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Battle of Greece
Part of World War II
Date 7 April 1941 – 30 April 1941 Location Greece Result Axis victory
Belligerents
Germany, Italy, Bulgaria	Greece, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand
Commanders and leaders
Maximilian von Weichs	Alexander Papagos
Strength
Germany: 4 corps Italy: 3 armies Bulgaria: ?	Greece: 2 armies British Commonwealth: 2 divisions 1 armored brigade
Casualties and losses
Germany: 1,533 dead, 3,362 wounded, Italy: 13,755 dead, 25,067 missing, 50,874 wounded, 12,368 captured, Bulgaria: ?	Greece: 15,700 dead, British Commonwealth: 25,000 dead and captured

The Battle of Greece is the continuation of the Greco-Italian War beginning with the German invasion of Greece to the fall of Kalamata in the Peloponnese. With the Battle of Crete and several naval actions, it is considered part of the wider Aegean component of the Balkans Campaign of World War II. The German codename for their operation was Unternehmen Marita — "Operation Marita."

Mare Nostrum & the roots of the Battle of Greece

Fascist doctrine had long emphasized the need for Italian colonial expansion and the reinstatement of Roman imperium over the whole of the Mediterranean, which had been known to the Romans as Mare Nostrum - "our sea." Italian possessions in Dalmatia and their protectorate in Albania provided a good springboard for an attack on Greece, which Mussolini felt would be easy prey. The Greek armed forces were considered to be weak, compared to the Italian military, and it was thought that the British would concentrate on the protectiion of Libya and Egypt. Moreover, the Italians had enjoyed some initial success against the British in East Africa, where they had overrun British Somaliland and Abyssinia and were threatening Kenya and the Sudan. Despite some reservations about British naval power, the Italians decided to make their move, invading on October 28, 1940 — on the anniversary of Mussolini's ascent to power. (Presently commemorated as Ohi Day (No! Day) in Greece, in memory of Greek defiance to Italian aggression)

The Greek Army, however, proved an able opponent, stopping the Italian advance after its initial success, and defeating them in several notable battles, including The Battle of Saranda, where the Greek army captured the Albanian port named for the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, and the Battle of Pindus. The successes of the Greek Army, coupled with the Allied presence in Greece, and a pro-Allied coup in Yugoslavia necessitated German intervention in the region, to secure the German right flank during the subsequent invasion of the USSR.

Germany strikes in the Balkans

On April 7th, 1941, the German Army invaded northern Greece, stunning the British and Greeks, and making them pull back their forces from deep into Albania to keep them from being flanked and destroyed. The Greek national sentiment was such that the army had to maintain a position along the "Metaxas Line", all along the northern border of Greece, near the port of Thessalonica. This was untenable from the start, and it was easy for the Germans to break through at multiple points with their Panzer groups. This, in turn, necessitated a Greco-British retreat further to the narrow pass at Thermopylae, where the Germans broke through again, all the way down until German forces were at the Acropolis. After some brief actions on the Peloponnese, the Greeks and British Commonwealth forces retreated to Crete. In the highly contested Battle of Crete, the Germans employed parachute forces and forced the British and New Zealanders off the southern half of the island, making Germany the dominant force in the Mediterranean.

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• World War II Balkans Campaign
• 1940
• History of Greece
• World War II stubs