For the second year in a row Melbourne’s great Anzac Day parade saw members of Melbourne’s Hellenic community dressed in traditional costume march with veterans of the Greek and Crete campaigns of 1941.
They had been invited by three veterans associations – the Australian 2/7th Infantry Battalion, 2/6th Infantry Battalion and 2/2nd Field Regiment – to join them in commemorating the service of the men of these and all other Australian units who served in the campaign that raged across the Greek mainland and Crete, in 1941.
Last year, members of the Pancretan Association of Melbourne were invited to march and this year they were joined by young representatives from Melbourne’s Peloponnesian Dance Group.
Mr Tony Tsourdalakis, Secretary of the Battle of Crete and Greece Commemorative Council said it was an honour to be invited to take part.
“This is the second year that we have been invited. We do so to respect the service of all those young Australians who came to Greece and Crete in the dark days of war, who were welcomed and supported by the local population – and for both of whom the memories have never faded.”
Mr Lachlan McPherson, President of the 2/2nd Field Regiment Association and Mr Roger Walker, President of the 2/7th Infantry Battalion Association thanked the members of the Pancretan Association of Melbourne who paraded with their unit in traditional Cretan costumes.
It was particularly heartening for those from Melbourne’s Cretan community to join with Les Manning of the 2/7th Battalion, veteran of the Greek and Crete campaigns, who recently celebrated his 104th birthday.
Stacey Kanellakos from the Peloponnesian Dance Group, said how proud she and the other young members were in representing the Peloponnese for the first time in Melbourne’s Anzac Day parade.
One of the young people who marched on Anzac Day with the 2/6th Infantry Battalion Association was George Panagiotakakos. This was particularly appropriate given the connection between George’s family and the service of this Australian Battalion.
George’s grandfather – Christos Tsatsaris – was born in Corinth and 12 years old when the Second World War broke out. As a young boy, Christos would have witnessed the arrival of the soldiers of the 2/6th Battalion at Corinth on Anzac Day 1941.
These young soldiers, the vast majority in their early 20s and all from Melbourne and Victoria, had arrived at Corinth’s famous canal to defend it against German attack. The next day – 26 April 1941 – they faced the massive German air assault on the canal. Despite hard fighting, the Australians and the other Allied forces at the canal were overwhelmed. Two hundred were captured, others killed and injured, and some were able to complete their withdrawal south to the evacuation ports of the Peloponnese.
One of those soldiers was Tom Devery. He managed to be evacuated with the other 42,000 Allied troops from the Greek mainland and arrived on Crete. Tom would fight on Crete, eventually making his way south as the Allied forces retreated to the evacuation port of Sfakia. Like thousands of others, Tom was unable to be evacuated and was hidden and supported by Cretan villagers near the Monastery of Preveli on the southern coast of Crete. Eventually he was captured and sent to Germany.
One of those marching with the 2/6th Infantry Association on Anzac Day was Tom’s daughter, Shirley. Shirley said that she was glad that Melbourne’s Hellenic community had come out and supported the veterans and their families of the Greek campaign.
“My father had enormous respect for the Greek people. They hid and supported him, despite the grave dangers they faced for doing so from the Germans on Crete. It was lovely to meet young George in his traditional Corinthian costume and the other members of the Hellenic community who were able to join us on Anzac Day.”
George was part of the contingent of Melbourne Hellenes who dressed in traditional Hellenic costume – from Crete and the Peloponnese – to support the Anzacs who fought in Greece and Crete and their descendents.
On a personal note, like tens of thousands of other Hellenes, George’s grandfather took the brave decision to leave the land of his birth and build a new life in Australia after the war. He sailed on the ship Tasmania in 1956, to be followed by other siblings later in the 1950s. In Australia he met and married Panagiota and had two children: Mary, George’s mother, and son Andrew. The family established and ran a convenience store in Carlton for many years and later a delicatessen until they retired. Every year Christos and Panagiota return to Corinth.
Australia’s migration story has enriched our community. And through the experience of the Anzacs, Greece and Australia have this added dimension to the connection between two Hellenes and Australians.
The story of George of Corinthian heritage, and Shirley, whose father joined up and saw service defending Greece in 1941 are just two of the personal stories which add this rich dimension to Australia and Greece’s story.
Some 17,000 Australian service personnel – including soldiers, sailors and nurses – served in the campaign on mainland Greece, part of the 60,000 Allied forces sent to assist Greece face the coming Axis invasion. Six and a half thousand Australians went on to serve on Crete as part of the nearly 40,000 Allied defence forces – including 10,000 Greek soldiers – who would face the German invasion in May 1941. These Australians were also supported by civilian Greek people who hid and supported them, and who took part in the valiant resistance to the Axis occupation.
*For more information on the Greek and Crete campaign commemorative events planned for Victoria across this year, please contact Mr Tony Tsourdalakis, Secretary of the Battle of Crete and Greece Commemorative Council via email at tony@tsourdalakis.com