This cover was sent to from Tel Aviv at April 15, 1941 to Jewish soldier of 606 Coy company AMPC (Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps) stationed in Greece front during the German invasion Greece. Cover has the following military postal marks "Believed missing June 16, 1941" and " P. POW August 6, 1941 " Palestinian Prisoner of War .
The cover return to sender with the last stamp Jerusalem postmark August 30, 1941. Fine condition.
More about the battle on Greece:
The German invasion began on April 6, 1941. The Germans soon managed to score the front line of defense of the Allied army. The Israeli fighters participated in the containment battles against German army forces and in the defense of strategic strongholds such as the Thyme Canal and even suffered casualties.
Under the leadership of the Eretz Israel commanders, who were present: Yitzhak Ben Aharon, Shimon HaCohen, Natan Gershuni , it was decided not to encourage the Eretz Israel soldiers to flee and try to escape the surrender to the Germans. One of the considerations that guided them was their fear of the Germans' treatment of the Jewish prisoners. The officers from Eretz Israel believed that their soldiers would be safer if they fell to the Germans in concentration with the British soldiers and not as the only ones caught in their escape route.
The soldiers of the Israeli excavation companies were under a great deal of pressure and tension, some even attempted suicide. The general pressure was extremely high. "Early in the morning we gathered on the road and were told that we were captives and that we should wait until the Germans arrived. "He saved many from death. His words affected those who had already given up completely."
On April 22, 1941, at 7:30 PM, the soldiers of Company 606 in the port of Piraeus were ordered to board the evacuation ship "PANCRATION". It was a Greek civilian coal ship, slow and shaky with a speed of 5.5 knots, wireless and without any military means of protection and with 2 leaking lifeboats on it. With great difficulty, the company soldiers located the Greek sailors who were hiding and by no means wanted to board the ship. Finally, after many delays, after midnight, at 00:30 on 23/4/1941, the ship sailed from the port. On it were: four officers, 3 British officers and the Israeli lieutenant colonel Mordechai Shipman. On their personal equipment, and with them 180 rifles and 6 machine guns - "Louis", who brought with him the force that returned from Milos island. The slow ship was discovered the next day by Italian enemy planes bombed from the air. As part of the difficult battle, they managed to shoot down 2 planes and strike the pilots, but finally after more bombings and a torpedo hit, the ship ran aground off the island of Milos. The British company commander gave the order to some of the guys who knew how to swim that they would swim to shore and fetch boats from there. Along with them the Greek fishermen came and lowered the passengers and crew to shore. The next day, the ship was sunk by enemy aircraft. The wounded were evacuated to the Devil's Hospital on the island. On the island the company men were constantly bombarded from the air and hid in caves, while in the process they saw enemy planes sinking in the bay more ships. As the company soldiers ascended the island, they were constantly bombarded from the air, hiding in caves in the mountains along the coast. The food ran out and the money to buy it from the locals ran out, but still, when our guys saw enemy planes sinking in the bay more ships, and despite the fatigue and hardships that surrounded them: did not hesitate to jump into the water to help the survivors. During the extra days they managed to shoot down two more enemy planes. When an attempt was made to occupy the island by the landing of 15 German hydroplanes (naval planes), which tried to land and anchor on the island, the company soldiers opened concentrated fire from machine guns, repelling the takeover attempt. However, due to the actions of collaborators on the island, the company was unable to establish wireless contact with the headquarters on the island of Crete.
Before the light of April 29, 1941, Milos left a boat, which had arrived on the island shortly before, carrying 50 British soldiers on their way to Crete. They were barely joined by 5 of the company's soldiers. The commander of the British company, Major Murray, handed them a letter asking for help, and asked them to inform the headquarters in Crete about the need to rescue British soldiers trapped on the island. In the morning, the announcement was made to her destination in Crete. During the British navy it was decided to check the reliability of the matter and sent to the island of Milos the destroyers "HOTSPUR" (HOTSPUR and "HAVOCK"). Or fighting on the island until the last bullet. The Israeli sergeants rejected his offers and demanded an observation on the beach. Armed boats checked the situation. The soldiers were very nervous because they did not know if they were German or British ships. Luckily, these were the two British destroyers who came to rescue them from the island. To the island of Crete on May 1, 1941 at 3:15 a.m. On the island of Milos, only two soldiers who were fatally wounded remained, at the local hospital.
