Staff Sergeant M. W. Curtis, MM; Greymouth; born Greymouth, 18 Oct 1917; motor mechanic. (Source: Davin, D.M. Crete. p.64.)

'To the troops on the ground without access to high-level intelligence reports the signs of invasion impending were becoming plain. Suda Bay was being bombed heavily and daily—the real cause of the lateness or non-arrival of promised materials. And on the evening of 13 May Maleme itself got its first serious battering. On 15 May there was another exceptionally heavy attack in which Private M. W. Curtis rescued the pilot of a shot-down Gladiator while it was under fire—a deed which won him the admiration of all who saw it and for which he was later awarded the MM. S-Sergeant M. W. Curtis, MM; Greymouth; born Greymouth, 18 Oct 1917; motor mechanic.; 27 (Machine Gun) Battalion - From the 13th onwards the Maleme sector was blitzed daily, sometimes for hours on end. During an exceptionally heavy raid on the 15th an RAF Gladiator, shot down near the airfield, crashed and turned over on the beach in front of a machine-gun pit. While enemy fighters tried to set fire to the plane with incendiary bullets, Lance-Corporal Smith and Private Curtis left the gunpit, ran forward to free the trapped pilot, and took him to safety. Smith was killed a few days later, but Curtis was subsequently awarded the MM.' (Source: Davin, D.M. Crete. p. 64.; Kay, R. 27 (Machine Gun) Battalion. p. 93.) AWMM