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Veterans’ stories of the British campaign in Greece (1941)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2018

Loukianos Hassiotis
Loukianos Hassiotis*
Affiliation:
Aristotle University of Thessalonikiloukhass@hist.auth.gr
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Abstract

At the beginning of 1941 Britain decided to provide military aid to Greece, which was facing an ongoing war against Italy and was expecting a German invasion. This article discusses the impressions and experiences of the British soldiers who took part in the campaign, using their letters, diaries and their – mostly unpublished – reminiscences. It examines their perception of Greece and its inhabitants, as well of their fellow allies and their enemies; their venture in military operations, or captivity; and their daily routine. Furthermore, it comments on their retrospective assessments of the campaign.

Keywords

British soldiersletters, diaries, memoirsGreek history
Type
Articles
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , Volume 42 , Issue 2 , October 2018 , pp. 287 - 302
Copyright
Copyright © Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham, 2018 

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References

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9 Richter, Η ιταλο-γερμανική, 346-7, 431; Lawlor, Churchill, 168, and Stockings and Hancock, Swastika, 25.

10 Richter, Η ιταλο-γερμανική, 468-595; Willingham, Perilous Commitments, 76-96; Beevor, Crete, 30-42, 54. On the Allies’ losses see Stockings and Hancock, Swastika, 504, 516.

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12 I[mperial] W[ar] M[useum, London]/P[rivate] P[apers]/Doc. 7135: R. R. C. Boileau: Letter, 6 May 1941.

13 IWM/PP/Doc. 7311: L. Parrington: Diary, 8 March 1941. See also IWM/PP/Doc. 438: Beatty Hayley, H. W., A Wartime Interlude. An Account of his Participation in the Second World War, August 1939-April 1946 (Keele 1994) 50Google Scholar.

14 IWM/PP/Doc. 7135: R. R. C. Boileau: Letter, May 1941 (last letter); IWM/PP/Doc. 7626: W. G. (Rocky) Rockall, ‘ZETO ΕΛΛΑΣ. A Greek Tragedy’, unpublished typescript, 1990, 5; IWM/PP/Doc. 7933: C. M. L. Clements: Campaign-Greece 1941, unpublished memoirs, n.d. (1960s).

15 Stockings and Hancock, Swastika, 203.

16 Lake, In Salonica, 12.

17 IWM/PP/Doc. 15591: R. A. Barnett: Letter, 5 January1942.

18 IWM/PP/Doc. 7135: R. R. C. Boileau: Letter, May 1941 (last letter).

19 IWM/PP/Doc. 438: Beatty Hayley, A Wartime Interlude, 50, 51, 53; IWM/PP/Doc. 14872: B. West: War Memoirs, 1939-1946, unpublished, n.d.; IWM/PP/Doc. 7626: Rockall, ‘ZETO ΕΛΛΑΣ’, 7-8.

20 IWM/PP/Doc. 438: Beatty Hayley: Handwritten memoirs in the form of a journal, 6 April 1941. See also IWM/PP/Doc.5961: G. MacLean: Unpublished memoirs, n.d.

21 IWM/PP/Doc. 7311: L. Parrington: Diary, 8 March 1941. See also IWM/PP/Doc. 13664: C. Hamersma: Selection of unpublished reminiscences and stories, and IWM/PP/Doc. 7626: W. G. Rockall: Rockall, ZETO ΕΛΛΑΣ, 5.

22 IWM/PP/Doc. 7135: R. R. C. Boileau: Letters, 6, 7 and 8 May 1941.

23 Hill, M., Diggers and Greeks. The Australian Campaign in Greece and Crete (Sydney 2010) 89Google Scholar; Stockings and Hancock, Swastika, 142, 268-9; and Ewer, Forgotten ANZACS, 121, 129, 139.

24 IWM/PP/Doc. 7135: R. R. C. Boileau: Letter, May 1941. For the meagre equipment of the Greek Army see Stockings and Hancock, Swastika, 540.

