My Great-Grandfather was in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, stationed in Egypt for much of 1944 before taking part in the Italian Campaign and being wounded in the Gothic Line Offensive in September of that year.
In April, he was moved to Alexandria and was part of a weeks-long operation to deal with a number of Greek troops causing "trouble". I couldn't find anything about this from searching around on Google, and we were quite intrigued when reading about it, because I was under the impression that the fighting in North Africa was more or less over by that point. I was wondering if anyone knew more about the background to this, whether this was part of a larger insurgency against the Allies.
These are the diary entries in which he mentions them:
April 1944
Sunday the 9th:
Arrived in Alex at 9.30 am Done guard on Greeks who started trouble.
Wednesday the 12th:
Moved again, nearer Greeks, now four miles away.
Thursday the 20th:
Moved again, now on the Mersa Matrue Road.
Patrols to go out every night. Greeks cut right off now.
Sunday the 23rd:
Today is the last chance for the Greeks to give in.
Went into attack of Greek, firing all night no sleep
Monday the 24th:
Greeks give in.
No casualties on Welch
Took 104 prisoners all taken to P.O.W.
4000 of them cleared camp of all arms
Tuesday the 25th:
Today of rest after a trying time, with Greeks.
Wednesday the 26th: Moved to Alex, trouble with Greek Navy. 288 men. Waiting now to fetch them out. They are in a house, makes it hard to get them out, but we will.
Thursday the 27th:
Greek navy give up without any fight. Took them to P.O.W. camp. Now doing guard over them. They are a nuisance.
Friday the 28th:
Still doing guards on Greeks, they have caused us enough work and trouble, this last three weeks
Forgive me if this is a relatively simple answer, i've done some reading on the topic, but it is by no means a field in which I claim expertise.
So to give a quick overview, Greece was occupied by Axis forces during the Second World War and a Greek Government in exile was formed at first in Crete, and then in Egypt. Joining the exiled politicians were several thousand Greek soldiers and officers who were placed under British command with British equipment. These men were joined by others from local Greek communities and formed the Royal Hellenic Army in the Middle East. These men formed two brigades, with the first seeing action at the Second Battle of El-Alamein and the second not being committed. They were subsequently assigned to garrison duties in Libya and Egypt.
Now to the hostile activity that your Great-Grandfathers diary speaks of! Greece already had two conflicting Governments, the pro Axis one in Athens, and the Government in exile in Cairo. As you may be aware, communism was a rather popular idea to subscribe to in Europe at the time and the left National Liberation Front (EAM) decided to declare what was, in effect, a third Greek Government. This movement gained widespread support in Greece, as well as with those in exile including the Greek troops under the command of the British in the Middle East (This is important, remember these troops were formed by the Government in exile, and not the EAM).
The soldiers, seduced by the rather moderate principles of the EAM, demanded that the British supported Government in exile be replaced by the EAM due to it not having any political links with the occupied country. These soldiers refused to obey orders from a Government that they now did not recognise and essentially mutinied. The British, who I mentioned previously supported the Government in exile, moved troops to arrest the mutinous troops along with Greeks still loyal to the exiled Government. It resulted in around 5,000 Greeks being interned, with the remainder creating a new Greek brigade after political screening. The mutiny was a rather short affair, and although there was a number of insurgencies knocking around, it did not involve the Greeks!
So a bit brief, but hopefully this has answered your question. If you have any more queries then don't hesitate to ask!