Wilfred George McDonagh

In memoriam

6067 New Zealand Army Service Corps

From New Zealand Electronic Text Collection, The Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War, Petrol Company, Chapter 8, Crete Page 113: "On Tuesday, 20 May, the show really opened, shortly after sunrise on a bright, cloudless day. And from that time the "all clear" was not heard again on Crete. The attack found Petrol Company well prepared. Battle positions had been carefully sited, the procedure for manning them rehearsed. As the first enemy aircraft zoomed overhead, shedding parachutists and towing troop-laden gliders, men from the five sections moved to their defence posts without confusion or delay." Page 114: For approximately six hours the hill was subject to heavy mortar and machine-gun fire, during which time many casualties were inflicted on our section. Among these were, Killed: Capt McDonagh, Sgt Hopley, Dvrs E. T. H. Toner, G. Parnell, E. Isherwood; Wounded: Lieut McPhail, 2/Lieut Jackson, Sgt McNae, L/Cpl R. Orr, Dvrs W. Dunn, W. Smithson, B. Standen. Page 116 Casualties, mainly from mortar fire from Cemetery Hill (where the Germans had succeeded in dislodging the Greeks and establishing themselves) and from rifles and machine guns in the prison area, were growing now in B Section. Captain McDonagh, directing operations there, was mortally wounded. This was a severe loss. A fearless and inspiring commander, McDonagh had been moving among his sections, cheering the men with such pleasantries as ‘The duck season's opened a bit late boys, but there's good shooting now’, and taking photographs of the descending parachutists. Lieutenant Macphail took over, but he too was soon badly wounded. Second-Lieutenant Jackson then assumed command, until he in his turn was hit, first in the hand, then in the head. Page 144: ‘A New Zealand corporal and I helped to bury our officer, Captain McDonagh, in a potato field, after he had been killed by a cannon-shell from a Messerschmitt, and was laid out by a Greek woman in her own home. But he had only about eighteen inches of earth over him. We would like him to receive a proper burial.’ The officer replied that at that moment burial squads, supervised by Germans, were digging up all the dead around Galatas and burying them in mass graves. He promised that he would have a cross made, inscribed with Captain McDonagh's name and other details. But whether this was ever done or not, Walsh does not know.

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