Exhausted New Zealand engineers (possibly from 7th Field Company) awaiting evacuation at Sfakia following their trek over the White Mountains. This photograph was taken by Lieutenant P.B. Wildey, 7th Field Company, New Zealand Engineers.
My father Lieutenant Edward Tidswell RE was on Crete and had been before the arrival of the evacuated troops from Greece. He recounted to me that his engineers had been working at, I believe, Maleme when the first influx of German paratroops began to drop in. He recalled being ordered to withdraw his engineers and their equipment, which he did at nightfall. He told me that their withdrawal was covered by a rearguard in interlocking positions and referred to the site as Hill No. ? I presume, now, that this was Hill 107. The engineers withdrew under cover of darkness and laid up during the day in the olive groves. Travelling at night, they arrived with their equipment intact at the point of evacuation, only to be ordered by the Quayside Officer to destroy it, which they did. They were evacuated to Alexandria and my best guess is that they disembarked on HMS Orion, a cruiser, on which 400 casualties occurred due to bomb damage.
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