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Itlainan Duche Benito Mussolini launched an invasion of Greece on October 28, 1940 from Albania. Mussolini had earlier invaded an occupied Albania in 1939. In contarast to the close coordination that developed among the Allied countries, Mussolini not only did not coordinate his attack with the Germans, but did not even inform them of his plans until the attack was underway. Mussolini assumed that the Greeks woukd easily fall to his conquering army. Greek's small army of 150,000 men not only stopped the Italian thrust toward Salonika using rugged mountaneous terraine to their advantage, but with British assistance including RAF units, drove the Italians back into Albania. The Italain attack had been unwanted by Hitler who was preoccupied with the Battle of Braitan and forming a grand coalition of NAZI satellites, occupied countries, Fascist Spain, and Vichy France for an uncoming invasio of the Soviet Union. Mussolini's invasion had turned the sympathetic Metaxis Fascist Government in Greece into a British ally. This was of emense strategic significance because from bases in Greece, the British could threaten the Romanian oil fields--NAZI Germany's primary source of oil. The Greeks by November 1940 had seized Korçë, the principal Italian base in Albania. The lack of martial ardour of Italian soldies during the War is surprising given the pretentions of military greatness by Mussolini and the Fascists which had governed Italy since the 1920s. This was in sharp contrast to Hitler's success in ideoligically preparing the German soldier. The threat to the Balkans and Germny's souther flank forced Hitler to fivert his attention south away from Britain. Hitler forced the Balkan states to join the Axis: Hungary (November 20, 1940), Romania (November 23, 1940), Bulagaria (March 1, 1941), and Yugoslavia (March 25). Had Mussolini not invaded Greece, Hitler may have forced Metaxis into the Axis as well or at least he would have remained neutral and there would have been no British forces threatening the Balkans. The Wehrmacht in April 1941 invaded Greece, quickly defeating the Greek and British armies. While the Germans rapidly achieved their goals, the effort was a dissaster fpr the German war effot. The invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece forced the Wehrmacht to delay operation Barbarossa--the invasion of the Soviet Union. This lead to 4 years of hideous barbarism. The Greeks did not submit meekly to Axis (German, Italian, and Bulgarian) occupation and Ressistance groups soon fornmed. The German reaction was brutal beyond description. The war and the experience of the occupation threw traditional family roles into question as women became breadwinners and children took up arms. NAZI reprisals were severe. The Greek children were especially affected by the German occupation. In addition, the NAZI program of plundering the occupied countries resulting in large quantities of food being shipped from Greece to Germany. This caused a mass famine in Greece. Thousands of children starved.
King George II aceded to the Greek crownn by 1935 through a rigged plebiscite. He named General Ionannis Metaxis as prime minister. Metaxis became the primary figure in Greek politics and proceeded to create an increasingly authoritarian regime, in paricularly supressing the Communists. Metaxis slowly built the trapings of Fascist state. Mextaxis evolved a grandiose vision of a new great Greek state, what he called the Third Greek Civilisation, harkening back to the Bzantine Empire. Minority groups were persecuted. The use of the Macedonian language was, for example, forbidden. Newpapers were muzzled. Political opponents were arrested and many exiled or imprisoned. Trade unions were banned. Fascist gangs were allowed to form and operate. The Boy Scouts were banned and a Fascist Youth organization Ethniki Organosi Neolaias promoted. Despite his Fascist leanings, Metaxas tried keep Greece neutral when wore broke out in Rurope. Metaxis did, however, refused to allow Mussolini to persue military operations against the British from Greece, even when Italian troops in Albania massed on the Greek border. Metaxis died in 1940 at age 70.
