How Greece Collapsed
Italian and German soldiers on the background of the Parthenon in Athens.
General situation
The defeat of Yugoslavia was almost instantaneous (How Yugoslavia Collapsed; Part 2). The state collapsed in 11 days! The Yugoslav High Command made a strategic error when it attempted to cover all borders and the entire country while enemies were advancing from almost all sides – from Italy, Albania, Austria, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. The only way to strengthen resistance and save time in the campaign was to retreat to the mountainous regions of the center of the country and join forces with the Greeks and British.
By delaying mobilization and trying to cover the entire country, the Yugoslavs lost almost immediately. The Germans immediately gained air superiority, destroyed airfields, disrupted communications, and disrupted command and control. Everything was thrown into disarray, and resistance collapsed.
Internal disintegration and national separatism among some elites played a major role. Some of the generals surrendered, opening up their areas; Croats and Slovenes fled, and in some places they rebelled against the Serbs.
As a result, the Wehrmacht lost only over 500 soldiers killed, wounded, and missing. Italian losses were higher – over 3300 (the Serbs fought better on the Albanian border, while the Italian troops' combat quality was poor).
Meanwhile, the 800-strong Yugoslav army was scattered. Thousands of Yugoslavs were killed, over 330 were captured, and the rest fled. Some of the Yugoslav elite capitulated, others fled to the British. Yugoslavia was dismembered and destroyed.
Greece
The Greeks defended themselves on two main northern fronts: against the Italians in Albania and on the Bulgarian border against the German 12th Army. They deployed 21 divisions (including 1 motorized and 1 cavalry division) and 4 brigades. They were supported by the British Expeditionary Force: 2 infantry divisions and 1 tank Brigade. In total, there were about 440 thousand Greek and more than 60 thousand British soldiers.
The war with Italy exhausted Greece's meager military resources. There were no strategic reserves. The army's material and technical condition was unsatisfactory. Ammunition was scarce. A hundred aging tanks and a hundred aircraft could not withstand the onslaught of the Luftwaffe and Panzerwaffe of the German Reich.
They failed to establish cooperation with the Yugoslav army. The arrival of a British corps (the New Zealand 2nd Division, the Australian 6th Division, and the 1st Armored Brigade) in March 1941 did little to change the situation. Other British reinforcements remained in Egypt for the Libyan front. Meanwhile, the British occupied a second line of defense far from the front in Albania and the Bulgarian border, meaning they retained the ability to escape in time.
A British Bofors 40mm automatic anti-aircraft gun crew at a position in Greece. Greek soldiers stand near the anti-aircraft gun position. April 1941.
British Universal Carrier armoured personnel carriers on the move in Greece.
The main Greek forces—the Epirus and Western Macedonia armies (15 divisions)—were defending the Albanian front. The Germans' appearance in Bulgaria forced the Greeks to hastily form two armies for the eastern front: the Eastern Macedonian Army (3 infantry divisions and 1 brigade) and the Central Macedonian Army (3 infantry divisions and a British corps). The armies themselves were essentially corps in composition.
At the same time, the country's government and command were deeply divided over Greece's future. There was a strong pro-German wing. General Ioannis Metaxas himself, who led Greece from 1936 to early 1941 (he died in January 1941), was an opponent of communism and sympathetic to Germany. Metaxas would have made a deal with Berlin, but Rome's position stood in the way. Mussolini dreamed of a new Roman Empire, including at Greece's expense, and began a war with the Greeks. Therefore, Athens was forced to ally with Britain, although many Greeks understood they would simply be used and then abandoned, like the Poles or the French.
Subsequently, many military personnel declared that fighting the Germans was impossible and pointless. Thus, in March 1941, the Epirus Army command declared war with Germany pointless and demanded negotiations. The government replaced the army command, but overall, similar sentiments prevailed among the senior commanders.
A German Junkers Ju-87 (Ju.87B-2) dive bomber in flight near the Greek Metaxas defensive line.
Defense breakthrough
The Wehrmacht's diversion to Yugoslavia did not help Greece. On the contrary, there was no longer a Yugoslav army to cover Greek forces in Macedonia, near Thessaloniki. Two Greek armies, supported by the British Expeditionary Force, occupied strong positions on the border with Bulgaria and in Macedonia.
Since 1936, a 300-kilometer fortified line of 21 forts, the so-called Metaxas Line, has been built on the Bulgarian border.
The Greeks on the Bulgarian border successfully repelled attacks by the enemy – the German 18th and 30th Army Corps – for three days. Despite air superiority and artillery Despite their support, the Germans were only able to penetrate the Greek defenses. But they were outflanked through Yugoslav territory.
Motorcyclists of the 2nd Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht on a road in Greece.
