Battle of Vevi (1941) - Battle

Battle

In the front of the Dodecanese regiment, the Germans attempted at midnight between the 10 and 11 April reconnaissance attacks toward Glava height but were repelled after a two-hour gun battle. The Germans repeated their reconnaissance action at 14:00 toward Delinski Dol but were repelled.

In the British front, the Waffen-SS began a series of probing attacks on the afternoon of 11 April. They also approached along the main road, as an Australian artillery officer wrote:

In all his insolence trucks down the main road ... to within 3000 yards of our infantry, and proceeded to debus . At first I could not believe it was an enemy, all had been so still and quiet. Then came some sense. My orders flew over the wire and the first rounds screamed through the air... A few furious moments and back went the Hun, but five trucks stayed in the road as silent witness that my troop could shoot.

More prolonged skirmishes were directed at the positions of the 2/8th Battalion. These became more aggressive as night closed in. In the words of the Australian War Memorial: "espite being strung out and exhausted from a long march to the position and bitterly cold weather, the 2/8th managed to fend them off."

On the morning of 12 April, snow lay over 30 cm (11.8 in) deep on the hillsides. By dawn, many of the Australians and New Zealanders stationed in the heights were suffering from frostbite and were unable to operate their weapons effectively. However, orders had now been issued for an orderly withdrawal to the Aliakmon line, to begin that evening.

The main German assaults were launched at 08:30 (although a German source claims 9:00). Without artillery preparation, the 1st LSSAH company, acting as the vanguard of KG Witt on its left, attacked the key height 997, occupied by an Australian infantry company under Capt. Robertson. After hard close fighting, by 11:00 they had captured the height, having in the process overrun an Australian platoon of which only six men survived. At 12.30 the 7th LSSAH company extended the attack toward height 917 which it captured after strong resistance by 14:00. The height was defended by an Australian company under Capt. Coombes at the far left of 2/8th's sector, near where it adjoined the 1st Rangers. According to the Australian history, the 1st Rangers —possibly believing that the 2/8th was retreating— had begun to withdraw in the centre at 11:00. This opened the pass itself to the Germans, created a gap between the 2/4th and 2/8th Battalions, severed communications between Vasey and the 2/8th and left Australian anti-tank guns without infantry protection. The two 2/8th companies (Coombes' and Robertson's) on the western flank were then forced to retreat up the slopes.

However, in the words of Australian official historian Gavin Long:

At 2:00 pm ... Lt.-Col. Mitchell of the 2/8th ... ordered a counter-attack which regained some vital ground on top of the ridge... After six hours of intermittent fighting in the pass and on the slopes to the east, the 2/8th still held the heights though their left had been mauled; the Rangers, however, were rallying astride the road about two miles to the rear, but five of the six supporting guns of the 2/1st Anti-Tank Regiment had been left without protection and abandoned. Thus the ridge held by the 2/8th formed a deep salient.

According to Long, Vasey was informed of the Rangers' withdrawal by officers from other units, but refused to believe it.

From 14:35 the 1st and 7th LSSAH companies were being supported by a number of assault guns and Panzerjaeger vehicles.

Following these successes, the German attack took its full extend, with the 2nd LSSAH company plus a heavy machinegun platoon attacking west of the road, the 3rd coy astride and left (east) of the road, the 7th coy from height 917 to the west of Klidi village and the 1st coy from height 997 to the east of Klidi village.

By 15:30 the 2nd and 3rd LSSAH companies had captured height 1009 (1st Rangers' sector), reducing with heavy weapons many machinegun nests. At 16:00 the forces fighting against KG Witt began to retreat and carried out demolitions on the road. KG Witt attacked forward, and pioneers coming behind the 3rd company started to open a corridor in the Allied minefield eventually allowing two assault guns (StuG) to pass through. Simultaneously, the III/LSSAH and Vorausabteilung Apell began their attacks.

At 13:00, the Greek Dodecanese Regiment reported that the Australians of the 2/8th battalion are retreating, although the Regiment itself had taken no such order as of yet. The Greek line began taking artillery fire at 14:30 concentrated mostly on Delinski Dol, which by 15:30 was becoming very intense. At 15:40, the Regiment received the order from Mackay to retreat immediately (instead of the planned withdrawal which was to begin at 19:00) and to have completed the evacuation of its positions by 18:00. At 16:30, the Regiment began its withdrawal, after destroying its artillery pieces which could not be evacuated. When the Regiment began its retreat, it reported that no Commonwealth forces were to be seen in the Kirli Derven sector. According to German sources, the German III/LSSAH battalion began its attack at 16:20 toward Kelli. Both Greek and German sources agree that the III/LSSAH was at 18:15 in Kelli and subsequently occupied the vacant Greek positions reaching Petra by 20:15, although German sources report Greek units still fighting to the far east as of 20:00, claiming to have taken 40 Greek and 60 Australian prisoners.