in May 1939 in May 1939 while the world's attemtion was focused on the growing confrontation between Germany and Poland Il Duce by 1939 was concerned that talky was becoming a junior parner the evolbing partnership with Hitler. Germany had ewmiliarized the Rhineland (1935), oversaw the Anchlus, annexed the Sudetenland (1938), and the rest of Czecheslovakia (1939). the Italian dictator set his eyes on Albania across the Adiatric from Italy. King Victor Emmanuel III criticized the plan as risky. Mussolini, however, demanded on March 25, that King Zog accept Italian contol over his country, even offering money. aas a result, Italy invaded April 7, 1939. Thre was some resistance, especially at Durrës, but the Ialian Army quickly gained control over the country. King Zog, Queen Geraldine Apponyi, and their small son Skander fled to Greece and then to London. Left with little choice, the Albanian parliament on April 12, accepted union with Italy. King Victor Emmanuel III took the Albanian crown. Mussolini established a Fascist Government under Shefqet Verlaci. Ironically, after the the Germans invaded and partioned Yugoslavia in 1941, the Albanians for the first time founded themselves united wuth the Albanianns in the Yugoslave proivince of Kosovo. ,
Itainan Duche Benito Mussolini launched an invasion of Greece on October 28, 1940 from Albania. Mussolini had earlier invaded an occupied Albania in 1939. In contarast to the close coordination that developed among the Allied countries, Mussolini not only did not coordinate his attack with the Germans, but did not even inform them of his plans until the attack was underway. The Greeks delivered a resounding OXI! (NO!) October 28, 1940 to Mussolini's ultimatum. The Italian troops were beaten back and the Greek troops overtook over one third of Albania. [Stassinopoulos] Mussolini assumed that the Greeks woukd easily fall to his conquering army. Greek's small army of 150,000 men not only stopped the Italian thrust toward Salonika using rugged mountaneous terraine to their advantage, but with British assistance including RAF units, drove the Italians back into Albania. The British sent about 50,000 troops to help Greece, which they had to deplete from Egypt. The Greeks by November 1940 had seized Korçë, the principal Italian base in Albania. The lack of martial ardour of Italian soldies during the War is surprising given the pretentions of military greatness by Mussolini and the Fascists which had governed Italy since the 1920s. This was in sharp contrast to Hitler's success in ideoligically preparing the German soldier.
Mussolini announced it when Hitler arrived on a visit. "Führer, we are on the march." The Italain attack had been unwanted by Hitler who was preoccupied with the Battle of Braitan and forming a grand coalition of NAZI satellites, occupied countries, Fascist Spain, and Vichy France for an uncoming invasio of the Soviet Union. Mussolini's invasion had turned the sympathetic Metaxis Fascist Government in Greece into a British ally. This was of emense strategic significance because from bases in Greece, the British could threaten the Romanian oil fields--NAZI Germany's primary source of oil. Germany had been relying on Soviet oil deliveries to supplement its synthetic oil production. The Soviet deliveries would end of course when Germany
invaded leaving the Germans dependant on Romanian oil until the Soviet Caucauses could be seized. Greek successes against the Ilalians had created an Allied belingerant that could provide air fields to attack the Romanian oil fields. Hutler thus saw a German intervention to seize Greece and secure Germany's southern flank would be necessary.
The threat to the Balkans and Germny's souther flank forced Hitler to divert his attention south away from Britain after the Italian October 1940 invasion. Hitler forced the Balkan states to join the Axis: Hungary (November 20, 1940), Romania (November 23, 1940), and Bulagaria (March 1, 1941). German forces in Romania were reeinforced and efforts were made to bring Yugislavia into the NAZI orbit so that the Panzers could move through that country to attack Greece. Had Mussolini not invaded Greece, Hitler may have forced Metaxis into the Axis as well or at least he would have remained neutral and there would have been no British forces threatening the Balkans. Yugoslavia was finally forced into the Azis orbit (March 25). Hitler had forced Yugoslavia to join the other AXIS Balkan partners, but the Government was overthrown. The regent Prince Paul was forced to resign and repaced by his nephew King Peter II who was still a boy. The new government withdrew from the Axis and proclaimned its neutrality.
Hitler had to come to the rescue of Mussolini's beleagered forces. Hitler was also outraged at the uprising in Yugoslavia and the withdrawl from the Axis. The Wehrmacht in April 1941 invaded Greece, quickly defeating the Greek and British armies. The Germans invaded Greece and Yugoslavia simultaneously on April 6, 1941. Belgrade was subjected to Luftwaffe terror bombing for rejecting an alliance with the NAZIs. The Germans swept through Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav Army offered no effective resistance. The defection of the Croats to the NAZIs was an important factor in the quick German victory. The Greeks did resist, byt most of their army was in Albania. Australian and New Zealanders attempted to stop the German drive into Thrace, but were no match for the German Panzer units striongly supported by the Wehrmacht. The Allied defense plan was based on some level of resistance from the Yugoslavs and the Greek-Yugoslavian border was largely unprotected. It was through Yugislavia that the Wehrmacht poured into Greece. Even at Thermopale, the British only held for a week. The Greeks were firced toask for an armistace on April 23 and the British left to extricate as much of their force as possible. The Germans took Crete with a daring, but costly parachute assault on May 20-23. (Hitler never again allowed a parachute assault.) The Greek Government and King ??? left Greece with the British to form a government in exile. The consequences of the German victory for the Greek people were 4 years of hideous barbarism.