On May 1, 1941 at 07:30, 273 Company 606 soldiers and their commander Major Mori, and another 118 soldiers from the 603 Excavation Company and their commanders Captain McKuloch of Scotland and Lt. Col. Shipman of Eretz Israel in the port of Soda Bay on the island of Crete, disembarked from the Wok destroyer. Another 45 soldiers from the various digging companies, who succeeded from Kalamata through the island of KYTHIRA, were added to the total number of 436 diggers in the extended company 606 that day.
In the morning, at 06:30, the first German reconnaissance planes arrived on the island. Between Soda Bay and Chania. At 10:00 the company received a report that German paratroopers were in the area. At 10:15, the digging companies went on defense missions in their area. By the British company commander to leave the camp opposite Soda Bay to a "safer" place in the mountains. One week after the start of the fighting over Crete, in the morning watch on Tuesday, May 27, 1941 at 04:55, the company commander - Major Murray - received a report from one of his fellow officers in the sector - Captain James. The officer said that under the pressure of the heavy German attack in the area of Chania and the Gulf of Soda, many loopholes were created in the sector and the headquarters in Crete gave an order to evacuate to the south coast for the possibility of a naval evacuation. Thus, before the Germans completed the conquest of the area and the conquest of Crete, immediately after receiving the message, at 5:05 a.m., the company commander called the company sergeants, briefly instructing them to inform their men that each of the warriors would find his way ashore in the south of the island. He further added that he thanked them for the work they had done and wished them that God would be of help to them. The sergeants immediately conveyed the order to their men. At 05:15 the company dispersed in the hills. In this situation, the company almost disbanded, and the soldiers had no choice but to flee for their lives alone. Few organized in groups and made their way to the southeast of the island. A few hours later in the morning, the commander of the island, General Freyberg Bernard Cyril, gave his forces a general retreat order to retreat to the evacuation shores of Heraklion and the southern island to Spakia Bay. Most of the company's soldiers crossed the White Mountains in an expedited journey, both on foot and by car, and reached the Imabros Pass, through which all passers-by to Spakia drained. Their journey to Spakia lasted between one and two days, and quite a few soldiers failed on their way from exhaustion. The road was laden with many vehicles and tens of thousands of soldiers from all the units on the island. On the way the soldiers were subjected mainly during the day to bombings and sniping from German planes. In the Gulf of Spakiya, every morning at dawn, began the attack of the 'Stuck', those German diving-bombing planes, on the small port.
The extended 606 Excavation Company, and the Cypriot Excavation Companies were last scheduled for evacuation, and their soldiers waited nervously for their turn on mountains around the bay. The English units forcibly prevented the Israeli and Cypriot soldiers from infiltrating their ranks and boarding ships. In contrast, the New Zealand and Australian units showed understanding and allowed many Palestine soldiers to infiltrate their ranks and the evacuation queue.
The evacuation from Spakia Bay actually began on the night of May 28-29 and was completed on the night of May 31 to June 1. According to the diary of the Extended Company 606 dated May 31, 1941, on the landing of the "Glengail" that sailed from Crete, 280 soldiers remaining from the Extended Company 606 and the officer Mordechai Shipman arrived in Egypt. As soon as they arrived at the port of Alexandria, the soldiers were transferred directly to the al-Qassasin camp, which is about 60 km from Cairo. Other Israeli soldiers arrived alone in other ships and in other evacuation convoys.
At the end of the evacuation operation, on the morning of Sunday, June 1, 1941, about 5,000 British soldiers remained on the beach who were unable to evacuate, including many Palestine soldiers. Most of them were captured by the Germans, and some fled to the mountains. Some of the fugitives fled in small boats to Egypt, others reached Turkey, and from there reached the Allied forces, others hid with the locals, or joined, partisans in Greece and Crete. In the battle of Crete, the German company 606, an extended company of diggers 606 alone, captured about 150 soldiers from them: about 70 soldiers from the original 606 company, about 50 soldiers from company 603, from the same force that withdrew with company 606 from Greece to Crete, via the island of Milos, and so on. - 30 soldiers from other excavation units. Another 20 soldiers from Palestine who served in the 1039 Port Operations Unit and were isolated in various British units (Air Force, bomb disposal units, drivers, shovels, etc.) were also captured. In all, more than 170 Israeli soldiers were captured by the Germans in Crete.
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