GREEK CAMPAIGN SECRET

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 23, 2 May 1947, Page 6

GREEK CAMPAIGN SECRET

NINE DIVISIONS NEEDED The Greek Commander-in-Chief, General Alexander Papagos, in 1941 urged that'Britain should send nine divisions, with corresponding air support, to Greece, or none at all. This disclosure, with its interest to New Zealanders and Australians who fought one of their hardest campaigns in the retreat from Thermopylae to the coast, is>madeinthe English translation of General Papagps’ account of the Greek struggle against Germany and Italy. General Papagos, when discussing British aid, asked for the nine divisions, but General Wavell, according to Papagos, could promise only two or three, with a relatively small number of aircraft. In addition, he could only promise immediately—-mid-January—an artillery regiment and an armoured car unit.

The Greek Prime Minister replied that such trifling reinforcement would be .merely a pretext.

General Papagos reveals that he went to the Prime Minister and urged him to persuade the British not to send two or three divisions because they would not produce substantial military results in the Balkans. On the contrary, their dispatch, in* his view, would be contrary to sound strategy because it would be 'better to use them in Africa for exploitation of the victory just gained against the Italians. (This was the scheme on which the British staff was working when the troops were diverted to Greece/

General Papagos asserts that the British were influenced by political motives in sending troops because they felt that if Greece was crushed without the British fighting on her soil 'it would be a breach of earlier promises which might have provoked an outcry against the Government and unfavourably affected American opinion. Nevertheless, General Papagos expresses warm gratitude for the sacrifices on her behalf by British Commonwealth troops.