This newspaper lost one of its own defending isles
Historian Malcolm Goode looks back at the German invasion of Greece in 1941, following a mediocre attempt by the Italians, and how this resulted in the deaths of several Burton servicemen
HAVING invaded and occupied Albania, Mussolini ordered the invasion of Greece to commence on October 28, 1940.
At dawn Italian troops in Albania crossed the Greek border.
In accordance with agreements reached in April 1939 between Britain and Greece where Britain would come to the aid of Greece if attacked, Churchill and his generals were now looking to see where troops could be found to honour that promise.
The answer to the problem would eventually be an expeditionary force made up from General Wavell’s force fighting the North African campaign, and also against the Italian army and air force.
Between the time of their entry into Greece and late March 1941, the war for the Italians had not gone well. The army had not been equipped, clothed or fed by their government to face the winter months, never mind a determined enemy, and by March the lack of conviction shown by Mussolini’s troops was causing concern to Hitler.
His troops had occupied Romania in readiness to use its oil fields for when he put into operation his secret plan to invade Russia [Operation Barbarossa].
What concerned him most was that if the British forces helped to push the Italians out of Greece,they might well find themselves on the Romanian border. Hitler was afraid that if this happened it would jeopardise the security of his plan for Russia.
In order to pre-empt any problems, he ordered the invasion of Yugoslavia on April 6, 1941. So successful was this action that the German army were able to cross the border into Greece on April 9.
Such was the impetus of the German 2nd Armoured Division that they captured the Greek city of Thessaloniki and pushed on south taking 70,000 Greek troops Prisoners of War. Fifteen German divisions pushed on towards the Aegean, where they came up against the Greek forces and the British expeditionary force.
The British commander in Greece, General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, could see a repetition of the debacle at Dunkirk, so he ordered the British expedition force to retire, fighting a rear-guard action to harbours close to Athens where his troops could be evacuated by the Royal Navy from the Peloponnese to Suda Bay on Crete.
The final 45,000 British and Commonwealth troops, with a sizeable contingent of Polish troops, were evacuated on April 30, 1941, to Crete.
This was a swift and magnificent victory for the Germans, befitting their reputation for blitzkrieg. However, just as it was at Dunkirk, the Germans had failed in their intention of wiping out the entire British expeditionary force; but they now occupied the whole of the Aegean coastline.
The five servicemen listed below were killed in action in the retreat from the Greek mainland. Three of them have no known grave and are therefore named on the Athens War Memorial built after the war.
Leading Signalman Arthur Deaves, who had worked for the Burton Daily Mail and The Burton Observer, along with all the crew and troops rescued from Greece, went down with his ship HMS Diamond. None of their bodies were ever recovered.
LOST IN GREECE
HAIR, ALASTAIR: Lieutenant, Royal Army Medical Corps. Killed in action on April 15, 1941, aged 37. Son of the Rev James Hair and Catherine Hair, of St Michael’s Church, Tatenhill. Husband of Dora Bannatyne Hair.
WRIGHT, KENNETH ERNEST: Sapper, Royal Engineers. Killed in action, April 15, aged 21. Son of Ernest and Constance Wright of Burton.
WALKER, SAMUEL ARTHUR ALBERT: Bombardier, (Lancashire Fusiliers) Light Anti -Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery. Killed in action between April 26 and 27, 1941, aged 27.
CLEWS. JAMES: Driver, Reserve Motor Transport Company. Killed in action between April 28 and 30, 1941. Born in Yoxall.
DEAVES. ARTHUR ARCHIE ALFRED: Leading Signalman, HMS Diamond. Killed in action on April 27, 1941, aged 25. Son of Mary Deaves and husband of Muriel Deaves, of Wyggeston Street, Prior to joining the Royal Navy Arthur had been employed in the print room of the Burton Daily Mail and The Burton Observer.