The presidents and representatives of Greek associations and Greek orthodox parishes as well as representatives of the Greek Consulate General attended the Battle of Crete commemoration service recently at the Greek Orthodox church of St George in Brisbane.
The service was held by the Cretan Association of Queensland in conjunction with he Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia-Brisbane.
In his address at the service, Kostas Kaselakis president of Cretan Association of Queensland recalled the famous battle that began on 20 May, 1941with the descent of thousands of German paratroopers in a surprise attack on the island.
“Cretan civilians, along with Allied forces fought courageously to defend the island. … after 12 intense days of fighting, control of the island was lost to the German forces. Because of the heavy losses endured by the Germans during the Battle of Crete this was the only time the Nazi Germans utilised airborne attacks,” said Mr Kaselakis.
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“To the astonishment of both British and German forces, Cretans, including villagers, shepherds, old men, young boys, monks, priests and women, without any collusion between them or master plan or arms rose up at once and threw themselves on the invaders with little hesitation. This outraged the German military and resulted in indiscriminate killing and mass shootings of civilians,” he recounted.
“Today we honour all those Cretans, along with Greek, British, Australian and New Zealand troops that fought and died in the pursuit of freedom and democracy on Crete and in Greece during World War Two,” he said.
