Customer Reviews

The Struggle for Greece, 1941-1949

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This book tells almost nothing about Axis occupation of Greece 1941-1944. There's no description at all of occupation regimes and domestic collaboration with Axis powers, little about the life in Greece during the occupation, while the military situation in Greece and battles fought there between the occupation powers and the resistance are also not duly dealt with.
After the WW II, there's insufficient attention given to political and social developments in Greece other than those related to the Communist insurgency. Elections and the referendum on republic vs. monarchy in 1946 are barely mentioned, with no results presented. On the other hand, the autor delved too deep into details in describing some battles.
On the positive side, this book is good in describing activities of the Greek Communist party, the role of foreign factors in Greece affairs and the civil war 1946-1946, its military aspect, in particular.

This is a "must" book for anyone seriously interested in the events in Greece during and after WW-II. The author was part (and eventually the head) of the British mission with the Greek guerillas so he was an intimate observer of what was happening. I lived in Greece during these awful years and in spite of my young age (I was 15 at the end of the period described in the book) I have a lot of recollections (when people shoot at each other in the streets in your town you take an early interest in politics). I found the book quite impartial and comprehensive. (I am sure that parts of it will infuriate the right and other parts will infuriate the left.) The author correctly points out that the Greek civil war was primarily an internal affair and external influences (by the communist countries in favor of the left and the US and Britain in favor of the right) were not as big as each side claim about the other. His closing statement is that (to the Soviets) "The rank and file of the KKE, and in particular its leaders, were expendable. Without a trace of compunction, Stalin let them go to their doom." Elsewhere (p. 233) he points out (correctly in my opinion) that "The rebels failed because the mass of the Greek people was against them." The internal nature of the conflict (with outsiders providing material support but not manpower except in one brief phase) is a fact that was forgotten when the Greek civil war was used as a paradigm to justify the US participation in the war in Vietnam.

The book describes at length the inconsistent behavior of the communist leadership but it does not mention what, in my opinion, was the main reason for that behavior. During the German occupation many people joined the communist led resistance to fight the Germans. Many of them were also not happy with the Greek government that was in power before WW-II. The communist leadership mistaken thought that these people would also be in favor of a socialist state. As the communist leadership pressed harder more and more people turned against it. Therefore the large support they had during WW-II eventually evaporated. The true attitudes of the Greek people are described very well in the book "Eleni" by Nicholas Gage. Readers who are not familiar with modern Greek history may also find "Eleni" easier to read. Personally I believe the two books complement each other very well.

Very intereseted book for someone who likes to read and lern the real story.I like Amazon because most of the times I fount what I want.