Word: anzacs
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April 14-20. Under fearful bombing, shielded by a gallant Anzac rear guard, the British withdrew to Thermopylae, where the New Zealanders held the right to the sea, the Australians held passes to the left. Here it was that Imperial artillery fire was spectacularly effective, holding the enemy for four days and drawing German testimonies to the good marksmanship...
...Thomas decided that historic Thermopylae pass was the spot. He ordered the chosen few: "Every man must now do his job with strong determination. Select positions with care, and so prevent the enemy from coming down on you from above or infiltrating along mountain tracks. . . . I call on every Anzac to grit his teeth, and be worthy of his father...
Thermopylae was the key to the week's action. By the admission of the Germans' modest and honest communiques, British-Anzac resistance at the pass held up the Nazi advance-which did not succeed in taking the heights by assault-for many hours: hours enough to turn the evacuation of the main British force from a slaughter to an almost orderly retirement...
...continent down under, the scattered cities and distant towns celebrate yearly with prayers, parades and boutonnieres of wattle* Australia's most important holiday, Anzac Day. Australians like to recall that it was on April 25, 1915, when Australian and New Zealand troops landed at Gallipoli, that the youthful nation "first got into trouble." Last week on Anzac Day, Anzac troops were again in trouble, fighting the last cruel hours of their desperate delaying action at Thermopylae, and Australians' anxiety for the safety of their soldiers and security of their nation ran high...
...settling smoothly into British rule, with Lieut. General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson as the new military governor. Shops were reopening. Looting and sabotage had been stamped out by a 6:30-p.m. curfew, the watchfulness of British patrols. Civilian-clad Italian officers on parole amicably elbowed British and Anzac soldiers on the streets of Bengasi. In the strange calm General Sir Archibald Percival Wavell was obviously collecting his forces for a new drive, but in complete secrecy. Best guesses:1) that they might press on to Tripoli or 2) cut over to Greece as the Balkans threatened to explode...