Figure 1.--The wives and children of these Greek soldiers in November 1940 are saying their goodbyes to the men who are leaving for the front after the Italian invasion. The Italian attack into mountains gave the Grrekdvtime to mobilize. Note almost all the boys are wearing short trousers even thought it is November. Also note how well fed and healthy they look befire the German enduced famine that killed so many Greek children.

Italian Duce 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. The Greek success against Italy was the first Axis ground failure of the War. The RAF's success in the Battle of Britain was also conformation that the Axis could be resisted. The failure of the Italians made it increasingly obvious that the Germans would have to intervene.

Sources

Mario Cervi, The Hollow Legion. Mussolini's Blunder in Greece, 1940-41 (London 1971).

Stassinopoulosy, Costas. Modern Greeks (American Hellenic Institute Foundation: Washington).

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Created: March 21, 2003
Last updated: March 21, 2003