Disaster struck during the evacuation of Allied forces from Greece when a large number of civilians and Commonwealth troops, including New Zealanders, were killed boarding the Greek yacht Hellas at the port of Piraeus, near Athens.
In April 1941 New Zealand soldiers saw their first action of the war in Greece. Stationed at first in the mountainous area in the north, they withdrew under heavy German attack to Mt Olympus and from there to Thermopylae Pass.
