battle, because of what it did to Germany's Paratroopers...very well trained and so on, but they were completely decimated by that action, and they never were able to retrain paratroopers to that level again. Kind of analagous to the Japanese pilots, who were very good at the beginning of the war because they had, in some cases, years of combat experience in China. That, and the Generals lost the nerve to use their paratroopers as...well...paratroopers. They used them as ground based shock troops after that.
I sure am glad the Kiwis and Aussies were allied with my country (USA) in WWII...apparently the Japanese had little respect for the American fighting individual, and thought Americans depended too much on excessive firepower to get the job done...what do they know...they lost, right? But they feared the Aussies and Kiwis!
> I sure am glad the Kiwis and Aussies were allied with my country (USA) in WWII...apparently the Japanese had little respect for the American fighting individual, and thought Americans depended too much on excessive firepower to get the job done...what do they know...they lost, right? But they feared the Aussies and Kiwis!
I hope by this post you are "taking the P*ss", as we say DownUnder.
I admire and respect America and all She stands for. New Zealand was damn'ed lucky to have America as an Ally, looking after our South Pacific interests: because during the Pacific war, all of our men (Kiwis and Ozzies) were in Italy and North Africa fighting and killing Nazis, far away from our shores.
I'm sure they would rather been in the Pacific Theater, closer to home.
Peter Wills feels perfectly comfortable and secure. It takes no courage at all to condemn now what someone else did in desperate circumstances back then.To the contrary doing so will get you favorable publicity from journalists who also have delusions of courage while they second-guess and otherwise unfairly criticize everyone who, by dint of their willingness to take well-calculated risks, threatens to get more credit than the journalist gets.
> Peter Wills feels perfectly comfortable and secure. It takes no courage at all to condemn now what someone else did in desperate circumstances back then.
In my view, he has mounted a cowardly attack on a Hero who, when faced with terrible Odds and at peril of his life did his best, consistent with his duties as a Soldier. And was so acknowledged with a Victoria Cross.
'Tis a cowardly attack by somebody who --thank God -- has never been in a position of having needed to defend our Country against a determined and willful and resourceful enemy, under fire.
MISFIRE!!! FRIENDLY FIRE!!!
I re-read your post. And I am sorry. You weren't being sarcastic and you meant what you said.
Alot of Yanks *do* take the P*ss out of Kiwis these days, for reasons of current governmental policy. I'm over-hyper-sensitive to this, and did a ready-fire-aim in your direction as a result.
Sorry!!!
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