With the Anzacs in Greece - Stories from Greece’s WW2 Anzac Trail – A New Book will commemorate Australia’s involvement in the Greek campaign of 1941

Next year will see the 80^th anniversary of the Greek campaign of April-May 1941. As part of the commemoration of the 75^th anniversary of the end of WW2, the Victorian Government has funded Melbourne’s Pammessinian Brotherhood Papaflessas for the production of a new book by historian Jim Claven to commemorate this campaign.

The book will re-telling the stories of some of the 17,000 Australians who took part in this defence of Greece against the German invasion. One of those was 23 year old Syd Grant from Horsham in Victoria’s Western District.

A wool classer by trade, Syd (pictured above) enlisted at Horsham’s Drill Hall in December 1939 and would serve with the 2/8^th Battalion. Syd’s story is that of the Anzacs in Greece. After arriving in Piraeus, they made their way north to meet the German’s in battle. What followed was a series of dogged, bitter rear-guard actions as the Allies fell back under the weight of the German onslaught. Syd and the Allies would suffer constant air attacks as they moved south from the Aliakmon River and on through central and southern Greece. Syd was one of the thousands of diggers who made his way to Kalamata to await embarkation to Crete. He would record his experience of the Greek campaign in letters home, post-war tape recordings and in photographs, many of which will feature in the book.

It was at Kalamata that Syd would wait with thousands of other Allied soldiers for the hoped for evacuation, where he would take photographs (picture at top). Thousands were taken off in this “second Dunkirk” but others – including Syd - were unable to be evacuated. He wrote of those desperate days, of trying to swim in the dark out to what they thought were Allied ships, only to return to the waterfront. Here Syd would be one of the 8,000 Allied soldiers captured by the Germans as they entered Kalamata.

But Syd’s war did not end there. Along with many others, he was able to escape and make his way along the coast of the area known as the Mani, eventually reaching the small seaside village of Trahila. Here Syd and his Allied comrades were looked after by the local community, hidden in a local disused building and fed by local women who brought food to them (pictured above). He even had time to take photographs of locals at the Trahila harbour (pictured below). Syd and the others would be evacuated a few days later by the British warship HMS Hero. Syd would be taken to Crete and then back to Egypt.

The campaign would not be forgotten by those who took part. After the war following his return to Australia, Syd would name his farm simply “Kalamata” in remembrance of the campaign and the locals who helped him evade capture (pictured above). His daughter Catherine tells of her father’s journey’s to Melbourne so he could obtain some of his beloved kalamata olives. And Syd would make his own personal pilgrimage in 1977 back to the waterfront of Kalamata and the village of Trahila. As Catherine says “the memory of his service was never far from Syd’s mind. He cherished his photographs and the way it captured the life of his mates and those who helped them when they were on the run all those years ago in Greece. He never forgot the generosity and bravery of the Greek people.”

Syd’s story is echoed in the other’s that will be recounted in the book, from Red Cliff’s Captain Gray the Western District’s Private Alfred Huggins, St Kilda’s Private James Zampelis and many others.

The book will also reproduce photographs taken during the campaign by Australian soldiers never before published. It will also contain reflections on visiting today many of the key locations associated with the campaign. The book will contain maps and be illustrated with both archival and modern photographs from the author’s personal collection to aid the commemorative traveler. The book will be an aid to students, historians and family members with connections to these aspects of Australia’s commemorative history and assist in those seeking to visit these locations.

Jim Claven who holds Bachelor and Masters Degrees from Melbourne’s Monash University, is a published author and Secretary of the Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee. He has been researching the Anzac link to Greece across both world wars for many years and has written many articles on this connection. He recently had published Lemnos & Gallipoli Revealed: A Pictorial History of the Anzacs in the Aegean 1915-16, which was also supported by the Victorian Veterans Grants programs.

Thanks to Catherine Bell for permission to reproduce Syd Grants photographs