To this day, the 28th of October is a massive holiday here in Greece. It commemorates those who fought and died in the war against the invaders, and is second in our National Holidays only to The 25th of March, our day of Independence. We will always remember those who went into the North to defend our country - our grandfathers, great grandfathers, uncles. We live because of their sacrifice.
@@malcolmholmes2596AMERICA HAS A LOT OF HEROES LIKE YOU; BUT NO BABY FORMULA. INCREDIBLE SACRIFICE MADE BY GERMANY; YOUR NOT WORTHY TO HAVE THEM PISS ON YOU.
I once met a Greek who came to America in the 1950s, he was in his 90s and living in a retirement home where my wife worked. When the Nazis came he took to the hills with a partisan group. I spoke at their Veteran's Day commemoration where we honored all the veterans living there, and he was thrilled when we recognized him as a fellow combatant against a common enemy. He's gone now, but it was an honor to know him.
Greece resisted the Axis powers for 219 days, occupied almost half of Albania and this was essentially the First Victory that an allied country managed against the Axis powers.
@@unchainedsoulsubs1371 I don't include it, it is a battle that took place mainly with air means and it does not have the same characteristics as the battle of Greece, which was not a superpower but a small country with poor means to wage war with Italy, Germany and Bulgaria at the same time
And here we must also mention the action of the Greek Royal Navy which, despite the capitulation of Greece, continued to fight, in 1943, out of the 41 warships conducting escort missions, 27 were British, 11 Hellenic and only 3 French. Moreover, Hellenic Fleet units participated in the great allied landing in Normandy on 6 June 1944, the greatest combined allied operation of all times. Hellenic ships operated in the Atlantic from England to Cape Town and from Gibraltar to the Azores. The total distance covered by the Hellenic Fleet during those war operations was approximately 2 million nautical miles within about 185,000 navigable hours. This means that each ship covered an average of 20,000 nautical miles, which is 80% of the perimeter of the Earth, under war conditions. The Hellenic Merchant Marine provided many ships for those death convoys and proved a valuable caterer for the Allies, while during the Italian invasion against Greece, its ship, protected by the Hellenic Navy, safely transported almost 80% of the war materials and the troops to ports of destinations near the front.
@@kal.50bmg32 Here we must have a general picture and not focus on the fact. British parliamentary secretary at the Ministry of War Transport (including Shipping) Philip Noel Baker, on 28 October 1942, for the first anniversary of «OCHI» (the Greek «NO» to the Italians): «Had Greece succumbed without a fight to the Axis attacks, no one would have had the right to blame it. I say this while we knew then and we know even better now, what it would have meant for us if Greece had surrendered without a fight. The Axis would then be able to develop lines of communication throughout Europe and its planes and submarines would then dominate across the Mediterranean from the Greek coasts. Our defence in Egypt would be much harder. Syria, Iraq and Cyprus would be taken over by the Axis and Turkey would also be engulfed. The oilfields of the Middle East would be at the disposal of the Axis. The rear door of Caucasus would be wide open and we would lose the entire Middle East and perhaps the war. Thanks to the Greek defence we were given the time first to fend off and then crash the Italian army, which moved from Libya against Egypt, to clear up the Red Sea from enemy ships, to move the American aid to the Middle East and to overcome the hostile threat against it. The results of the Greek defence are even felt today in our struggles. If Stalingrad and the Caucasus stand up today to the German pressure, it is not unrelated to the Greek defence, by which we are benefiting even two entire years later. The world really has no right to forget the feats of the Greeks at this historic moment».
Apparently, the already-conquered French were delighted at the drubbing that the Greeks gave the Italians. In southern France, on the Italian border, a notice allegedly appeared. It said: "Greeks! Advance no further! You are now entering France!"😄
I'm half Sicilian and I get ashamed to know all the humans suffered from the Romans and later the Italians. But every country has it's dark periods. I should know being American.
@@williamberry8895 I think America's past is not as dark as many people portray it nowadays. I certainly think western culture gets so much flak about its evils because the west was honest in its history and actually wrote it down fairly accurately. How many conquests through history are completely forgotten because they are lost in the mists of time? How many atrocities are forgotten. With perhaps a few exceptions, no group anywhere are the original settlers in their homeland. That is, if humans have lived there for more than a few thousand years, odds are second and third waves of migrants are who occupies that area now.
