Our service this year went well but because of rain it was held in the Chapel. However, the rain did stop so, after the service, we were able to take the wreaths down to the Greek Grove and lay them at our altar, where, once again, the last post and reveille were played.
The service was led by Father Theodoros Polyviou (Father Theo) of the Greek Orthodox Church, Coventry. Father John, who led our service for many years has now retired. We, at the Brotherhood are very grateful for the many years that Father John served us and send him and Georgina very best wishes for a long and happy retirement. We are delighted to report that Father Theo has agreed to take on the role of Brotherhood Padre.
We were also delighted to welcome, once again, Captain Nikolaos Filias, HN, Greek Defence Attaché, together with Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Lias, Australian Defence Force; Lieutenant Colonel David W Dawber – Mercian Regiment; Major John Miller, Royal Engineers; and Major Barrington Harvey, Royal Signals.
Five standards were carried by the following ‘volunteers’: Richard Greville, Ted Gummer, Paul Hadwin, Colin Pleavin and Peter Simpson.
Janet Parkin gave a short welcome speech and reiterated, as always, how important it is not to forget the 1941 Greek Campaign and the sacrifices made.
This was followed by an address from our Chairman, David Sanderson. This is an abridged version of his speech:
`’Over one and a quarter million Axis forces were involved, against a combined Greek and Allied force of around 500,000, in the Battle for Greece. The German forces were not only larger, but they were better equipped, and, crucially, they had control over the skies. Britain had committed a force of approximately 60,000 personnel, made up principally of British, Australian and New Zealand troops – who arrived in Greece in early 1941.
It was an ill-fated campaign. Once Germany had invaded Greece on 6 April 1941, a decision was soon taken that the Allies should leave Greece for Crete – and so, a long journey started – to the southern ports of Nauplion, Monevasia, Raffini and Kalamata. It was a perilous retreat – and soon – like Dunkirk, it turned into a race to move thousands of men by boat to somewhere safer. This time however, there weren’t hundreds of small boats waiting to take our forces away from danger – only the Royal Navy.
The Navy did a magnificent job – transporting around 52,000 of the 60,000 or so of our forces away to Crete. Unfortunately, around 8,000 men were left behind and most were taken as POW’s by the Germans to Stalag 18a in Wolfsberg, Austria.
Each year when saying these few words, I like to mention a couple of veterans for us to remember on this day. Today, I’m going to mention Allan Slocombe and George Dexter.
Sapper Allan Slocombe of the Royal Engineers, 292 Field Company, survived the bombing of the Clan Fraser, an ammunition ship in Piraeus harbour, which caused tremendous devastation in Piraeus. Allan was literally blown out of his bed by the explosion. His unit was subsequently involved with the blowing up of bridges in the retreat south. He was then involved in the street fighting which took place in Kalamata.
Once the decision had been made to surrender at Kalamata, Allan along with others set off along the coast and took shelter in a cave. After a few days Allan was captured and imprisoned at Corinth. He witnessed a visit by Heinrich Himmler and his SS entourage. He had to endure a fifty mile march to Salonica – before he eventually ended up in Marburg, Yugoslavia.
The other person I would especially like to remember is George Dexter of the Royal Army Service Corps. George was one of only 8 soldiers, 41 seamen and 1 officer to survive the sinking of SS Slamat on 27th April 1941. Of the 500 people on board the Slamat only 50 survived. As the Slamat was sinking (and still under dive bomb attack) HMS Diamond and HMS Wryneck went to her assistance. George was dragged aboard HMS Wryneck, only for that ship to also be sunk. He managed to scramble on to a rescue boat, and was eventually picked up by HMS Orion and taken to Crete. 843 men lost their lives on that day. Many years later, George commissioned a memorial stone in honour of those who died on the day he was saved. The memorial stone sits here at the Greek Grove.
It is often claimed that the Greek campaign was not a complete disaster. By committing some of his best divisions to Greece, Hitler delayed his planned invasion of Russia by six crucial weeks. Whether that was ever intended or not, the delay meant the Germans had to contend with the Russian winter, which undoubtedly contributed significantly to a Russian victory on the Eastern Front. I for one like to believe that is true, and that our parents/grandparents did not go through what they did in vain.”
After David Sanderson’s address, six wreaths were laid by the following:
Captain Filias , Greek Defence Attaché; Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Lias, Australian Defence Force; and Brotherhood members Buster Beckett in memory of the Prisoners of War; Mrs Margaret Stanbridge on behalf of the Widows; Mark Buttery in memory of Deceased Members and Mr David Sanderson on behalf of the Brotherhood.
Barry Parkin gave the oration and acted as Parade Marshall.