8408 Private Hugh Hunter Buchanan, (1909-27/4/1941). "a number of aeroplanes"

Hugh Buchanan served with 20 Battalion, 2NZEF, in the Greek Campaign in 1941.  Greece had been invaded by Italy through its territory in Albania and Greek and British forces were pushing them back effectively when German forces entered the battle.  From then it a blitzkrieg, pushing the Allied forces south with many New Zealanders evacuating to Crete and suffering the German airborne invasion there.

It is possible that the German decision to invade the Balkans set back their timetable for the later invasion of Soviet Russia.  It is possible that the delay led to German troops with no winter  clothing and equipment freezing in trenches in sight of Moscow.

It was during the retreat through Greece, almost in sight of an embarkation port, that Hugh Buchanan was killed.

I was only about a hundred yards down the road when a number of aeroplanes swooped very low over the ridge. The men were still on their trucks awaiting dispersal orders but immediately the attack began they scattered and took what cover they could on both sides of the road. The attack continued for some considerable time, the planes swooping very low up and down the road and strafing the road itself, the trucks and the men. All the vehicles except the OC's 8-cwt were ‘brewed up’ by incendiary bullets, which also set fire to crop in which some of the men were sheltering.

The Porto Rafti road was getting a doing over at the same time and it later transpired that 12 Platoon were on this road, having mistaken the turn off. It was here that Lieutenant Fergus MacLaren was killed. In the main group Captain Ayto had been badly shot through both knees and was carried clear of the road to the side of a hill. He later died of wounds. Three of the men killed we buried in the grape vines and evacuated the other killed and wounded to the beach in the ‘pick-up’. It was altogether a very nasty raid.

The Greek villages which the battalion knew in 1941 suffered heavily during the German occupation and the civil war that followed the withdrawal of the Germans at the end of 1944. Memories of these villages and of the men who fought in Greece are revived by Sergeant E. S. (‘Fox’) Allison, of the battalion's ‘I’ section, in letters written to Sergeant Basil Borthwick, of Christchurch. Sergeant Allison was taken prisoner at Belhamed on 1 December 1941. He visited the battlefields of North Africa, Greece, and Crete in 1954 and is at present writing a book on his experiences.

Mr Allison's letters have had a wide circulation among former members of the battalion. His permission to publish the extracts which follow this and later chapters is gratefully acknowledged.

On Way to Porto Rafti Near Marcopoli 8 Oct 1954 12.50 pm.

…. At the moment I am in the fields into which we dispersed after leaving Marcopoli — the last village thro' which we passed where people were giving us wine and advice. This is where we were caught in the air-raid in which B. Coy. were badly mauled, Geo. Fowler, Bill Ayto, the Cunningham boys, Scottie Wheeler, Hunter Buchanan and many others being killed. As far as I can judge this is the very spot our section was in — or at least very close to it. There were some young olive trees — can pick them now — because altho' they have grown much, they are not so large as the older trees which were quite few — the area being fairly open…. It's odd what sticks in one's memory but I recall, as I lay, face down, alive with fear, two beetles working away in the earth, taking no notice of the blitz — and I agog with fear lest the pilots would spot a white mug tied to my haversack.  -Official History of 20 Battalion.

Private Hugh Hunter Buchanan, who was killed in action in Greece on April 27, was a son of Mr and Mrs R. Buchanan, of Abbotsford, Dunedin. Before enlisting for active service he was in employment with McSkimming and Sons, Waikiwi, for six years.  -Southland Times, 14/5/1941.

Green Island Memorial Rose Garden.