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Our Committee is raising funds to create a lasting legacy telling the story of Lemnos' link to Gallipoli and Australia's Anzac story. Our projects include the Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial in Albert Park, the publication of a major new historical and pictorial publication and more. To make a donation you can also deposit directly by direct debit into the Committee's bank account: Account Name: Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee Inc; Bank: Bendigo Bank; Account No: 188010037; BSB No: 633000; Include your surname in the reference section. For further information on our legacy projects or to make a donation please contact either Lee Tarlamis 0411553009 or Jim Claven 0409402388M

Wednesday, 29 November 2017

Lemnos and WW2 - A story of Occupation and Liberation

German troops marching through the capital of Lemnos, Myrina, 1941. Web

October is an important month in Hellenic military history. It is the month that many Islands were liberated and joined to Greece in the Balkan War of 1912-13. And it is the months of Oxi Day in 1940. However October is also the month in 1944 when the Greek Resistance, Hellenic Army and other Allied forces combined to expel the Axis (and overwhelmingly German) forces that had occupied Greece since May 1941.
To illustrate this liberation, I have written two stories on the experience of one Island - the Island of Lemnos.
HMS Argonaut. web

For so it was on Lemnos in October 1944 that a combined Allied, Hellenic and Resistance force confronted the Germans who had occupied the Island for four years and liberated the Island. The liberation would include the British Royal Navy warship, HMS Argonaut.
To read and download the story of Lemnos' occupation, click here.
To read and download the story of Lemnos' liberation, click here.
Alternatively, you can read the on-line versions at the Neos Kosmos website:
Lemnos' occupation - click here.
Lemnos' liberation - click here. 
Greek Sacred Squadron and Liberation memorial, Myrina, Lemnos. Photo Jim Claven 2015
I have been generously assisted in producing these articles by those who witnessed it and their families. I acknowledge the work of Lemnos historian Aristides Tsotroudis on Lemnos’ occupation and liberation. I am indebted to Angelo Kalomiris and Chris Mingos from Kontias, Nikolaos and his daughters Liza and Haroula Koutsaplis from Tsimandria, as well as Dimitris Boulotis, for sharing their memories with me.
Anyone with more stories of the occupation and liberation of Lemnos should contact Jim Claven via email – jimclaven@yahoo.com.au

Jim Claven
Secretary
Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee
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1 comment:

  1. Jan Kirstein3 August 2021 at 02:43

    Alfons Heising was an antifascist in german uniform (XXII. Strafbatalion). He came to Lemnos in September 1944 and stayed there for 14 days. On 11. of Occtober he escaped to ELAS near Askos in Northern Greece. I have 5 pages from his stay in Lemnos from my translation of the german book: Henny Heising: Alfons Heising. Geschichten 1928-1948. Kleinbarkau, 1977 - into danish. From 1948 he became a sculptor. Born 1903 and died in 1975.

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