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52 Days 1943 by V Mentogiannis, C Mitsotakis & G Nikolaidis
52 Days 1943 by V Mentogiannis, C Mitsotakis & G Nikolaidis
I began the beautifully presented book 52 Days 1943 not really knowing what it was all about. I could see that it was a coffee-table book with a mixture of underwater photographs, topside photographs and archive photographs, supported by snippets of text taken from interviews, historical documents and the author's own notes. But what did it all mean?
I started by skimming through. That's how most of us read coffee-table books, but it didn't help.
So I began reading more methodically. Halfway through, I was starting to get some idea, but remained unsure. It wasn't until about two-thirds of the way that the story began to come together.
52 Days 1943 is about the island of Leros, located in the Aegean between Greece and Turkey, but held by Italy as a military base since 1912. In 1943, when Italy came over to the Allied side, German forces attacked, finally capturing the island after 52 days of confused and desperate battle.
On the opening day the 'Free Greek' destroyer Queen Olga was sunk in the harbour. Hence the diving angle.
At the end I still didn't know the exact story, just many different versions of a story that no one will ever really know. Would I change it? No, not a word, not even the occasionally dubious translation. 52 Days 1943 is like well-crafted poetry. You have to absorb it and think about it. It's as much about emotions as the precise words.
John Liddiard
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52 Days 1943 by V Mentogiannis, C Mitsotakis & G Nikolaidis (Kastaniotis Editions, ISBN 9600337322). Hardback, 268pp, £40
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