The First Victory: Greece in the Second World War - by George C. Blytas

Publishers: Hellenic Literature Society and American Hellenic Institute Foundation, 600 pages

The First Victory: Greece in the Second World War provides a sweeping account of the role that Greece played in that conflict. During the first 13 months of the war, Hitler’s unstoppable war machine had occupied seven European countries and had enslaved a population of 120 million although fighting for less than three months. The surprising seven-month Greek resistance to the invading armies of Italy and Germany that followed in 1940 and 1941 gave the Greeks the first Allied victories on land and became a beacon of hope and an inspiration to freedom-loving countries everywhere.

The Greek victories provided badly needed relief to the British who, at that time, were fighting the Axis by themselves. The archives of the warring armies provide the structure and background of the accounts of the ferocious battles of the Greek forces against numerically superior and far better equipped Italian and German troops. Personal recollections by men and women who lived through extraordinary events provide the details, pinpointing moments that horrify and inspire.

George Blytas was born in Cairo, Egypt, where he graduated from the Greek Gymnasium while the Civil War was raging in Greece. He first pursued a career in music and was instrumental in establishing a branch of the National Conservatory of Greece in Cairo. Political events in Cairo and the Middle East during the mid-1950s prompted a mass exodus of European professionals, and a change in his career plans. In 1956, he began graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he obtained his doctorate in physical chemistry and chemical engineering in 1961. Upon graduation, Dr. Blytas joined the research department of a major oil company, embarking on a distinguished 39-year career in California, the Netherlands and Texas. 

While working in the oil industry, he never gave up his love of music and in 1973 he formed a small chamber group of amateur musicians. By 1979, the group had evolved into a non-profit orchestra called the Houston Sinfonietta. The orchestra presented its first public concert on December 16, 1979, featuring Beethoven's Symphony No. 8, beginning a long tradition of bringing beautiful music free of charge to the Houston community.

Dr. Blytas has always been extremely proud of his heritage and remains active in the Greek community in Houston. In 1975, he founded the Hellenic Professional Society of Texas and was elected its first president. He firmly believes in their goals of preserving and promoting the culture and heritage of Greeks in America.

George Blytas married Cora Ann Severson in 1963 and has two children: Constantine, an accomplished cellist and IT expert, who several times had to rescue the manuscript of The First Victory from the depths of the author's irascible computer, and Christina, a violinist with a master's degree in fine arts, who has contributed to the book with editing and formatting for the many incarnations of the author's work, designing the cover and preparing his maps for publication, as well as creating the book’s website.