Book review L. Hassiotis Welcome English Lads! British soldiers in Greece, 1941-1947 Historein 21: (original) (raw)
Related papers
Diary of a Disaster: British Aid to Greece, 1940-1941
The American Historical Review, 1988
The Garland Bibliographies in Military History with Jacob W. Kipp (1984-) viii Diary of a Disaster have experienced the excitement of seeing the truth unfold, often in contradiction to statements in memoirs and official histories. In Greece, Lieutenant-General Joannis Metaxakis, Head of the Greek Army History Directorate, was particularly helpful, as were Major-General Konstantinos Kanakaris and other Greek officers. General Kanakaris not only took me on tours in 1979 and 1980 from Athens to Florina, Thessalonika, the Monastir Gap, and Kalamata, so that I could view the ground, but also in 1981 translated the newly released Greek documents so that I could cross-check the British and Greek versions of key meetings. He also checked the manuscript of the book for errors. Dr. Michael Llewellyn Smith was kind enough to show me the old British legation building in Athens in 1980. I must also add my thanks to two participants in the events of 1940-1941, the late Major-General Sir Guy Salisbury-Jones and General Sir James Marshall-Cornwall, who together with my colleagues on this side of the Atlantic, Alan Wilt of Iowa State University, Edward M. Coffman of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and R.H. Roy of the University of Victoria, read and commented upon the manuscript. To them all I am most grateful. Errors remaining, of course, are my own. "The margin is narrow and the risk is considerable." Eden and Dill to Churchill from Athens,
Heritage and Memory of the First World War in Greece during the Interwar Period
2018
The memory of the First World War in Greece has suffered throughout the years a gradual decline, which is comparable to the case of many other countries, mostly in areas of Eastern and Southeastern Europe. The Great War mattered somehow for politicians, the press and public opinion in Greece only in the interwar years. During that period, discourse about the First World War included the echo of traumatic events related to Greek involvement in the war (such as the surrender of Fort Roupel to Central Powers forces and the bloody clashes of December 1916 in Athens after the landing of Entente troops) and the efforts to erect war memorials as a tribute to the sacrifice of fallen soldiers, both Greeks and foreigners. At the same time, the Greek people had the opportunity to learn a lot about the international dimension of the war through newspapers, where translated memoirs of leading wartime figures (of both alliances) were published. After the outbreak of the Second World War, interest in the previous major conflict (including the Greek role in the hostilities) significantly diminished in the country. Taking into consideration the ongoing experience of the centenary manifestations, the author proposes a codification of the main types (existing or potential) of WWI memory in Greece and suggests new ways of approaching this major historical event. The final chapter addresses some possible causes of the troublesome relation of Greeks with the First World War, which is mainly due to the very particular circumstances of Greek involvement in the war and the determining role of later historical events that overshadowed memories of the earlier conflict.
"A gift from God": Anglo-Greek relations during the dictatorship of the Greek colonels
The Historical Review / La Revue Historique, Vol. XI, 2014
The focus of this article is an analysis of the Greek junta’s relations with the Wilson and Heath governments in the United Kingdom from 1967 to 1974. Emphasis is placed on diplomatic relations between the two traditional allies. The reactions of the military leaders of the regime in Athens and its representatives in Britain to policies pursued by London towards the establishment, consolidation and eventual demise of the colonels’ dictatorship are presented through the examination (for the first time) of official documents from both the UK and Greece. It is argued that the Greek military regime struggled to cultivate relations with Britain primarily for reasons of domestic and international prestige. Whereas Whitehall pursued a policy of “good working relations” with the junta in order to promote British interests vis-à-vis NATO, Cyprus and trade, the leadership in Athens was solely interested in using British support to gain legitimacy internationally and domestically.
The article examines aspects of the long history of a major field of public debate in the second half of the twentieth century, that of the Greek 1940s, taking as its starting point the recent “history war” in Greece. It attempts to trace histories and memories from the immediate postwar years and to place them within a broader process: the historisation of the Second World War in Europe. In that context, the article begins by exploring one part of the initial efforts to form a European history of the resistance, from the perspective of the Greek case. Then, the focus is transferred to Greece, and to the mapping of a constellation of different memory and history communities, and the practices of history of the same period: the activities of veteran partisans and eye-witnesses with regard to their contribution to the formation of the first narratives on the war is a core issue at this level. Last, by following the developments in the academy and the politics of history during the Metapolitefsi, the focus returns to the current discussion, attempting a first approach to the subject through the strings that connect it with the past and, at the same time, as a debate of the twenty-first century.
Balcanica, 2018
The memory of the First World War in Greece has suffered throughout the years a gradual decline, which is comparable to the case of many other countries, mostly in areas of Eastern and Southeastern Europe. The Great War mattered somehow for politicians, the press and public opinion in Greece only in the interwar years. During that period, discourse about the First World War included the echo of traumatic events related to Greek involvement in the war(such as the surrender of Fort Roupel to Central Powers forces and the bloody clashes of December 1916 in Athens after the landing of Entente troops) and the efforts to erect war memorials as a tribute to the sacrifice of fallen soldiers, both Greeks and foreigners. At the same time, the Greek people had the opportunity to learn a lot about the international dimension of the war through news?papers, where translated memoirs of leading wartime figures (of both alliances) were published. After the outbreak of the Second World War, interest...