This is the largely unknown story of another Anzac force, which fought
not at Gallipoli, but in Greece, during World War II.
Desperately outnumbered and fighting in deeply inhospitable conditions, these Anzacs found themselves engaging in a long retreat through Greece, under constant air attack.
Most of the Anzac Corps was evacuated by the end of April 1941, but many men got
only
as far as Crete. Fighting a German paratroop invasion there in May,
large numbers were taken captive and spent four long years as prisoners
of the Nazis.
The campaign in Greece turned out to have uncanny parallels to the original Gallipoli operation: both were inspired by Winston Churchill, both were badly planned by British military leaders, and both ended in defeat and evacuation. Just as Gallipoli provided military academies the world over with lessons in how not to conduct a complex feat of arms, Churchill's Greek adventure reinforced fundamental lessons in modern warfare - heavy tanks could not be stopped by men armed with rifles, and Stuka dive-bombers would not be deflected by promises of air support from London that were never honoured.
In
this revised edition, based on fresh archival research, and containing a
collection of previously unpublished photos, the truth finally emerges
as to how the Australian, Greek, and New Zealand Governments were misled
over key decisions that would define the campaign.
PRAISE FOR PETER EWER
'This is an important contribution to Australian war literature ... an engrossing history of a very important Anzac campaign.' The Sydney Morning Herald
'This clear and well-written account of the campaign should do much to rescue the forgotten Anzacs from neglect by subsequent generations.' Australian Book Review
