Greece & Crete FallenPrint Page

The plaque commemorates the personnel who died in service or were killed in action in Greece and Crete during World War Two.

The plaque location is indicated by the red poppy in the second image. 

In March and April 1941 the British sent over 58,000 servicemen and women to the defence of Greece and of these 17,125 were Australians of the 6th Division, AIF. The force as a whole suffered over 2,500 dead, 3,400 wounded and over 25,000 taken prisoner. Australian losses were 594 dead, 1,001 wounded and 5,132 Prisoners of War.

For the Greek people the war was a disaster. An estimated 540,000 Greeks perished during the German, Italian and Bulgarian occupation of 1941-44. They died of hunger, were shot in reprisals and during guerrilla operations or, if they were Jews, they died in concentration camps in Germany.

During and since the Second World War close bonds of friendship have existed between Greece and Australia. Hundreds of servicemen not evacuated by the main force were helped by the Greek people, at great personal risk, to escape from the mainland and from Crete. After the war, hundreds of thousands of Greeks made their homes in Australia where today they form one of the largest native-born Greek communities outside Greece.

Note: This plaque was dedicated on 1 January 2002 at a ceremony held at the Australian War Memorial. Note that the dedication ceremony for this plaque was rescheduled, and as such differs from the date as inscribed on the plaque.

Location

Details

Dedication