Second World War Tour 2025: Anzac Day in Athens - Greece and Crete

 

On the 6 April 1941 the German Army launched its attack against the Greeks on the Metaxas Line and the Imperial Expeditionary Force at Florina. The Allied force was pushed off Greece by 28 April and so began the Battle of Crete.

Join our memorial tour lead by Lt-Colonel Ron Lyons (retd), Vice President, Military History Society of NSW, in conjunction with Battlefield History Tours, to Greece and Crete visiting the battlefields where the 6th Division and the New Zealand Division confronted the German Army.

This is a special tour developed for the very special purpose that we hope will, in a small way, ensure that this part of Australian and New Zealand history is not forgotten. As we visit the battle sites, each with an informative briefing, we will meet the local dignitaries who maintain our military heritage and pay our respects at the resting places of our fallen.

ABOUT BATTLEFIELD HISTORY TOURS
www.battlefieldhistorytours.com.au

Battlefield History Tours is one of Australia’s leading military history and battlefield tour operators. Colonel Graham Fleeton RFD and the team have a track record of organising 61 successful tours over the last 14 years. Colonel Fleeton served 44 years with the Australian Army Reserve, has a degree in history, and chairs the Army Museum of New South Wales Foundation. He has impeccable knowledge of military history and has hosted battlefield tours since 1999. Sizable groups have previously made the ANZAC Day in Athens - Greece and Crete Tour in 2019, 2018, 2017, 2014, 2013, 2012 and 2011.

Battlefield History Tours specialises in special experiences for those wishing to visit the places where Australian servicemen fought to keep Australia a free nation. Like Colonel Fleeton, their tour leaders are soldiers bringing knowledge gained by years of service, training and leading at senior levels to interpret our history. Experts in the deployment of troops and weapon systems, and imbued with the history of units they served in, their guides provide unprecedented insights into what our forebears encountered on the field of combat. The tour leader will have researched each battle and every detail of the terrain; in most cases they will have been there many times before. They also offer a wealth of knowledge and experience from degrees in History, Masters in Business, Membership of the International Guild of Battlefield Guides, and executive positions in Army Museums. If you have an ancestor who fought in the area covered by a tour, Battlefield History Tours will check on their service record and help you visit the key sites where they fought.

Apart from the ANZAC Day in Athens - Greece and Crete tour including the ANZAC Dawn Service in Athens and sites where many Australian soldiers made the supreme sacrifice in a failed effort to save Greece and Crete, past tours lead by or where members of the Battlefield History Tours team were guide/historians include Bomber Command (RAAF in the UK), Western Front to Normandy, Battle of Villers-Bretonneux, Armistice and March to Victory, Monash Advance to Victory, Battle of Le Hamel, Boer War, Vietnam Tunnel Rats and Sappers, Battle of Beersheba Tour, Guadalcanal Battlefields, Other ANZAC Day, Battle for Singapore, Fromelles and Poziéres, Delville Wood, Lone Pine and Gallipoli Battlefields, Western Front Extension, Gallipoli 100, ANMEF (Rabaul - New Guinea), Swim the Dardanelles-Turkey, Egypt and Libya.

SITES VISITED ON THIS GREECE-CRETE TOUR

· ANZAC Day in Athens

· Athens, Corinth Canal, Olympia, Delphi

· Phaleron Bay War Cemetery, Athens

· Presentations at the Battle sites

· Brallos Pass, Thermopylae, Evacuation Beaches and more

· Piraeus to/from Crete by ferry

· Maleme

· Suda Bay War Cemetery, Crete

· Defence of Rethymon

· Defence of Heraklion

As we travel through Greece in our air-conditioned coach, you will also see spectacular scenery and the classic white architecture set against the bluest of seas. We enjoy the traditional food and culture of a warm and friendly people. We cruise overnight from Piraeus to Crete at the relaxed pace of the inter-island ferry. Our cruise will take you over the same route to Crete as that of our troops in 1941.

COST

12 days/11 nights. Based on share twin or share double AU $4355.00 per person. Single Supplement additional cost AU $1200.00 (prices conditional on minimum group size of twenty persons).

Included in this price:

· accommodation
· battlefield tours with historian
· air-conditioned coaches
· o/n ferry to/from Crete
· most dinners except the free nights in Athens
· all breakfasts
· tour entrance fees

Not included in this price:

· air travel to/from Australia
· transfers
· travel insurance
· laundry and alcohol
· tour extensions
· personal expenses
· tips to drivers and guides

CONTACT FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO REGISTER

Further information or to register please contact:

Battlefield History Tours. Phone 0412 399 693 / +61 412 399 693

PO Box 201, Northmead NSW 2152

grahamf@battlefieldhistorytours.com.au

www.battlefieldhistorytours.com.au