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Posted on: Oct 16, '07

GREEKS STREANTH IN 1940 !!

ALONE IF NEED BE

WHEN TWO ITALIAN ARMIES, COMPLETELY mechanised and with full air support struck at Greece on two fronts on 28 October 1940 it was expected that Greek military resistance would be shattered as quickly as Germany had broken Holland's. But Mussolini failed to appreciate the spirit of Greek resistance.
The Italian attack came swiftly. It was repulsed by a Greek counter-attack just as swift. The attackers had a six to one superiority in man-power, but the Greeks drove them out of Greece and continued to advance into Albania right up to six weeks before the German push into the Balkans in April 1941.One Italian defeat followed another and the Royal Air Force with ground support units came to the aid of the Greeks.

Still Italy's senior Axis partner did not seem interested in her misfortunes. Actually, with characteristic thoroughness, Germany was working on a plan to subject the Balkans to the German pattern for the 'New Order'.

King George II of Greece

Rumania sold out on 4 December 1940 when General Antonescu signed a ten-year agreement in Berlin. By February 1941 German armies were assembling in Bulgaria threatening at once Turkey, Greece, and Yugoslavia. Turkey resisted German pressure by defining her attitude as one of strict non-belligerency. Yugoslavia, or at least its government, appeared to be completely in the Axis camp. There could be no doubt as to the purpose of the German concentration in Bulgaria, and on 8 February the Greek government accepted a British offer of assistance.

A note was received in London which, in the words of the Foreign Secretary, Mr. Anthony Eden, 'asked us to say what help we could give, and the conditions under which we could give it. It was not a cry for help, it was a statement of the Greek position and a request that we should state ours.'

Never could people have called for help with greater need or greater justice. Greece was a small agricultural nation, her forces in men and materials -especially materials were insignificant in comparison with those of her enemies. Only the magnificent bravery of her people had enabled her to withstand and even to beat back the boasted might of the new 'Roman Empire'. There was small hope of holding the Wehrmacht as well. But Greece was resolved. The spirit of Leonidas and his Spartan heroes who fought and died at Thermopylæ nearly two thousand five hundred years ago spoke again in Athens on the second day of March 1941, when the King and the Prime Minister of Greece met Mr. Anthony Eden, General Sir John Dill, Chief of the British Imperial General Staff, and General Sir Archibald Wavell, Commander-in-Chief Middle East. Greece would fight for her national integrity whatever the cost, -whatever the chances of success, and alone if need be.

It is probable that there were few among the Greeks who did not fully understand the import of this decision. Their sentiments were voiced by the Athens press when on 8 March one newspaper published an open letter to Hitler which included this famous paragraph : ' Small or great, the free army of the Greeks will stand in Thrace as it stood in Epirus. It will fight. It will die there too. In Thrace it will await the return of that runner from Berlin who came five years ago and received the light of Olympia, and has changed it into a bonfire, to bring death and destruction to a country small in size but now made great, and which after teaching the world to live must now teach the world how to die.'

Only one possible course was open for Britain - to send the most effective armed force that could be spared to help Greece. The British advance then in progress in the Western Desert was halted and with all possible speed an army was formed on the shores of the Mediterranean preparatory to embarkation. That the New Zealand Division was an important part of this army should be a source of pride to the people of a young democratic nation, whose sons were thus granted the honour of fighting for Greece alongside the people and in the land which first made the cause of free men the finest cause in life.
Despite appalling weather conditions and conditions -should proceed to Greece in that the difficulties of carrying out operations over wild mountain country, the Greeks had however, driven the Italians well back into Albania during the winter of 1940-1941 and had high hopes of driving them into the Adriatic Sea.

Since November 194c, a small British air force with some British army units for service and protection had given a degree of air support out of all proportion to the number of machines operating.
When the Germans began to concentrate in Bulgaria the Greeks planned to withdraw from Albania to a shorter front so as to make available reserves for north-eastern Greece to meet the German attack.

However, General Papagos felt that a withdrawal would have a disastrous effect on the morale of the Greek Army after its series of successes over the Italians. Furthermore, it was impossible in view of their lack of motor transport and low mobility to transfer a considerable portion of the Greek Army from the Albanian front elsewhere without very long delays.

