Today in History

1941 NZ troops arrive in Greece

The New Zealand Division's first foray into Second World War combat 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.

On 11 April a small number of troops from the 27 (Machine Gun) Battalion were captured at the Klidhi Pass, becoming the first members of the New Zealand Division to be taken as prisoners of war. A German breakthrough the following day forced the British and their Greek allies to abandon the Mt Olympus-Aliakmon line. Outgunned and outnumbered, the Allies retreated hurriedly down the peninsula. At the end of April more than 50,000 troops were evacuated, many of them being sent to garrison the island of Crete. There, in May, the New Zealanders and other Allied forces were to face an even more desperate battle and suffer another painful defeat at the hands of the Germans.

Image: New Zealand soldiers farewelled in Athens