Arrangements for the Greek Operation

<p>Both the Australian and New Zealand governments, after learning the truth about the Greek operation still agreed to participate, but both wanted assurance that plans were ready for a withdrawal when the operation was seen to fail. An interesting point is that both the Australian prime minister, Mr. Menzies, and General Blamey had both asked if the Australian general Blamey should be the commander of the operation. In late February 1941, General Blamey had informed Mr. Menzies that he had made the suggestion to General Wavell. The reasoning was that most of the troops involved were "Dominion", meaning Australian and New Zealand. The Australian defense secretary, Mr. Shedden had made the same suggestion for the same reason. General Blamey had bee in the A.I.F. in the Great War, and had seen the same problem. Many Dominion troops and all commanded by British officers. One factor in favor of Blamey is that his staff had been in existence for almost a year. They were all very top men. General Wilson had an ad hoc group, to which he had just added Brigadier Galloway.</p>

<p>With the Greek campaign pending, General Blamey had to deal with commanding the corps in the Greek Operation as well as commanding the rest of the AIF. As events developed, British forces were "trickled into Greece". By the end of February 1941, the British had 7 squadrons in Greece. They proceeded to expand this further.</p>

<p>By early March, a portion of the 1st Armoured Brigade, advance units of the I Australian Corps, New Zealand Division, and the 6th Australian Division were carried to Greece  ub three cruisers. This is based on the account in "Greece Crete and Syria" by Gavin Long.</p>