Key Information
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1942-1981 (Creation)
Level of description
Collection
Extent
3 boxes or 0.03 cubic metres
Scope and content
Papers of Edmund Myers, 1942-1981, relating to his service as Commander, of the British Military Mission to the Greek partisans in German occupied Greece, 1942-1943, Special Operations Executive (SOE). Notably on Operation HARLING and the destruction of the Gorgopotamos Viaduct, Greece, Nov 1942 and Operation WASHING, the destruction of the Asopos Viaduct, Greece, Jun 1943. Also including reports, lectures and radio broadcasts on Greece and the British Military Mission; papers relating to the National Band of Rebels formed under Allied command; papers relating to a delegation of six Greek partisans (andartes) sent to Cairo to consult with the Greek government in attempt to avoid political crisis and civil war, Aug 1943; papers on British support of Greek monarch, King George II; correspondence on Myers' attempts to return to Greece; maps related to British Military Mission; photographs of the British Military Mission including individuals, landscapes and the British Military cemetery in Athens, 1971; post-war papers on Greece including correspondence with Myers, draft copy of Greek Entanglement by Myers with scrapbook of reviews and papers relating to the funeral of Gen Napoleon Zervas.
System of arrangement
Arranged in sections as follows: papers on the British Military Mission to Greek partisans (andartes) in German occupied Greece; maps; photographs; post-war papers.
General Information
Name of creator
Biographical history
Born 1906; educated at Haileybury, the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and Caius College and Gonville College, Cambridge University; commissioned into the Corps of Royal Engineers, 1926; Secretary, Royal Engineers Flying Club, 1934-1935; service in Palestine, 1936; served in World War Two, 1939-1945; service in the Middle East, Italy, the Balkans and the Far East, 1941-1944; served with 7 Armoured Div, Western Desert [1939-1942]; service with Special Operations Executive (SOE), Greece, 1942-1943; commanded British Military Mission to Greek partisans in German occupied Greece, Jul 1942-Sep 1943; commanded operation to demolish the Gorgopotamos viaduct, Greece, Nov 1942; awarded DSO, 1943; commanded Operation WASHING, the destruction of the Asopos viaduct, Greece, Jun 1943; temporary Brig, 1943; awarded CBE, 1944; served in North West Europe, 1944-1945; service in the Far East, 1945; Lt Col, 1946; Col, 1949; served in 1 Commonwealth Div, Korean War, 1951-1952; Brig, 1955; Chief Engineer, British Troops in Egypt, 1955-1956; Deputy Director, Personnel Administration, War Office, 1956-1959; retired, 1959; Chief Civil Engineer, Cleveland Bridge and Engineering Company Limited, 1959-1964; Construction Manager, Power Gas Corporation Limited, Davy-Ashmore Group, 1964-1968; Regional Secretary, British Field Sports Society, 1968-1971; died 1997.
Publications: Greek entanglement (Rupert Hart-Davis, London, 1955).
Descriptions of Greek resistance groups (Greek: andartes) related to this collection:
ÅÁÌ: The National Liberation Front (Greek: Ethniko Apeleftherotiko Metopo) led by Georges Siados was a Communist group affiliated with the KKE - the Communist Party of Greece (Greek: Kommounistiko Komma Elladas).
The military arm of EAM was ELAS, The National People's Liberation Army, (Greek: Ethnikos Laikos Apeleftherotikos Stratos), led by Ares Velouchiotis (real name Athanasios (Thanasis) Klaras).
EDES: The National Republican Greek League (Greek: Ethnikos Demokratikos Ellenikos Syndesmos), was an anti-Communist, Republican group, led by political leader Nikolaos Plasteras and military leader Gen Napoleon Zervas.
EKKA: National and Social Liberation (Greek: Ethnike kai Koinonike Apeleftherosis) led by Demetrios Psarros was a liberal, anti-Communist, Republican group.
Repository
Custodial history
Placed in the Centre by Myers in 1977, 1978, 1981 and 1993.
Conditions governing access
Open, subject to signature of Reader's undertaking form, and appropriate provision of two forms of identification, to include one photographic ID.
Conditions governing reproduction
Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied from open material for research purposes only.
Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, via the Archives.
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Finding aids
This collection level description and detailed catalogue.
Related materials
Publication note
Guerrilla and counterguerrilla warfare in Greece, 1941-1945 by Hugh H Gardner (Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army, Washington DC, USA, 1962); British policy towards wartime resistance in Yugoslavia and Greece , edited by Phyllis Auty and Richard Ralph Mowbray Clogg (Macmillan, in association with the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London, London, 1975); SOE: an outline history of the Special Operations Executive, 1940-1946 by Michael Richard Daniell Foot (BBC, London, 1984); A Greek experience by Nigel Clive (Michael Russell, Salisbury, Wiltshire, 1985); Guerrilla warfare and espionage in Greece, 1940-1944 by André Gerolymatos (Pella, New York, USA, 1992); The Allied Military Mission and the resistance in West Macedonia by Professor Lt Col Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière Hammond (Institute for Balkan Studies, Thessaloniki, Greece, 1993).
Note
Compiled Aug 1999
Alternative identifier(s)
Subjects
- Anti-fascist movements
- Armed forces
- Diplomacy
- Documents
- Foreign relations
- Guerilla activities
- History
- Humanitarian law
- Information sources
- International relations
- Maps
- Memoirs
- Military engineering
- Military history
- Military intelligence
- Military missions
- Military organizations
- Military personnel
- Occupied territories
- Organizations
- Political movements
- Protest movements
- Special forces
- Visual materials
- Warfare
Place access points
People and Organisations
- Churchill, Sir Winston Leonard Spencer, 1874-1965, Knight, statesman (Subject)
- George II, 1890-1947, King of Greece (Subject)
- Klaras, Athanasios (Thanasis), 1905-1945, known as Aris Velouchiotis, Greek leader of ELAS (Subject)
- Palmer, Roundell Cecil, 1887-1971, 3rd Earl of Selbourne, statesman (Subject)
- Triantafyllidis, Costas, fl 1943, Greek political commentator (Subject)
- Woodhouse, Christopher Montague, 1917-2001, 5th Baron Terrington, Colonel (Subject)
- Zervas, Napoleon, 1891-1957, Greek general and resistance leader of EDES (Subject)
- EAM-ELAS, Ethnikon Apeleftherotikon Metopon-Ethnikos Laikos Apeleftherotikos Stratos, Greek resistance movement (Subject)
- EDES, Ethnikos Demokratikos Ellenikos Syndesmos, Greek resistance movement (Subject)
- EKKA, Ethnike kai Koinonike Apeleftherosis, Greek resistance movement (Subject)
- German Army (Subject)
- SOE, Special Operations Executive (Subject)
Genre access points
Rules and/or conventions used
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000.