Exhibition marks Crete anniversary

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 9, Issue 388, 28 May 1991, Page 4

Exhibition marks Crete anniversary

The Waiouru QEII Army Memorial Museum's latest major exhibition opened officially last week to coincide with the commemoration this month of the 50th anniversary of the New Zealand Army's fight in Crete in the Second World War.

The Crete display was officially opened by the Greek Consulate Iaonnos Papadopoulos, who spoke to the gathering of the tremendous cost in terms of New Zealand, Greek and other Allied lives in the campaign to save Crete from German invasion in May 1941. He said the campaign had brought the peoples of New Zealand and Greece, especially Crete close together. Major General Bruce Meldrum was at the cer- . emony and he thanked the staff who worked on the exhibition, includ- ' ing the husband and wife team of Mark and Sue Skellern, and Kelvin Ripia. Mark Skellern headed and orchestrated the exhibition construction. After a prayer for those who suffered and died in the campaign and a prayer of dedication at the memorial alcove the guest of honour, Brigadier J.T.Burrows spoke about the campaign and then cut the ribbon to the exhibition. In attendance at the ceremony were a group of 16 Crete veterans, the president of the Cretan

Association Chris Anastasiadis, the president of the Crete Veterans' Association Ted Moore, and Don Scotte of KPMG Peat Marwick, the sponsors of the exhibition, as well as a number of other dignitaries and staff. To the viewer the exhibition starts with a wall map and electronically triggered voice commentary which explains the situation leading up to the at-

tempts to defend the Greek island of Crete from a German paratroop and sea invasion. As with the rest of the exhibition the map display can be viewed quickly to get an overview of what was happening and then move on to take in the next display, or the viewer can spend more time looking into detail about the campaign. Next in line is a display depicting Allied soldiers on patrol in the defence of a Greek village. In the display are three soldiers, based on past and present museum staff members Ricki Kingi, Chris Howe and The next display

Ralph Hindel. Finally a display has been included to look at the cost of the campaign. This is a "What did you do in the war daddy" display - with a returned soldier shown sitting in a New Zealand living room with his medals and photograph album while a voiceover has him talking to his wife and children about the campaign. A

video screen shows the photographs as he explains them. The display will be open until 1993 when an exhibition commemorating the 50th anniversary of a number of Pacific WWII campaigns will be set up. shows the aerial invasion by the Germans and, while only one paratrooper is modellcd, with the use of lighting

the impression of several others is created. Part of the display is a group of Allied soldiers, one a machine-gunner, set up in a model of the terraced vineyards in which much of the fighting took place. A slide screen above helps to create the impression of the massive German invasion. Behind and under the terrace model is depicted the cave

where General Freyberg was forced to work in organising the defence of ihe island. Leading on, the viewer comes to a display of ihe evacuation over the high mountain range that runs the length of Crete. The demoralised state of the troops is depicted here, and the harrowing time they faced in escaping to the evacuation points on the south coast.