The setting for the events of December 3 cuts deep into Greek and British history. Greece, during the pre-war period, was ruled by a Royalist dictatorship whose emblem of a fascist axe and crown well expressed its dichotomy once war began: the dictator, General Ioannis Metaxas, had been trained as an army officer in Imperial Germany to which he felt aligned, while Greek King George II – an uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh – was closely attached to Britain. The Greek left meanwhile had been re-inforced by a huge influx of politicised refugees and liberal intellectuals from Asia Minor, who populated the Aegean islands and crammed into the slums of Pireaus and working-class Athens.