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Italian spring offensive
Part of the Greco-Italian War
The Italian spring offensive (red arrows)
Date 9–16 March 1941 (1 week) Location Italian-controlled Albania, south-east of Berat40°20′32″N 20°06′19″E / 40.34222°N 20.10528°E / 40.34222; 20.10528 Result Greek victory
Belligerents
Italy	Greece
Commanders and leaders
Ugo Cavallero Carlo Geloso	Alexander Papagos Georgios Lavdas Georgios Grivas
Strength
9 divisions	6 divisions
Casualties and losses
24,000+	1,243 killed 42 missing 4,016 wounded

The Italian spring offensive, also known as Operazione Primavera (Operation Spring), was an offensive of the Greco-Italian War that lasted from 9 to 16 March 1941. The offensive was the last Italian attempt of the war to defeat the Greek forces, which had already advanced deep into Italian-controlled Albania. The opening of the offensive was supervised by the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini but ended a week later in complete failure.

Background

On 28 October 1940, Fascist Italy declared war upon Greece. The Italian 9th Army and 11th Army invaded north-west Greece from Albania. They were soon pushed back and the Greek army launched a counter-attack deep into Albanian territory. In February 1941, intensive preparations to strengthen the Italian front line began. By the end of the month, the 15 Italian divisions fighting in Albania had been reinforced by an additional ten divisions. In order to raise the morale of the soldiers, Benito Mussolini ordered the units to be accompanied by the most aggressive fascist cadres and also by government ministers and high-ranking officials.

Operations

The operation was to be directed and observed by Mussolini, who arrived in Tirana on 2 March 1941; Italian radio announced that Mussolini would lead the Italian attack. The offensive began on 9 March, under General Carlo Geloso and started with heavy bombardment of Greek positions by artillery and aircraft. Eleven infantry divisions attacked with the support of the 131st Armored Division "Centauro". a heavy artillery barrage and air bombardment; on the main sector, held by the Greek 1st Division, over 100,000 shells were dropped on a 6 km (3.7 mi) front. Despite repeated assaults and heavy shelling, the positions of 1st Division held during 9–10 March. The attack was mainly directed against the 1st, 2nd, 5th, 11th, 15th and 17th divisions of the Greek army and was followed by repeated infantry assaults between the rivers Osum and Vjosa, an area dominated by Mount Trebeshinë.

On 14 March, Italian General Ugo Cavallero, realizing that the attacks had failed, advised Mussolini to stop the offensive. Fierce fighting occurred on height 731, which was assaulted by the Italians at least 18 times. Attacks, preceded by heavy artillery bombardments, followed daily until 24 March, the last day of the Italian offensive, without achieving any result. The Greek forces maintained an active defence, which included counter-attacks and systematic exploitation of advantageous terrain. Decisive factors in the Greek success were that Greek artillery was not neutralized and the high morale of the Greek troops.

Aftermath

Mussolini admitted that the result of the Italian offensive was zero. Italian casualties amounted to over 11,800 killed and wounded, while the Greeks suffered 1,243 killed, 4,016 wounded and 42 missing in action. After the Italian failure the Germans could no longer expect any appreciable support from their Italian allies when they marched against Greece, since Greek forces were only 16 kilometres (10 mi) away from the strategic port of Vlorë. With the German intervention and the subsequent capitulation of Greece in April 1941, the sector around height "731" was proclaimed a holy area by the Italians and a monument was erected by them, due to the heavy casualties they suffered.

Although it failed, the spring offensive further exhausted the Greek Army which had been fighting a numerically larger power continuously for the past six months with significant British material support. Following the successful Greek defence, the Greek Army as a whole possessed only a single month's supply of heavy artillery ammunition and insufficient supplies to equip its reserves; requests were immediately sent to their British allies for millions of artillery shells and tens of millions of rifle rounds. This proved to be a logistical impossibility for the British.

Hitler would never leave his ally, Fascist Italy, to be defeated in the war against Greece, so he had issued orders for Third Reich's military intervention (Operation Marita) already from December 1940. After German intervention ensured a quick Axis victory, Hitler later acknowledged that the German invasion of Greece was greatly facilitated by the Italians holding down and bleeding white, the greater part of Greece's limited military forces.

