Public Contributions:

Submitted by: Robert McLeod

Relationship to casualty: Amateur Historian

Capt. Willliam Ayto was 2IC of B Coy 20 Battalion during the campaign in Greece 1941. This is the same battalion Charles Upham VC served in.

Submitted by: Robert McLeod

Relationship to casualty: Amateur Historian

From the Official War History of the NZ 20th Battalion and Armoured Regiment Page 72: "While the companies were moving independently to their positions a squadron of fighter-bombers made a sudde...n appearance and viciously machine-gunned and bombed the village and the marching column. There were numerous civilian casualties. B Company was particularly unfortunate, being caught on transport at the beginning of the raid and suffering some twenty casualties. Captain Rice's 8-cwt truck led the little convoy through Markopoulon to B Company's positions. The company sergeant-major, WO II Shirley, describes the attack: On the outskirts of Marcopoulon our route branched off the main road to Porto Rafti and we proceeded about two miles along this dirt road. On the left was a gradually sloping ridge dotted with an occasional tree while on the right was fairly flat ground with some rocky formations. On one flat piece there was a grape orchard. Ahead and further out on the right were some trees. We halted, and because of the towing the trucks were nose to tail. 12 Platoon under Lieutenant Fergus MacLaren had failed to arrive and Captain Rice sent me down the road to look for them. At the same time he called a meeting of platoon commanders. We did not debus as soon as we stopped for the men were dead weary at this stage and very confused. In another two minutes Captain Rice would have finished his conference and the platoons would have been in their defensive positions. 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." Read More

Submitted by: Robert McLeod

Relationship to casualty: Amateur Historian