Did you know?

• 83% of the Australian soldiers captured by the Italians and Germans came from the Greek and Crete campaigns?


• That the Australians who fought on the Greek mainland were the only ‘Anzac corps’ to fight in World War Two?


• That the campaign in Greece is regarded as the ‘Second Gallipoli’, yet is rarely discussed and often ignored?


• The Diggers who fought in Greece and Crete were never issued with a campaign medal?


• The soldiers were forbidden for many years to wear the medal issued to them by the Greek government on Anzac Day?


• The Aussies endured some of the worst aerial bombardment of World War Two, causing many to suffer from war neurosis or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?


• That Greece was rife with ‘fifth columnists’ or German collaborators and sympathizers who did not want to fight the Germans?


• The relationship they developed with the Greek people during the war, saved over one thousand Australian lives?

So why is there such a ‘silence’ on the subject?

‘It has always annoyed me that we never got an Australian medal for Greece and Crete or a European medal, but the New Zealanders got it but for fighting in Italy, not for fighting in Greece‘ explained Keith Hooper of the 2/6th Australian Infantry Battalion, ‘I always felt you don’t find much about Greece and Crete in many histories and I always felt that the British were a bit ashamed of that campaign.’

And was it any wonder, given the disaster of the Greek campaign where Australian troops were deployed on a suicidal mission or the debacle of Crete, a campaign that should have been won by the allies but instead resulted in the capture of most of the Australian forces at Rethymnon.

Please join me in my quest to get a campaign medal issued to the veterans of the Greek campaigns by the Australian government for the 70th anniversary in 2011, by signing the online petition.