While the Germans rapidly achieved their goals the stunning successes of the Wehrmacht proved to have been a strategic dissaster. The Balkans diversion delayed Operation Barbarossa by at least 6 weeks. If Hitler had started his invasion to of the Soviet Union May it seems highly likely that they would have seized Moscow if not have defeated the Red Army. [Stassinopoulos] The invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece forced the Wehrmacht to delay operation Barbarossa--the invasion of the Soviet Union. The Battle of Britain in many ways changed the course of the War. An invasion of Britain was impossible without air superiority. Hitler, fearing a cross-Channel invasion, decided that the only way to force the British to seek terms was to destroy the Soviet Union. He began shifting the Wehrmacht
eastward to face the enemy that he had longed to fight from the onset--Soviet Russia. The nature of the War changed decisevely in the second half of 1941. The Germans invaded
Russia in June 1941, launching the most sweeping military campaign in history. It is estimated that on the eve of battle, 6.25 million men faced each other in the East. The Soviets were surprised and devestated. Stalin ignored warnings from the British who as a result of Ultra had details on the German preparations. Stalin was convinced that they were trying to draw him into the War and until the actual attack could not believe that Hitler would attack him. The attack was an enormous tactical success. The Soviets were surprised and devestated. The Soviet Air Force was destoyed, largely on the ground. The Germans captured 3.8 million Soviet soldiers in the first few months of the campaign. Had the Wehrmacht not been delayed by the invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece, they may have well succeded in taking Moscow. No not knowing the true size of the Red Army, they thought they had essentally won the War. German columns seized the major cities of western Russia and drove toward Leningrad and Moscow. But here the Soviets held. The Japanese decission to strike America, allowed the Sovierts to shift Siberian reserves and in December 1941 launch a winter offensive stopping the Whermacht at the gates of Moscow--inflicting irreplaceable losses. The army that invaded the Soviet Union had by January 1942 lost a quarter of its strength.
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The Germans after defeating the Greeks and British, divided Greece into three occupation zones. The Germans zone included western Macedonia, Thessaloniki, a strip of land in eastern Thrace, the major Aegean Islands and Crete. The Bulgarians zone included eastern Macedonia and Thrace. The Italian zone included the Dodecanese Islands, the Ionian Islands, and a large section of mainland Greece including Athens. The Greek children were especially affected by the German occupation. In addition, the NAZI program of plundering the occupied countries resulting in large quantities of food being shipped from Greece to Germany. This caused a mass famine in Greece. The famine in Greece even reached Athens in the winter of 1941. The famine was a man-made event resulting from the German ability to contol distribution of food. The Germans viewed Greece and other occupied countries as a source of food and resources that could be used to support the War effort. It should vbe stressed that not all Germans involved in the occupation behaved crudely. German Occupation officials reported to Berlin that more food was needed for the Greek people. These requests were ignored by NAZI officials in Berlin. NAZI officials in some occupied countries were interested in remaking those socities on the basis of the National Socialist principles implemented in Germany. This seems not to have been a major factor in Greece. Certainly the rcial chasracteristics of the Greeks was a factor here. The German priorities in Greece were clearly food, raw material, and laborers to support the German War economy. [Mazower] The Occupation was a very difficult period for the Greek people. Actual starvation claimed the most lives. There were many executions, including resistance fighters and even more civilian hostages. Large numbers of Greeks were deported to Germany to work as slave alorers. Thousands of children starved. Asylos were set up for the thousands of displaced children. Because of German policies, however, resources were unavailable to deal with the crisis.
As in all of the occupied countries, except perhaps Poland, ther were right-wing collaborators in Greece. They supported the formation of Security Battalions after the Rallis Government passed a law April 7, 1943. Ioannis Rallis was the German-supported candidate for prime minister. The leader of the thugish Security Battalions was General Georg Poulos. [Mazower]
While publishing an underground newspaper during the German occupation of Greece, historian Stassinopoulos was arrested and taken first to the Haidari concentration camp in Greece and subsequently to the Neugammen and Beendorf camps in Germany.
The Greeks did not submit meekly to Axis (German, Italian, and Bulgarian) occupation and Ressistance groups soon fornmed. From the earliest period of the occupation, ressistance groups began to organize. The Greeks were, however, divided into feuding political factions, including monarchists, Communists, democrats, and others. Greece's contentious political parties were unable to work together against the Germans. The Communists played an especially importanf role in the Greek resistance. One group of political leaders, trade unionists, communists and others approved the National Liberation Front (EAM) and a military branch (ELAS). Other parties set up theie own resistance organizations. The two most important were the EKKA and EDES (National and Social Liberation and National Greek Democratic League). Leaders of ELAS, EKKA and EDES were former officers in the Greek army. They thus organized armed resistance to the Germans. Attacks on the Germans and Italians were conduced in the countryside and cities. The Resiatance was especially active in the countryside. The Germans and Italians found that it difficult to track down the guerillas.
