When Joy Adams attends Mount Maunganui’s Battle of Crete memorial service this Sunday, May 18, she’ll be thinking of her late father hiding from Germans in a Crete hen house nearly 84 years ago.

“When hidden in the rear of a darkened hen house the enemy were reluctant to enter. The benefit of this was breakfasting on raw eggs,” said the Tauranga woman of her father’s World War II experience on the Greek island.

Adams, a member of the New Zealand Battle of Crete Association, said there are “many Crete veterans living in Tauranga”.

The airborne attack of the Germans during the Battle of Crete.

The Battle of Crete was a major Axis airborne and amphibious operation during World War II to capture the island of Crete, which began the morning of May 20, 1941.

The battle, which lasted 12 days, involved New Zealand, Australian, British and Greek troops, assisted by Cretan civilians, trying to repel an airborne assault by the Germans. Of the 7700 New Zealand soldiers stationed on Crete, more than 2000 New Zealand soldiers were captured, and 671 died.

A photo of Joy Adams father, Private Bertram "Snowy" Smith 9370 of the 20th battalion, C Company (later L/Sgt), taken in late 1939 before departing for World War II at 22 years old.

Among the survivors was Adams’ late father, Lieutenant Sergeant Bertram ‘Snowy’ Smith, who fought in the battle with the 20th Battalion, C Company.

Adams said Smith was away at World War II for four-and a-half years and returned home from the war to go farming in Whakamaru before he retired and spent 30 years in Tauranga before his death in 2000.

Adams, who said her father was reluctant to speak about his experience in the Battle of Crete to family, was only prompted on the subject once.

“They fired their rifles at the descending Para troops until their rifles overheated, waited until they cooled, then recommenced firing,” Adams said, retelling her late father’s story.

However, Smith did speak to family passionately of the camaraderie during the war.

“[When] he was one of the walking wounded he was tasked with finding his own way across Crete to Sfakia for evacuation, which included the 2000m high White Mountains and 100km trek.”

She said that along the way, the Cretans offered her dad shelter in hen houses. Upon his arrival at Sfakia, he could see the hospital ships waiting offshore. Despite his injuries, he was able to swim out to the ship on May 29, 1941, his 24th birthday.

A photo taken at the New Zealand Military hospital in Egypt in late 1941 of soldiers recovering from wounds received at the Battle of Crete including Bertram "Snowy" Smith on the right.

Adams said New Zealand’s participation in the battle created a close relationship between Aotearoa and Crete.

“The Cretians love Kiwis because we as New Zealanders went during World War II to fight in their country and save the country from the enemy and lost a lot of lives in the process.

“There’s been a close bond ever since with New Zealanders because they appreciate very much the sacrifice that New Zealanders made during World War II.”

The annual Battle of Crete memorial service on May 19, 2024. Photo / Joy Adams

The annual Battle of Crete memorial service on Sunday, May 18 at 10.30am at the Mount Maunganui RSA is a free event for the public to attend.

There will be marching by the Western Bay of Plenty Cadet Unit and the NZ Cadet Forces, a performance by Tauranga’s Athena Greek Dance Group, followed by catering.