greece

Greece/Crete — April–May 1941

There was a row of Germans standing behind us. They all had automatic weapons whereas we only had old .303s. We had no hope of doing anything. They were shouting at us to surrender. We had no option.

Colin Burn, 18 Battalion, in Megan Hutching (ed.), A unique sort of battle: New Zealanders remember Crete, 2001

Before you interview any veterans of this campaign, we recommend you read our Guide to recording oral history.  

• Background notes
• Suggested questions

Background notes

The brief Greek campaign was the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force's (2 NZEF) first major operation in the Second World War. It was a baptism of fire. The New Zealand Division was part of a force sent to northern Greece in early 1941 to meet the possibility of a German attack.

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.

The New Zealand Division’s first experience of combat in the Second World War was to end in a dispiriting defeat. British forces were first sent to Greece in November 1940, following an unsuccessful invasion by the Italians the previous month. The New Zealanders arrived in March to bolster Allied defences, but on 6 April 1941 German forces invaded both Yugoslavia and Greece, dramatically changing the situation in south-eastern Europe.

In April 1941 New Zealand soldiers saw their first action of the Second World 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. Survivors of this baptism of fire were evacuated from Kalamata in the south, many of them to Crete.