The German reaction was brutal beyond description. Normally large numbers of Greek civilians were executed for every German killed. The ratio varried. To expedite these reprisals, the Germans often arrested civilians in advance who could then be convemiently executed. There were also reprisals on villages in the country, but these envolved major operations. The Germans carried out brutal reprisals in both the country side and cities, usually executing men and women unconnected to the attacks. Strikes and sabotage of all nature were organized. There was some coopertion between the diffrent Resistance groups. The most prominant joint action was the ELAS and EDES attack on the Gorgopotamos bridge in November 1942. This seriously complicated military supply lines and destroyed substantial quantities of military supplies. The Wehrmacht was forced to divert 50 battalions to Greece despite the desperate need on the Eastern front in the Soviet Union. The Hellenic Patriotic Society in Rigopoulos transmit radio reports leading to the sinking 55 Axis vessels. The war and the experience of the occupation threw traditional family roles into question as women became breadwinners and children took up arms. NAZI reprisals were severe.
At that time, the Germans occupied Greece, there were about 76,000 Jews in the country. Most or about 55,000 were in Salonika in the German occupation zone. There were 6,000 Jews in western Thrace under Bulgaria and 13,000 Jews in the Italian zone. The process of the Holcaust was thus affected by which occupation zone the Jews lived. Unlike many European countries, there was not a string traditioin of anti-semitism. Nor was anti-semitism a major concern with the Italians. It was the German occupation administration, the SS, and the German army that brought ant-semitism to Greece. [Manzower]. The NAZIs completed the extermination of Jews in the German and Bulgarian occupation zones by the summer of 1943. One estimate indicates that at least 54,533 Greek Jews were sent to Auschwitz, despite the protests of many Greek leaders. Most of these Jews were murdered. In total, the Germans confiscated 280 million drachmas ($1.5 million) in cash from Greek Jews, plus property. Between 60,000 and 65,000 Greek Jews died in the Holocaust, though there were a number of Jewish communities that at least partially survived the war. In 1945, the total Jewish population in Greece was 10,000.
The Germans in September 1944 evacuated the Greek mainland so that they would not be cut off in the Balkans by the Red Army hich was pushing into Hungary. The Germans in May 1945 surendered the last of the Greek islands under their control. Liberation in Greece, however, did not bring peace. Conflict developed between the Communist Resistance forces EAM/ELAS and the British-backed conservative Papandreou government. Athens was liberated on October 12, 1944. The struggle for control of liberated Greece resulted in conflict between EAM/ELAS and the British-backed conservative government. There was considerable concern about a possible Communist seizure of power. The British as a reult toughened their position against ELAS and their soldiers--the andartes. In some cases the British even made common cause with rightest elements that had collaborated with the NAZIs. [Manzower]
The Greek Civil War was one of the opening phases of the Cold War which decended on Europe after the defeat of the NAZIs. The German Wehrmacht was in 1944 being relentlessly pushed west by the Soviet Red Army. Rather than being cut off in the Balkans and Greece, the Wehrmacht begam to withdraw in 1944. British troops in 1944 entered Greece as the Wehrmact withdrew north. The Resistance groups attacked the fleeing Germans. Elections return to Greece after the the Germans withdrew in 1944, but were hotly contested. The Communists boycotted the elections and a bloody guerilla campaign that amounted to a Civil War which tore the country apart. The Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS) organized by the Greek Communist Party was the strongest force in the Resistance and tried to seize control of Greece. Only 2 months after the departure of the Germans from Athens, the ELAS and British fought strret battles. An armistice was signed with the British in 1945, but a civil war developed among the Greek political parties. The British were weakened by nearly 6 years of War and were unable to fully support the non-communists. Britain which had shouldered enormous costs during the War was essentially a bankrupt nation. Very substantial costs followed the War such as the occupation of Germany and contining respnsibilities in Cyprus, Greece, Palestine, and other countries. This is one reason why rationing had to be continued in Britain after the War. This proved extremely unpopular with serious domestic political consequences. The British also turned to rightest elements in Greece, including some who had collaborated with the Germans. Soon some members of the anti-NAZI Resistance movement were being arrested. The British asked for American assistance. The United States beginning in 1947 began supplying arms to the Greek Government. The Americans helped construct damaged infrastructure like air fields, bridges, docks, railways and communication networks. Fighting in the Civil War continued for 4 years. The Communists finally in 1949 declared a cease fire.
Mario Cervi, The Hollow Legion. Mussolini's Blunder in Greece, 1940-41 (London 1971).
Paraschos, Kostas. I katoche: photografika tekmiria (Athens: Hermes, 1973).
Paraschos, Kostas. I apeleftherosi (Athens: Hermes, 1983).
Stassinopoulosy, Costas. Modern Greeks (American Hellenic Institute Foundation: Washington).
Mazower, Mark. Inside Hitler's Greece: The Experience of Occupation, 1941-1944 (Yale University Press, 1993), 437p.
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