25 IWM/PP/Doc. 15591: R. A. Barnett: Letter, 5 January 1942.

26 IWM/PP/Doc.5961: G. MacLean; IWM/PP/Doc. 7626: Rockall, ‘ZETO ΕΛΛΑΣ’, 3-4.

27 IWM/PP/Doc. 13214: Sir Claude Pelly: Letter to his wife Peg, 3-4 May 1941; IWM/PP/Doc.5961: G. MacLean; IWM/PP/Doc. 9797: G. M. O. Davy: G. Davy, Within the Fringe, unpublished memoirs, n.d.; IWM/PP/Doc. 7626: W. G. Rockall: Rockall, ZETO ΕΛΛΑΣ, 2. Similar references to the civilian population are also made by Australian soldiers: see Hill, Diggers, 128-9, 132-9.

28 IWM/PP/Doc. 15591: R. A. Barnett: Letter, 5 January1942; IWM/PP/Doc. 14641: Sir Guy Salisbury: unpublished memoirs, n.d.

29 IWM/PP/Doc. 7135: R. R. C. Boileau: Letter, May 1941 (last letter); IWM/PP/Doc. 15591: R. A. Barnett: Letter, 5 January 1942; IWM/PP/Doc. 7626: Rockall, ‘ZETO ΕΛΛΑΣ’, 16.

30 IWM/PP/Doc. 7135: R. R. C. Boileau: ibid.; IWM/PP/Doc. 15591: R. A. Barnett: ibid.; IWM/PP/Doc. 438: Beatty Hayley: Handwritten memoirs, 15 April 1941; IWM/PP/Doc. 13664: C. Hamersma. Cf. Hill, Diggers, 86; Stockings and Hancock, Swastika, 284, 289, 349, 364.

31 IWM/PP/Doc. 7626: Rockall, ‘ZETO ΕΛΛΑΣ’, 10, 13-4.

32 IWM/PP/Doc. 7933: C. M. L. Clements; IWM/PP/Doc. 438: Beatty Hayley, A Wartime Interlude, 52-5.

33 IWM/PP/Doc. 15591: R. A. Barnett: Letter, 5 January1942.

34 On this subject see Stockings and Hancock, Swastika,12, 528.

35 IWM/PP/Doc. 7135: R. R. C. Boileau: Letter, 6 May 1941. Cf. Beevor, Crete, 36-7, and Ewer, Forgotten ANZACS, 106-40.

36 Richter, Η ιταλο-γερμανική, 489-92; Stockings and Hancock, Swastika, 515-19.

37 IWM/PP/Doc. 7933: C. M. L. Clements; IWM/PP/Doc. 7311: L. Parrington: Diary, 15 March 1941; IWM/PP/Doc. 438: Beatty Hayley, A Wartime Interlude, 56. Cf. Beevor, Crete, 19-20, 31.

38 IWM/PP/Doc. 7135: R. R. C. Boileau: Letter, 6 May 1941; IWM/PP/Doc. 15591: R. A. Barnett: Letter, 5 January1942.

39 IWM/PP/Doc. 438: Beatty Hayley, A Wartime Interlude, 58.

40 Beevor, Crete, 38.

41 IWM/PP/Doc. 7626: Rockall, ‘ZETO ΕΛΛΑΣ’, 16-7.

42 Ibid., 4. See also IWM/PP/Doc. 15591: R. A. Barnett: Letter, 5 January 1942, and IWM/PP/Doc.5961: G. MacLean.

43 IWM/PP/Doc. 7311: L. Parrington: Diary, 21 and 24 April 1941. Cf. Stockings and Hancock, Swastika, 458-60.

44 IWM/PP/Doc. 7135: R. R. C. Boileau: Letter, 6 May 1941. See also IWM/PP/Doc.5961: G.MacLean, and IWM/PP/Doc. 15591: R. A. Barnett: Letter, 5 January1942.