The German 2nd Panzer Division, having executed a flanking maneuver through Yugoslav territory, crossed the virtually undefended Greek-Yugoslav border and captured Thessaloniki on April 9. The Greek East Macedonian Army was cut off from the main forces. The Greek General Staff, believing that further resistance by the army was futile, ordered its surrender. Army commander General Bakopoulos, a well-known Germanophile, was quick to heed the order and ordered the surrender of the forts. Individual units continued to resist for some time. But overall, the defense collapsed.
With the Nazis' advance into the Bitola region (Southern Yugoslavia), the Central Macedonian Army faced the threat of being attacked in the flank and rear, and isolated from the armies on the Albanian front.
Soldiers of the 5th Mountain Division of the Wehrmacht take cover during fighting on the Greek Metaxas Line. April 6-7, 1941.
A column of Wehrmacht StuG IV self-propelled guns moves along a street in Thessaloniki.
Crash
The remaining Greek and British units were forced to retreat. They feverishly formulated a new defense plan: abandon Northern Greece but hold on to the mountainous regions of Central Greece, at the edge of the legendary Thermopylae Gorge, like the legendary Spartans of King Leonidas. On April 12, the order to retreat was received by the armies on the Albanian border.
But these plans could no longer be realized. New German divisions were advancing from Yugoslavia. The front was crumbling. On April 11–13, German troops from the Bitola area passed through Florina and further south, while the Greco-British forces, threatened by encirclement, retreated to the city of Kozani. As a result, the Germans broke through to the rear of the West Macedonian Army, cutting it off from the central group.
A column of German Pz.Kpfw. III tanks travels by rail during the invasion of Greece.
The British command, led by General Henry Wilson, believed that further resistance was pointless and would only increase casualties. The Greek high command had lost control, and the army had lost its fighting capacity. This assessment was generally correct. Therefore, the British left the Greeks on the defensive, and from April 14, British units were withdrawn to the ports and evacuated. Equipment was abandoned. weapon, evacuated personnel. By destroying roads behind them, the British were able to avoid complete encirclement and evacuate their main forces.
The remnants of the Central Macedonian and Western Macedonian armies, which had suffered heavy losses, joined forces with the Epirus Army and were placed under its command. The Greeks retreated, fighting holding battles with the Italians and subjected to air strikes. These units had effectively lost the ability to break through to the Peloponnese.
The Greek "vertical of power" itself collapsed. The commanders of the Epirus Army proposed an immediate halt to hostilities and a truce with the Germans. A government meeting was held on April 18. Army Commander-in-Chief Alexandros Papagos reported that the troops' situation was hopeless. Some ministers believed that resistance should continue, while others supported the position of the Epirus Army generals.
Ultimately, the king and most of the ministers decided to evacuate to Crete and then to Cyprus. On the evening of April 18, Prime Minister Koryzis committed suicide. The new Prime Minister, Tsouderos, and General Papagos demanded that the troop command continue the resistance.
But the generals of the Epirus army decided otherwise. Army commander Pitsikas was removed and replaced by General Georgios Tsolakoglou. He signed an armistice with the Germans on April 20. The Greek generals asked for one thing: to capitulate to Germany, but not to Italy, which they had previously defeated. Field Marshal List, the German commander-in-chief in Yugoslavia and Greece, was inclined to grant this request. But Mussolini thought otherwise, and Hitler granted the Duce's request. On April 23, in Thessaloniki, Tsolakoglou capitulated to the Axis powers.
Lieutenant General Georgios Tsolakoglou, commander of the Greek Army of Epirus, and SS-Obergruppenführer Sepp Dietrich, commander of the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler Brigade, during the surrender negotiations in Larissa. In the background is Infantry General Franz Böhme, commander of the 18th Mountain Corps of the Wehrmacht. April 21, 1941.
On the same day, the Greek King George II and his government fled to Crete. On April 24, the Germans overcame enemy defenses at Thermopylae and entered the Peloponnese on the 26th. There was no longer any organized resistance. A victory march.
On April 27, 1941, German tanks entered Athens. A swastika flag was raised over the Acropolis. By April 30, all of continental Greece had been captured. The Yugoslav prisoners were joined by 225 Greeks and about 14 Britons.
German mountain rangers raise the flag at the Parthenon temple on the Athenian Acropolis.
Teenagers clean the boots of Wehrmacht corporals near the Acropolis of Athens.
On April 30, 1941, the occupiers formed a puppet government under General Tsolakoglou, who carried out all orders from Berlin. Greece was divided into Bulgarian, Italian, and German occupation zones.
The policies of the occupiers and their puppets led to complete economic collapse and a terrible famine. Hundreds of thousands of people died. The Greek people responded with a powerful resistance.
Thus, the German Reich achieved its strategic goals in the Balkans. The Balkan Peninsula was under control. The Greeks and British still held the island of Crete, but the Nazis captured it in May. Britain lost its position in the Eastern Mediterranean. The southern flank of the future Russian (Eastern) Front was secured.
Territory of Greece, divided into 3 occupation zones
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