Footnotes

1. Brewer, David (28 February 2015). Greece, the Decade of War: Occupation, Resistance and Civil War. I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd. p. 13. ISBN 9781780768540.
2. Κωνσταντίνος Πολυζώης κ.ά., Επίτομη Ιστορία του Ελληνοϊταλικού και Ελληνογερμανικού Πολέμου 1940–1941 (Αθήνα: Διεύθυνση Ιστορίας Στρατού - ΔΙΣ, 1985), σελ.142
3. Zapantis 1982, pp. 428–584.
4. Keegan & Mayer 1977, p. 600.
5. Electris & Lindsay 2008, p. 187.
6. ^ Zapantis 1987, p. 54.
7. Dear & Foot 2001, p. 600.
8. ^ Sakellariou 1997, pp. 395–398.
9. Zōtos 1967, p. 39.
10. Cruickshank 1976, p. 130.
11. ^ Manchester 1994, p. 146.
12. Chatzēpateras et al. 1995, p. 146.
13. ^ Gedeon 2001, p. 31.
14. Carr 2013, p. 157.
15. Stockings, C.; et al. (2013). Swastika over the Acropolis: re-interpreting the Nazi invasion of Greece. Leiden: Brill. p. 81. ISBN 9789004254596.
16. Stockings 2013, pp. 81–82; 122.
17. Mazower, M. (1995). Inside Hitler's Greece: the experience of occupation, 1941–44. Princeton: Yale University Press. p. 15. ISBN 9780300065527.
18. Mario., Cervi (2005). Storia della guerra di Grecia : ottobre 1940 - aprile 1941. Rizzoli. ISBN 88-17-86640-7. OCLC 898604170.

References

• Carr, John C. (2013). The Defence and Fall of Greece 1940–1941. Barnsley: Pen and Sword. ISBN 978-1-78159-181-9.
• Carr, John (2020). Mussolini's Defeat at Hill 731, March 1941: How the Greeks Halted Italy's Albanian Offensive. Pen and Sword Military. ISBN 978-1-526-76504-8.
• Chatzēpateras, Kōstas N.; Maria S., Phaphaliou; Leigh Fermor, Patrick (1995). Greece 1940–41 Eyewitnessed. Athens: Efstathiadis Group. ISBN 978-960-226-533-8.
• Cruickshank, Charles Greig (1976) . Greece, 1940–1941. London: Davis-Poynter. ISBN 0-70670-180-1.
• Dear, I.; Foot, M. R. D. (2001). The Oxford companion to World War II. London: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-860446-4.
• Electris, Theodore; Lindsay, Helen (2008). Written on the Knee: A Diary from the Greek–Italian Front of WWII. Minneapolis, MN: Scarletta Press. ISBN 978-0-9824584-4-0.
• Gedeon, Dimitrios (2001). "Ο Ελληνοϊταλικός Πόλεμος 1940–41: Οι χερσαίες επιχειρήσεις". Ο Ελληνικός Στρατός και το Έπος της Βορείου Ηπείρου [The Greco-Italian War 1940–1941: The Ground Operation] (in Greek). Athens: Periskopio. ISBN 960-86822-5-8.
• Gervasi, Frank (1975). Thunder over the Mediterranean. New York: McKay. ISBN 978-0-679-50508-2.
• Keegan, John; Mayer, Sydney L. (1977). The Rand McNally Encyclopedia of World War II. Chicago: Rand McNally. ISBN 0-52881-060-X.
• Manchester, Richard B. (1994). Incredible Facts: The Indispensable Collection of True Life Facts and Oddities. New York: BBS Publishing Corporation. ISBN 978-0-88365-708-9.
• Sakellariou, M. V. (1997). Epirus, 4000 years of Greek history and civilization. Ekdotike Athenon. ISBN 978-960-213-371-2.
• Zapantis, Andrew L. (1982). Greek–Soviet relations, 1917–1941. East European Monographs. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-88033-004-6.
• Zapantis, Andrew L. (1987). Hitler's Balkan Campaign and the Invasion of the USSR. Eastern European Monographs. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-88033-125-8.
• Zōtos, Stephanos (1967). Greece: The Struggle for Freedom. New York: Crowell. OCLC 712510.

