arrangements had to be made.
The passage to Suda Bay on a brilliant day with maximum visibility was, surprisingly, made without incident. Captain Waugh wrote in his diary that ‘we were shown no hospitality; the ship’s officers were tired out’, but he got a large cabin to himself ‘and spent the day in great comfort and contentment’.44 At about 18.00, the ship’s crew all blew up their life belts somewhat tightly on receiving a signal from the Commander-in-Chief saying that intercepted enemy messages indicated that the heaviest scale of dive-bombing and torpedo attacks could be expected just before dusk.
On arrival in Suda Bay at about 23.00 on the night of 26/27 May, it became apparent that a very confused situation existed. Instead of empty lighters for the commandos and full ones with wounded, nothing but ones full of the whole of the Naval Base came alongside and even they were slow to do so. While Laycock and his staff were waiting in the Captain’s cabin to disembark, a terrified naval officer in a greatcoat and shorts came in to tell them how horrible things were ashore. It was reported that the Germans were about a mile and a half up the road from the town.
According to Evelyn Waugh, ‘No light could be shown on deck and there was confusion between the wounded and runaways and our troops waiting in the dusk to disembark’. Somehow, in all the chaos the three ships disembarked the commandos but only some of their stores. In the haste of the moment, some items, such as valuable wireless sets, had to be thrown overboard. The ships embarked 930 walking wounded and other unneeded men,45 about 500 of them in the Abdiel, all in the space of an hour and then the three ships sailed at full speed for Alexandria.
At dawn on 27 May, when the Abdiel was just turning the northeastern corner of Crete, the first enemy aircraft appeared, in the form of three large bombers. From this time on until about 10.30 to 11.00, the three ships were under almost continuing bombing attack by a variety of aircraft, including one large-scale dive-bombing attack that was concentrated on the Hero. No hull damage was done to any ship, but the Hero had her main circulators put out of action, with the result that she could only steam at full speed and keep herself going by the scoop effect through the circulator inlets. Alexandria was finally reached at 19.00 the same day.
The Abdiel had landed the last reinforcements to be sent in to Crete.46 On the 26th the Germans had broken though the main defensive line and the defence of the island had begun to collapse. General Freyberg had to convince General Wavell in Cairo and Wavell had to convince a reluctant Winston Churchill that the battle was lost and that evacuation was necessary. The order to evacuate troops from Crete was finally given and began to proceed. Evacuation would be difficult, as the port at Suda Bay had been lost, leaving only Heraklion and the small port at Sphakia on the south coast of Crete. The Abdiel was kept at short notice until she could play her part.
On 30 May the Abdiel received orders to sail with the light cruiser Phoebe, flying the flag of Admiral King, on the 31st for one last evacuation, this one from Sphakia. The two ships, to which were added three destroyers, the Kimberley, Jackal and Hotspur,47 sailed at 06.00 on the 31st. The passage to Sphakia was made mostly without incident, save for three air attacks between 18.25 and 19.05 in which none of the bombs fell very close and one Ju 88 may have been damaged.48
The ships reached Sphakia shortly before midnight. The Abdiel was at full Action Stations because it was not known if it was still in British hands until English voices were heard coming over the water.49 In moments, the first landing craft came alongside. The evacuation continued from about 11.20 until about 02.30 on 1 June, at which time the force had to sail in order to obtain the benefit of the fighter protection that had been ordered.
The ships together had embarked 4050 men, including just twenty-seven men from Layforce.50 The Abdiel alone had embarked 1200 men. Many of the passengers were New Zealanders, including a number of Maori soldiers of 28 Battalion, whose mood was one of resentment at having to give up the fight. Midshipman Goodwin noticed that some of the Maoris had strange things attached to their belts, which on closer examination turned out to be the ears of the enemy they had killed in combat, according to Maori custom.51 Lieutenant-Commander Chavasse greatly admired one Maori officer who had had both his arms broken, but had gotten himself from Suda Bay over the hills to Sphakia.52
One of the Abdiel’s Maori evacuees was Second Lieutenant Rangi France Logan. Born in Hastings on the North Island on 3 July 1916, he held the rank of Command Sergeant Major in D Company when the Battalion was sent to England in 1940 to defend Britain from a German invasion. While in Britain, he was one of the first two Maoris to be sent to Sandhurst for training and passed out with an ‘A Outstanding’.53 After hard fighting in the Maleme sector in the opening days of the battle for Crete, Lieutenant Logan and his men began an exhausting retreat, over the White Mountains and along the Askifou Plain until they reached the high ground above Sphakia. There, they could finally rest and find something to eat and drink for the first time in days. Armed with just a captured Luger, Lieutenant Logan helped form the rearguard at Sphakia, barring the way to the Germans as well as to Allied stragglers. At nightfall on the 31st, the order came for Logan and his men to move to the beach to be embarked. Lieutenant Logan recalled, ‘I suppose every man had the urge to get ahead and make sure he got into a boat, but there was no such move from any of the men. If anyone felt the urge to do so, the urge for self-preservation, he kept in under control.’
Finally, after all of his men had boarded a boat, it was Lieutenant Logan’s turn to leave.
In time I came to the water’s edge and this was the last boat, loaded deeper into the water, the dark shape of the boat getting nearer; I reached out my hands, stifling a little feeling of panic – if the boat should move out now – and then my hands were on it. I grasped the gunwale, nothing could make me let go now; I pulled myself out of the water and my boys pulled me into the boat – oh, the relief and then the boat was grounded because of the excessive load, so several of us got into the water again to push. It didn’t take much effort and the boat was clear and we hastened to clamber aboard again. As the boat moved quietly away from the shore to the waiting ships, the evacuation of Crete was almost over; I was the last NZ’er to leave Crete in the official evacuation.
Lieutenant-Commander Paul Chavasse, a chief petty officer and a rating examine the taut wire measuring gear. (Robin Pleydell-Bouverie)
‘In no time at all’, he recalled, he and his men had boarded the Abdiel via the stern doors. Once in the bowels of the ship, Logan and his men ‘gathered around huge chests containing cheese and biscuits; we just ate and ate, nothing to say, but thankful to be there’.54
Other New Zealanders aboard the ship were just as grateful for the ride. Lieutenant Alex Atchison of the 2nd New Zealand Division’s Cavalry Regiment wrote, ‘The ship’s crew gave us biscuits and hot cocoa. It seemed the best meal we had ever had. Afterwards the Officers brought us whiskey and offered us their beds. Everyone was so tired that I am sure that those who slept on the floor [sic: deck] were just as happy as the ones with beds’.55 Private Charles Pankhurst of 23 Battalion wrote, ‘The sailors fed us and treated us very well’ and ‘We were in the space where mines were usually kept and, as we were very crowded, it was a hot as a furnace. But it would not have mattered to us if the ship had been a slave trader so glad were we to be off Crete.’56 Some of the famished passengers got a bit carried away and helped themselves to store crates containing tomato puree. The result was predictable. With so many passengers, the ship’s sanitary arrangements were overwhelmed and she would later need a considerable hosing-down.
On the voyage, Rangi Logan observed that the Abdiel was tucked in behind the two destroyers; being faster, she would zig-zag and settle in behind
