Date: Sunday 26 April

Time: 4.30pm

Venue: Barnet Long Room,
Customs House, 31 Alfred St, Circular Quay

Cost: Free Entry

Contact: 02 9750 0440

Language: English with Greek Translations

Author Website: www.mariahill.com.au

Presentation by: Dr Maria Hill
Visiting Fellow at UNSW@ADFA

Introduction and Greek summary by Dr Panayota Nazou- Lecturer in Greek Language, Literature and Culture, Department of Modern Greek Studies, University of Sydney

The talk will examine how Australian soldiers, who came from a predominately Anglo-Celtic background, gained the trust, friendship and support of the Greek people. How did the Greek people react to soldiers from a culture so different from their own? Some of the Australian veterans who fought in Greece and Crete in 1941 continued their friendship and correspondence for over 50 years with the Greek people they befriended in a battle so long ago.

What was it about this particular wartime experience that left such a lasting impression on both the Australians and the Greeks? Or is this special connection a product of wartime propaganda?

About the Speaker

Maria recently completed her PhD in Australian History at the Australian Defence Force Academy @ UNSW. University of New South Wales Press is publishing a book based on her research in October of this year. It deals with the Australian campaigns on mainland Greece and in Crete. It is the first book written about the Greek campaigns by an Australian historian of Greek descent. This has ensured that a Greek perspective has been included in the narrative.

As a female military historian Maria has examined the Greek campaigns from a ‘relational’ point of view rather than the more conventional ‘operational’ perspective. Her aim was to put human relations at the forefront of any discussions of these campaigns. For too long military campaigns have been viewed through the prism of military strategy, as if people’s emotions, temperament and behaviour had no bearing on what occurred in the battlefield and beyond.