Further reading

• Sadkovich, James (May 1994). "Italian Morale during the Italo-Greek War of 1940–1941". War and Society. 12 (1): 97–123. doi:10.1179/072924794794954323. ISSN 0729-2473.

v t e Greece during World War II
1940–1941 Balkans Campaign Greco-Italian War (1940–1941) Battles Pindus Elaia–Kalamas Korytsa/Korcë Saranda Morava–Ivan Himara Klisura Pass Trebeshina Italian spring offensive Hill 731 Leaders Greece Ioannis Metaxas Alexandros Papagos Charalambos Katsimitros Konstantinos Davakis Markos Drakos and Ioannis Pitsikas Dimitrios Papadopoulos Georgios Kosmas Italy Benito Mussolini Galeazzo Ciano Sebastiano Visconti Prasca Ubaldo Soddu Ugo Cavallero Carlo Geloso Units Greece 8th Infantry Division Epirus Army Section Western Macedonia Army Section Italy 9th Army 11th Army German invasion (April–May 1941) Battles Operation Lustre Metaxas Line Vevi Kleisoura Pass Thermopylae Crete Leaders Greece King George II Alexandros Papagos Konstantinos Bakopoulos Georgios Tsolakoglou British Commonwealth Henry Maitland Wilson Thomas Blamey Bernard Freyberg Germany Wilhelm List Sepp Dietrich Kurt Student Units Greece Eastern Macedonia Army Section Central Macedonia Army Section Epirus Army Section British Commonwealth 1st Armoured Brigade 2nd New Zealand Division 6th Australian Division Germany XVIII Army Corps XXXX Panzer Corps Luftflotte 4 1st Parachute Division 5th Mountain Division
Occupation and collaboration Occupying powers Leaders and commands Germany Günther Altenburg Hermann Neubacher Walter Schimana Alexander Löhr Army Group E Hellmuth Felmy LXVIII Army Corps Hubert Lanz XXII Mountain Corps Alexander Andrae, Bruno Bräuer and Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller Fortress Crete Max Merten Italy Angelico Carta Pellegrino Ghigi Piero Parini Carlo Geloso and Carlo Vecchiarelli 11th Army III Army Corps [it] VIII Army Corps XXVI Corps Bulgaria Ivan Markov [bg] Trifon Trifonov [bg] Asen Sirakov Atrocities Kondomari Kandanos Alikianos Doxato Mousiotitsa Kommeno Kalavryta Lingiades Distomo Domenikon Drakeia Cephalonia (Acqui Division) Mesovouno Pyrgoi Vorizia Viannos Kallikratis and Kali Sykia Anogeia Kedros Kleisoura Haidari concentration camp Larissa concentration camp 200 of Kaisariani Chortiatis Economic exploitation Great Famine GWRA Hyperinflation DEGRIGES Compulsory loan Occupation Reichsmark [el] The Holocaust Bulgarian-occupied Greece Thessaloniki Zvi Koretz Jewish cemetery of Salonica Baron Hirsch ghetto Expropriation of property Rescue of the Jews of Zakynthos Collaborationist government People Georgios Tsolakoglou K. Logothetopoulos Ioannis Rallis Sotirios Gotzamanis Georgios Bakos Georgios Poulos Friedrich Schubert Nikolaos Bourantas George S. Mercouris Ioannis Plytzanopoulos Dionysios Papadongonas Organizations Security Battalions Hellenic Socialist Patriotic Organisation (ESPO) National Union of Greece (EEE) Greek National Socialist Party Secessionists Roman Legion Alcibiades Diamandi Nicolaos Matussis Vassilis Rapotikas Ohrana Andon Kalchev Cham collaboration Këshilla Xhemil Dino Atrocities Paramythia Executions of Kokkinia
