The weather turns bad in Greece: 8 April 1941

Conditions in Greece were getting increasingly difficult for the British and Dominion troops. Not only were the Germans driving forward from Bulgaria, but on 8 April 1941, snow started to fall in the mountains. The valleys got rain at the same time. From the mountains, when conditions cleared enough, the Australians could see Salonika and Yugoslavia, where battles were being fought. The Australians had little protection from the weather, as there was only one tent per platoon. They also had great difficulty communicating with the people they encountered, due to the scarcity of interpreters. The Australians also observed that the Greeks were largely untrained. The Greeks sited their one machine gun in an unprotected position and then piled up rocks to drop on the Germans when they came. This is based on the account in Vol.II of the Australian Official History.