neoskosmos.com — Six and a half thousand Australians went on to serve on Crete as part of the nearly 40,000 Allied defence forces – including 10,000 Greek soldiers – who would face the German invasion in May 1941
For the second year in a row Melbourne’s great Anzac Day parade saw members of Melbourne’s Hellenic community dressed in traditional costume march with veterans of the Greek and Crete campaigns of 1941.
They had been invited by three veterans associations – the Australian 2/7th Infantry Battalion, 2/6th Infantry Battalion and 2/2nd Field Regiment – to join them in commemorating the service of the men of these and all other Australian units who served in the campaign that raged across the Greek mainland and Crete, in 1941.
It was particularly heartening for those from Melbourne’s Cretan community to join with Les Manning of the 2/7th Battalion, veteran of the Greek and Crete campaigns, who recently celebrated his 104th birthday.
Young soldiers, the vast majority in their early 20s and all from Melbourne and Victoria, had arrived at Corinth’s famous canal to defend it against German attack. The next day – 26 April 1941 – they faced the massive German air assault on the canal. Despite hard fighting, the Australians and the other Allied forces at the canal were overwhelmed. Two hundred were captured, others killed and injured, and some were able to complete their withdrawal south to the evacuation ports of the Peloponnese.
One of those soldiers was Tom Devery. He managed to be evacuated with the other 42,000 Allied troops from the Greek mainland and arrived on Crete. Tom would fight on Crete, eventually making his way south as the Allied forces retreated to the evacuation port of Sfakia. Like thousands of others, Tom was unable to be evacuated and was hidden and supported by Cretan villagers near the Monastery of Preveli on the southern coast of Crete. Eventually he was captured and sent to Germany.
Some 17,000 Australian service personnel – including soldiers, sailors and nurses – served in the campaign on mainland Greece, part of the 60,000 Allied forces sent to assist Greece face the coming Axis invasion. Six and a half thousand Australians went on to serve on Crete as part of the nearly 40,000 Allied defence forces – including 10,000 Greek soldiers – who would face the German invasion in May 1941. These Australians were also supported by civilian Greek people who hid and supported them, and who took part in the valiant resistance to the Axis occupation.
For more information on the Greek and Crete campaign commemorative events planned for Victoria across this year, please contact Mr Tony Tsourdalakis, Secretary of the Battle of Crete and Greece Commemorative Council via email at [email protected]