Resistance and Free Greece National Liberation Front (EAM) People Aris Velouchiotis Stefanos Sarafis Andreas Tzimas Georgios Siantos Alexandros Svolos Ilias Tsirimokos Markos Vafeiadis Evripidis Bakirtzis Organizations Communist Party of Greece (KKE) Socialist Party of Greece (SKE) Union of People's Democracy (ELD) Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS) Greek People's Liberation Navy (ELAN) Political Committee of National Liberation (PEEA) and National Council United Panhellenic Organization of Youth (EPON) National Solidarity (EA) Organization for the Protection of the People's Struggle (OPLA) Slavic-Macedonian National Liberation Front (SNOF) Anti-Fascist Committee for a Free Germany (AKFD) Operations Drama uprising Ryka Mikro Chorio Gorgopotamos Bridge Meritsa Protests against labour mobilization Fardykambos Porta Sarantaporos Kournovo Tunnel 1943 Athens protest Pinerolo disarmament Steiri Agorelitsa Killing of Franz Krech Atrocities Feneos executions 5/42 Regiment dissolution Meligalas Kilkis Red Terror (Greece) Non-EAM resistance People Napoleon Zervas Georgios Kartalis Dimitrios Psarros Komninos Pyromaglou Antonis Fosteridis Kostas Perrikos Ilias Degiannis Vasileios Sachinis Lela Karagianni Konstantinos Ventiris Manolis Paterakis Petrakogiorgis Kimonas Zografakis Organizations National Republican Greek League (EDES) National Bands of Greek Guerrillas (EOEA) National and Social Liberation (EKKA) 5/42 Regiment Defenders of Northern Greece (YVE)/Panhellenic Liberation Organization (PAO) Panhellenic Union of Fighting Youths (PEAN) Prometheus II Apollo National Organization of Crete (ΕΟΚ) Hellenic Army (ES) Northern Epirus Liberation Front (MAVI) others... Operations ESPO bombing Gorgopotamos Bridge (Operation "Harling") Agia Kyriaki Milia Skala Paramythias Execution of Josef Salminger Xirovouni Trahili Menina Dodona Atrocities Expulsion of Cham Albanians British Military Mission (SOE) People Eddie Myers Monty Woodhouse Patrick Leigh Fermor Bill Stanley Moss Themis Marinos George Psychoundakis Jerzy Iwanow-Szajnowicz Operations Operation "Albumen" Gorgopotamos Bridge (Operation "Harling") Operation "Animals" Asopos Bridge (Operation "Washing") Kidnapping of Heinrich Kreipe Damasta sabotage
Greek government-in-exile Greek government in exile Events/Battles Mareth Line El Alamein Wadi Akarit Dodecanese April 1944 mutiny Rimini Symi Santorini People King George II Emmanouil Tsouderos Sofoklis Venizelos Panagiotis Kanellopoulos Thrasyvoulos Tsakalotos Christodoulos Tsigantes Pafsanias Katsotas Greek Armed Forces in the Middle East 3rd Mountain Brigade Sacred Band Vasilissa Olga Adrias Katsonis Papanikolis 13th Squadron 335th Squadron 336th Squadron
Liberation and road to the civil war Prelude to Civil War Events National Bands Agreement Plaka agreement [el] Red Terror Lebanon Conference Caserta Agreement Operation "Manna" Percentages agreement Dekemvriana Treaty of Varkiza White Terror People Ronald Scobie Georgios Papandreou Archbishop Damaskinos Georgios Grivas Angelos Evert Nikos Zachariadis
Commemoration Events Ohi Day Museums Athens War Museum Holocaust Museum of Greece Kalavryta Massacre Museum Kalpaki War Museum Museum of the Battle of Crete and the National Resistance Thessaloniki War Museum Popular culture Aera! Aera! Aera! Captain Corelli's Mandolin film Ill Met by Moonlight film Ipolochagos Natassa Mediterraneo The 11th Day: Crete 1941 The Guns of Navarone film What Did You Do in the War, Thanasis?

• 1941 in Albania
• 1941 in Greece
• Battles and operations of World War II involving Greece
• Battles and operations of World War II involving Italy
• Battles of the Greco-Italian War
• Conflicts in 1941
• March 1941 events