On 9 March the Italians launched an offensive on a twenty-five mile front.

Greek peasant girl.

The presence of Mussolini himself in Albania gave some inspiration to this attack, but the Greeks succeeded in repulsing it and had, moreover, gained the initiative by the middle of the month.
By late March the Greek armies were still tied up in Albania. Fifteen Greek divisions were facing twenty-eight Italian divisions on a front which ran from Lake Ochrida to Himare on the Ionian Sea, and General Papagos was not disposed to move any of them.

He knew that the Greek divisions could not be transferred elsewhere, without loss of morale, until the Italians were defeated, and he clung stubbornly to the hope that the Yugoslavs would join the Allies and force the Italians to evacuate or surrender in Albania; In the event of a German attack -two weak and ill-equipped divisions were available to serve in Central Macedonia and four divisions were available for the defence of Thrace along the Bulgarian border.

The maximum British force available for Greece included the 1st Armoured Brigade, the New Zealand Division, the 6th Australian Division, the Polish Independent Brigade Group, and the 7th Australian Division. It was intended that this force-called Lustre Force ' after the codeword used in negotiations - should proceed to Greece in that order.

The 6th Australian Division was, still in the process of arrival when the German invasion began, and Rommel's initial advance in Cyrenaica prevented the embarkation of the Polish Brigade Group and the 7th Australian Division which was to win fame for its indomitable defence of Tobruk.

LEAVING HELWAN FOR GREECE

On 17 February Major-General Freyberg was told that the New Zealand Division would be sent to Greece as the advanced guard of an Imperial Force. But at this time the New Zealand Division was not yet completely ready. The 5th Brigade Group, fully a third of the force, was still en route from England, but careful and skilful co-ordination of plans ensured the speedy flow of men and material from base camps to the embarkation point, and thence to Greece. As the first troops moved out of Helwan camp, units of the 5th Brigade were landing for the first time in Egypt.
They came to camps pervaded by an indescribable air of excitement and anticipation. Administrative plans had, of course, been made in complete secrecy, and the bulk of the men themselves were only dimly aware of the fashion in which the intricate machinery of organisation was going into motion. An announcement had been made that the New Zealanders were to undertake extended manoeuvres on a divisional scale 'somewhere in the blue'. Every man knew, none-the-less, that something much more than mere manoeuvres was ahead of him. Conjecture and wild rumour waxed and waned as preparations continued.

There were arguments and counterarguments, suggestions, hopes and fears. Possibilities and impossibilities were freely discussed. Each new item of equipment, each scrap of fresh information or hearsay became the subject of fresh surmise. Issues of tropical kit, including sun helmets, made sea-borne attack on Tripoli in Libya seem likely; then river-crossing exercises, recently carried out, pointed to a landing in Europe. Ail the time the camp seethed with the bustling activity and seeming confusion of a move. In unit canteens and elsewhere there were many reunions as men from earlier contingents met friends or relatives among the new arrivals. Steadily, fresh convoys moved out for the unknown.

The division which took its place in the battle line was a formidable fighting machine. Men from every walk of civilian life bad been welded into a volunteer army. Months of hard work and training, often under the most gruelling conditions of sand and heat and sweat, had brought them to the absolute peak of physical fitness. Desert exercises had taught them to face hardship and to make light of difficulties. In the South of England the second contingent had trained strenuously on manoeuvres and long route marches through the countryside and had been ready to undertake an operational role had the enemy invaded Great Britain.

For the first time the New Zealand Division was coming together. Morale could scarcely have been higher. Troops who had seen the Australian forces pass their lines on the way to rout the Italians in Libya had been conscious of a sense of grievance, for many of them had seen hard training for nearly a year, and as yet no action. The prospect of coming to grips with the enemy at last seemed almost the answer to a prayer

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yangCAP said:
thanks.taosos. you like the history very much, i know you must have thougts

October 17, '07

DraculVanHelsing said:
A very informative history of the role Greece played in the Second World War! Thank you Tasos my friend!

October 17, '07

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