[Closed] Please confirm where this WW2 pic of my Dad was taken? Athens?

Sorry! Could a mod please move if possible?

Could be one of the lower parts of the Parthenon, from memory you keep tripping over stuff like that out there!!

Thanks mate, I think it's here. I'd it a building next to the Parthenon?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caryatid

the erechtheion?

Acropolis

I think monkey has it!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erechtheion

Tricky question...

In what year of the war was by Dad likely to have been there I wonder?

Did we liberate Greece before working up Italy?

Looks like one of the buildings in the Acropolis, the Temple of Erectheion.

https://www.airpano.com/gallery.php?gallery=19&photo=746

https://goo.gl/maps/qXxyPAMKPu12

Our fathers and grandfathers visited so many amazing places, but in the name of defending our way of life, rather than as tourists. We never thought to ask them about the places, for many were understandably reluctant to talk about the war itself. Maybe we should have asked them that, it may have helped open up things that needed opening up, or maybe not.

One of my grandfathers was in the First World War, I think attached to communications or similar. He served as an Air Warden in the second. The other was in North Africa in WWII, a tank driver captured in one of the hellish battles there, and MIA for several years before my grandma got a postcard from an Italian POW camp, a card we found after she died and the single most moving piece of literature I have ever seen. He must have seen some places, but died before I was old enough to talk to him about them.

As for year, early 1941 I'd guess with a bit of googling.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Italian_War

Which unit was he with?

@malgrey

Very poignant post mate. More questions than answers.

My Dad must be following in the footsteps of so many warriors and soldiers over the millennia. He would never have thought of himself as a warrior though. He was the kindest, gentlest man I've ever known.

I don't even know what regiment etc he was in to my eternal sadness.

I know he was in North Africa though...

Almost the same view, just 80 years apart. You can make out the same cracks and damaged stones.

[url= https://i.postimg.cc/43X6vNVC/p0192fst.jp g" target="_blank">https://i.postimg.cc/43X6vNVC/p0192fst.jp g"/> [/img][/url]

@monkey

Thanks mate. '41 look likely then. Wish I knew the rest.

I know there were British forces that moved to North Africa directly from Greece.

Just back from a trip to Athens, really interesting place.

<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">The status on the real building are now  replicas the real ones are in the museum </span>

Some googling, not too many British Army units in Greece...Order of Battle link

1st Armoured Brigade Group, Royal Engineers and Royal Artillery, so hopefully it'll be a little easier to find more out

Poopscoop he wasn't in the artillery as the cap badge is the wrong shape, and it's not a tank insignia either so Engineers?

Slightly off topic, but there's a replica of the ladies in question incorporated into St Pancras church opposite Euston Station;

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/ @51.5275783,-0.1299666,3a,37.5y,154.99h,98.68t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sSdO5E9ySuHbnkWj663Oz9Q!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

In what year of the war was by Dad likely to have been there I wonder?

Did we liberate Greece before working up Italy?

If it helps, my Grandad was in the RA. He went to North Africa in late '42, then to Italy. After the war was officially over he told me he was sent to Greece fighting/policing "terrorists".

Pretty certain he was in the 1st Army.

The bit about Greece is my memory of his memory, but my Grandad was 'released' from the Army by mid '47 or earlier so it suggests there was a British Army presence in Greece some time between '45 & Mid '47 and that 'ww2' conscripts were sent there. So your Dad wouldn't necessarily have been in Greece in '41.

My grandad was on a boom defence vessel. Much of the war was around Scottish West coast an Shetlands, home base being Oban, mainly on mundane tasks deploying and maintaining submarine nets.

He was in Med on two occasions through the war - once to support operation Overlord. After<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;"> the landings they were busy for weeks at a particular port and noticed a US jeep abandoned on the dock, slightly damaged. This was hoisted on to thier foredeck and hidden under a tarp.</span>

For three months they were assigned various tasks across the North Med to all sorts of mixed nation forces, when at every opportunity said Jeep was offloaded and used to ''tour" areas of Italy and Greece.

When they were sent back to Oban they realised that arriving home with a US Jeep may lead to trouble. Apparently there is a US Jeep at the bottom of Bay of Biscay.....

Can't get it to upload so hope the link works but took this on a recent trip to Athens...

https://www.pinkbike.com/photo/16560488/

British troops entered Athens October 1944:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_Civil_War#British_role

I know there were British forces that moved to North Africa directly from Greece.

My dad was with the 4th Queen's Own Hussars when they moved from North Africa to Greece in 1941. Over 400 men including dad were taken prisoner. He spent 4 years in Austria where at least the scenery was nice and no-one was shooting at him. Until the Americans accidentally bombed the PoW camp! After the war he was stationed briefly in Belsen then Lubeck where he met my mum due to a shared interest in dancing and fags. She had served as a telephonist with the German army on the Eastern front before being evacuated in cattle wagons as the Russians advanced. So I learned about the impact of the war from both sides.

My grandad was sent to Salonika in 1915 and stayed there til the end - mosquitoes caused a lot of deaths - more than enemy action.  For a flour mill worker from Coventry it must have seemed like being sent to Mars!

Old man was in bomb disposal in ww2 - he rarely spoke about it but did give me one bit of advice - ‘never bl**dy volunteer for anything!’ 😄

The British role in post-Nazi Greece was absolutely shameful unfortunately. A national front (mostly communist) had fought the Nazis having agreed that there would be postwar fair elections and the monarchy would remain,  despite the king's unpopularity. Stalin and Churchill had already agreed Greece would be in the British sphere of influence. Despite all that, the British ordered the communists only to disarm, then gave carte blanche to fascist groups to precipitate an armed confrontation by shooting unarmed civilians, which was quickly followed by a civil war. The British then spent years supporting fascists against the KKE, despite having just fought alongside them to defeat fascists. After the commies were defeated, Britain continued to partner with increasingly right wing governments and allowing them to join NATO, until they were openly fascist.

Unfortunately a huge amount of WW2 wasn't about saving the Jews or freeing Czechoslovakia,  but propping up one group of oppressive shitheads to stop another group of shitheads gaining power. :/

As already pointed out above, the female figurine columns (load bearing) are Caryatids on the Erechtheion. As copied at St Pancras Church on Euston Road, WC1!

Temple of Erectheion

Oh come on! Only me!?

Thanks for the extra info guys.

From the little I know, Dad done the trucks, he actually learnt to drive in the army. He hailed from London, if that had any impact on the regiment etc he would have joined?

He went to North Africa in late ’42, then to Italy.

Sounds similar to my grandad - he drove the big trucks that transported tanks around northern africa and spent a lot of time in italy,

"Dad done the trucks,"

RASC?? (link) , there were two units in the 1st British Armoured Brigade (RASC units) , and they were trained in Aldershot

As @hopeforthebest says, Greece was one of Churchill's dirty little tricks.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/30/athens-1944-britains-dirty-secret