IN your Swindon at War series in the Advertiser (April 14 and 21) were reports from the war in Greece in April 1941 involving British, Commonwealth and colonial forces. Italy, who entered the war in 1940, attacked Greece from Albania in October 1940 and after an initial success were forced to retreat back into Albania by the Greek army.

British and colonial forces were active in North East Africa where they ousted the Italians from Abyssinia (now Ethiopia), British Somaliland and Sudan and had also driven them back along the coast from Egypt to where the present uprising in Libya is now taking place.

The situation was soon changed when Germany, who was preparing for its attack on Russia, was forced to come to the aid of its Italian ally and in March 1941 Rommel landed in Tripoli with his panzers and German forces swept through the Balkans with little resistance to attack Greece who had been reinforced with British and Commonwealth troops from North Africa, leaving the forces there depleted and having to face Rommel. It was one of the biggest blunders of the war and when Greece surrendered on April 23, 1941 Britain had to evacuate its forces to Crete where more disasters were to come.

Within a month the Germans attacked Crete, first heavily bombing the island before landing over 20,000 airborne troops. The Luftwaffe attacked naval vessels around the island where our losses, nine sunk and three badly damaged including the aircraft carrier HMS Formidable who lost all its aircraft, again we had to evacuate with over 20,000 killed, wounded and taken prisoner - a pretty sickening outcome.

Rommel in the meantime had driven us back into Egypt. Hitler went on to invade Russia on June 22, 1941, one year to the day after France surrendered, June 22, 1940.

M J WARNER Groundwell Road Swindon