Australian historian and author Dr Peter Ewer will present a lecture entitled ‘First Victory: the defence of Greece, 1940’ at the Greek Centre of Contemporary Culture next week.
Taking place as a part of the Greek History and Culture Seminars offered by the Greek Community of Melbourne (GCM), the free event will be a chance to learn more about the defeat of the Italian invasion of Greece in October 1941.
The first successful land campaign for the Allied cause in the Second World War, to this day, outside of Greece, Dr Ewer believes the achievement has never received the recognition it deserves.
This battle saw the Greek people defend themselves from fascist aggression for more than six months, successfully changing the course of the war. For this reason, it would be timely to recall the ‘first victory’ on the 75th anniversary of the later German invasion of Greece.
In 2008 Dr Ewer’s book Forgotten Anzacs: the campaign in Greece, 1941 was the first extensive re-examination of the Greek campaign since the publication of the official histories in Australia and New Zealand in the 1950s. The revised edition, published this year also incorporates fresh archival research into British planning for the campaign, shedding new light on the ANZAC contribution to the defence of Greece.
The lecturer and author also served as the historical advisor to the 42nd Street Memorial Trust, the community organisation that built the memorial at Tsikalaria Street in Tsikalaria, Crete to commemorate the fighting there on 27 May, 1941.
The lecture will take place on Thursday 1 September at the Greek Centre, Level M, 168 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, VIC at 7.00pm.
