#grelicks

Top: Haidari, Athens, Greece, late October 1940.

This comes from the family archives of a dear friend of mine; her grandfather, Thanassis Stanopoulos, is seen standing, first from right, wearing glasses and the sergeant’s insignia on his sleeve. Stanopoulos, married, with two children at the time, was mobilised on 28.10.1940, the very first day of the Greco-Italian War of 1940-1941. He served in “A” Company of the 5th Engineer Battalion. The photo shown here was taken in late October 1940 in Haidari, Athens, where the unit was formed. On 2.11.1940, the company sailed to Salonica and then proceeded on foot through northern Greece into Albania... following the combat units, just behind the front line.

Btm: The above photo is now featured on the cover of the book Γαιόσακοι και γκράδες (Sandbags and Gras rifles) just published today... with the war recollections of Stanopoulos written in the 1970s: a very humane and rather antiheroic account of someone serving in WWII, edited by the author’s granddaughter and yours truly.

Agfa