Italian invasion of Greece Oct.28 1940

[Saxondog]

Beginning on October 28 and lasting until April 1941 the Italians invade their smaller neighbor Greece, another mistake for Italy. The Greeks were a strong and proud people and had limited military assets but a very strong resolve.

The effect of this invasion had far reaching impact on the Axis strategy in the region. Below is a paragraph that outlines the effect on the over all effect on Axis plans, the Italian forces invaded through Albania. What the Italians were to quickly learn is the Greeks were very effective fighters. This had the biggest single Victory for the allies in the war so far, and would contribute to the German defeat in Russia. Small events sometimes have the most drastic effect on much larger events like Barbarossa.



American 1942 poster supporting Greece.Greece entered World War II on 28 October 1940, when the Italian army invaded from Albania. The Greek army dealt the first victory for the Allies by defeating the invasion and pushing Mussolini's forces back into Albania.[1] Hitler was reluctantly forced to send his own forces to overcome Greece in April 1941, and delay the invasion of the Soviet Union by six weeks. This is considered by some historians as the first turning point of the war, since the delay proved disastrous to the German invasion, with the onset of the Russian winter and the strong resistance of the Soviet armed forces halting it before the gates of Moscow.[2] Although the German invasion of Greece was swift, their forces met fierce resistance on the island of Crete, where the elite Fallschirmjäger suffered almost 7,000 casualties.[3] These heavy losses eliminated the option of a massive airborne invasion of the Soviet Union and further expansion in the Mediterranean saving Malta, Gibraltar, Cyprus, and the Suez Canal from airborne invasion.

For further reading see this link,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_h ... rld_War_II

cheers Saxondog