45 IWM/PP/Doc. 7626: Rockall, ‘ZETO ΕΛΛΑΣ’, 26; IWM/PP/Doc. 438: Beatty Hayley: Handwritten memoirs, 25 April 1941. For the German air raids during the evacuation see also Beevor, Crete, 50-4.

46 Ewer, Forgotten ANZACS, 278-80; Stockings and Hancock, Swastika, 491.

47 IWM/PP/Doc. 7311: L. Parrington: Diary, 24-29 April 1941; cf. Willingham, Perilous Commitments, 95-6; Stockings and Hancock, Swastika, 491 ff.

48 IWM/PP/Doc. 9797: G. M. O. Davy.

49 IWM/PP/Doc. 7933: C. M. L. Clements; IWM/PP/Doc. 7311: L. Parrington: Diary, 29 April 1941. Cf. Stockings and Hancock, Swastika, 496, 501-3.

50 IWM/PP/Doc. 7626: Rockall, ‘ZETO ΕΛΛΑΣ’, 29. Cf. Stockings and Hancock, Swastika, 504.

51 IWM/PP/Doc. 7311: L. Parrington: Diary, 29 April 1941.

52 Long, Greece, Crete, 181, 183.

53 IWM/PP/Doc. 7933: C. M. L. Clements; IWM/PP/Doc.5961: G. MacLean.

54 Papapoliviou, P., Αναζητώντας την ελευθερία. Ένας Κύπριος στρατιώτης του βρετανικού στρατού στην κατοχική Θεσσαλονίκη και Χαλκιδική 1941-1942 (Thessaloniki 2009) 62–4Google Scholar.

55 IWM/PP/Doc.5961: G. MacLean.

56 IWM/PP/Doc. 13664: C. Hamersma.

57 IWM/PP/Doc.5961: G. MacLean, and IWM/PP/Doc.10848: Major Alexis T. Casdagli.

58 Rollings, Ch., Prisoner of War. Voices Behind the Wire in the Second World War (Reading 2007) 61–62, 296–7Google Scholar.

59 IWM/PP/Doc. 13664: C. Hamersma.

60 IWM/PP/Doc. 10843: E. Carracher, Letter to his uncle and aunt, Mr and Mrs W. G. Sergeant, 25 June 1941. Carracher refers to his numerous escapes from the Germans both in Greece and in Crete. Cf. Stockings and Hancock, Swastika, 505. For an account of the imprisonment and escape of a New Zealander from Pavlos Melas camp see W. B. ‘Sandy’ Thomas, Dare to Be Free (London 1953).

61 IWM/PP/Doc. 13664: C. Hamersma. Hamersma continued to paint during his captivity and after the war, until his death in 1994, see his ‘Now I can tell it in sketches and words’, accessed May 15, 2017, http://hamersma-uk.blogspot.gr/.

62 IWM/PP/Doc. 7626: Rockall, ‘ZETO ΕΛΛΑΣ’, 8 and 9-13.

63 IWM/PP/Doc. 15591: R. A. Barnett: Letter, 5 January 1942.

64 IWM/PP/Doc. 15591: R. A. Barnett: Letter, 5 January 1942.

65 IWM/PP/Doc. 438: Beatty Hayley, A Wartime Interlude, 70.

66 IWM/PP/Doc. 13214: Sir Claude Pelly: Letter, 3-4 May 1941.

67 IWM/PP/Doc. 14872: B. West.

68 Wood, Political and External, 202.

69 House of Commons Debates, vol. 371 cc. 867-950, accessed February 15, 2017, http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1941/may/07/war-situation. Cf. Richter, Η ιταλο-γερμανική, 637.

70 IWM/PP/Doc. 7135: R. R. C. Boileau: Letter, May 1941 (last letter).

71 IWM/PP/Doc. 15591: R. A. Barnett: Letter, 5 January1942.

72 Richter, Η ιταλο-γερμανική, 638-9, 643-4; Stockings and Hancock, Swastika, 570-85.

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75 IWM/PP/Doc. 15591: R. A. Barnett: Letter, 5 January1942.