The Greek withdrawal left the remains of the Australian 2/8th exposed on two flanks, and it was soon coming under machine gun fire from the east. According to an official Australian account, Vasey "realised his men were not going to be able to stage an orderly withdrawal. At 17:00, he telephoned the commanding officer of the 2/4th Battalion ... with the code phrase indicating that a pull-out was now vital — "the roof is leaking."

At 17:30, the Australian official history reports that 500 German infantry supported by self-propelled guns arrived in force along the whole 2/8th sector. One German eye-witness, Obersturmbannfuhrer Kurt "Panzer" Meyer, later wrote:

the heavy Sturmgeschütze climbed the slopes from the bottom of the valley. We watched the guns advance in amazement. They climbed higher and higher, and then joined the fight. Nobody thought it possible to use them, but now they were up there, giving valuable support to the infantry.

Completely shaken by the impression German shelling had made on them, British prisoners came down the mountain. They were tall, strong fellows and formidable opponents.

This effectively sealed the Allies' defeat at Vevi. The 2/8th Battalion was forced into a chaotic retreat, with component units being separated and officers ordering the abandonment even of light weapons, to speed the withdrawal.

Losses among the Australian infantry would have been much worse it were not for the 2/1st Anti-Tank Regiment and the Royal Horse Artillery standing their ground in the centre, until the Germans were only 400 m (440 yd) away.

According to German sources at 18:00 the 7th and 1st LSSAH companies captured the village of Klidi, having taken 82 prisoners. A little later the 3rd company captured the exit of the rail tunnel taking another 250 New Zealand, British and Australian prisoners.

In the meantime, to the far west of the battlefield the Greek 21st infantry brigade was reporting that it had lost contact with the Australian 2/4 already at 12:00, and that between 14:30 and 16:00 groups of Australians were seen to be retreating south towards Xino Nero. At 16:00, the German attack extended to the west against the Greek I/88 battalion. The Greek battalion began taking artillery and mortar fire. Between 16:30 and 18:00, a force reported by the Greeks as two German battalions -the Apell detachment primarily of the 9th reconnaissance battalion and the I/11 motorised infantry (Schuetzen) battalion- concentrated against the battalion's sector (Radosi height), and came to assaulting distance, under the harassing fire from the Greeks. At 18:30, the Germans assaulted the Greek line, and after an uneven brief close quarters fight they overran the Greek line, the Greek forces reeling backward toward Aetos. An attempt led by the 88th Regiment's commander for a counterattack was foiled when he was killed. (However German sources do mention repelling a Greek attack on Apell's right at 19:00, which conforms to the actual Greek disposition, with the regimental HQ south-west from the center of the German attack). At 20:00, the remnants of the battalion started to arrive to Aetos, and by 22:00 had been reorganized as a company. The battalion suffered 11 killed, 18 wounded (including its commander) and 96 captured (some of them wounded). German casualties were reported by the Greeks as "heavy". German sources report that Apell's group captured at 22:30 after hard resistance height 966 (also noted as height Seveskeravi in Greek maps) fighting against Australians. The battle is mentioned neither in Greek nor Australian histories, with the particular height belonging to the Greek sector.

The early collapse of the British defence in Klidi pass, brought the German forces south of the pass before the Dodecanese Regiment had completed its withdrawal to the west. Its right column (consisting of the III and I battalions, as well as the regimental HQ company) was attacked at 18:00 west of Amyntaion with fire from a distance of 800–1,000 m (870–1,100 yd) by "about 20 German tanks" (actually only the 6 StuG and 9 PzJg I of LSSAH were there). The column was saved by the timely intervention of 25–30 British tanks and avoided getting captured.

At 19:00 the German 12th and 13th LSSAH companies from the III/LSSAH marched over Height 1202 (presumably Delinski Dol, noted in Greek maps as Height 1200) to the east, while the 14th company west of lake Petron to the village of Petres. The 2nd company attacked astride the road followed closely by the 3rd company, while the 1st and 7th came down from the pass heights toward Sotir. At 21:00 operations stopped at a line extending from the east of Xino Nero almost to Sotir.