But the Greeks fought back even against impossible odds, like when the Greek pilot Marinos Mitralexis was attacking an Italian bombing raid, and his PZL 11 was outta Ammo, and went on a Kamakaze run into an Italian bomber, baled out himself and and took the survivors prisoner to march them to nearby Greek positions
@@eisscrat5667 Yes and its really brave to risk your life to fight back when you haven't any ammo to do so, crash you old outdated plane and save the lives that bomber would have taken, no matter what and still find a way to fight back no matter what
The odds weren't impossible. They had far better terrain positions and season to their advantage. The Italian preparation was stupid, thanks to Mussolini's temper tantrum decision. They needed to be crossing the border with a 3:1 advantage in men as a minimum. They never had that and, in fact, were 2:1 outnumbered at the front at a critical point early on. It was a silly invasion Greece would have been a useful ally. The Greeks were brilliant for their part.
My grandfather fought against the Italians as a member of the dreaded Evzonoi, the Greek kilted infantry. Almost lost his legs because of frostbites. My father's uncle, an inhabitant from Constantinople volunteered to fight too. I am proud to descend from them. It's a good thing that nowadays more and more people are learning through UA-cam about the war of Greece at 1940. We lost a tenth of our population during WWII, it now feels like their sacrifice wasn't in vain. Memory and Honor.
The Greeks were total bad-asses during WWII--not only during the invasion, but also the partisans during the occupation. Their destruction through sabotage of Axis supplies sent down through the Balkans for shipment to North Africa played a crucial role in the Afrika Korps' defeat.
Great video and nice to see something about Greece during WW2. There seems to be a lack of information about Greece and it's role in the war. My grandfather was posted there as part of the British marines
My father lived through this as a young kid. He remembers that, while the Greeks could handle the Italians, the industrial capabilities, along with the corresponding logistical efficiency of the Germans proved too much to deal with. Although there was a formal surrender, the Greek partisans never stopped fighting.
It's a point of view that's overshadowed by everything else. As most people tend to follow perspective they connect to closer. Most of our grandfather's had nothing to do with that theater so our schools skip it. Growing up in America Stalingrad was never mentioned.
Even as much as ww2 as I’ve tried to study, the most I’ve heard about Greece was Crete, other than that you just hear the Greek civil war mentioned, and then nothing else.
@@georgesakellaropoulos8162 Furthermore, the Royal Hellenic Navy did not surrender and fleed with the Goverment to Alexandria, Egypt and supported Allied forces with engagments in the Mediteraniean Sea, Indian Ocean and eventually the D-day landings.
Nope, you just need to go to a real library. I wrote a 30 page research paper on the Balkan's during WW2 for my junior level European History 1939-1950 class. I found dozens of books and doctoral level research papers on the vital importance and problems the allies had in how to free Greece and zones of operations. This was at a mid-tier University in Alabama. The issue is that very few writers want to tackle what looks to be a side conflict when you have so many LARGER battles and campaigns to write about.
It was a dogfight, we had about the same casualties 4500+- on both sides, and in Greece we didn't celebrate the end of the war, but the day of the denial 😁 28/10
@@Unknown-bt5rd The Germanic tribes was outnumbered by the roman population. The Ostrogoths who took over Rome, admired the Romans and wanted to create a mixture between Roman and Germanic culture. Theodoric the great's dream. Taking the strength of both and removing the weaknesses.
The funniest thing about it is that, after both Italy and Germany conquered Greece, a Italian diplomat came to the greek government to receive their document of surrender. However, the greek delegation did surrender, but not to the Italians.
At dawn envoy arrives Morning of October 28th "No Day" proven by deed Descendants of Sparta, Athens and Crete Look now, ready to fight Enemies charge from the hills To arms, facing defeat There's no surrender, there's no retreat
It was actually October 28th, 1940. It has become since a Greek national holiday. "Ochi" day, or "No" day, signifying Metaxas' saying No to the Italian ambassador's demands...
@@joangratzer2101 I do know he killed many Nazis as a guerilla, after the Germans occupied and later communists during the civil war. He never talked about it but my grandmother and later some of his friends spoke of it. Very sad time for the Greeks.
What an outstanding summation of pre WW2 history and during. I learned a great deal; a much better idea of all the players ambitions and so I thank you !! Education is life.
I didn't know about this part of Greek history. Just goes to show how motivation to protect ones homeland can be a powerful motivator. Plus of course troops experienced with local conditions and hardened by other battles.
This winter is going to suck. Just seeing those Greeks and Italians in the snow made me think of how winters seem brutal during times of war. WW1 was the same way
If Adi hated this, imagine how he hated the Italians' switching sides in 1943, never mind attacking the British garrison in Egypt, only for the Italians to be sent reeling back into their colony of Libya, then needing the bail out of Rommel and his Afrika Korps.
An interesting detail: the 15th of August 1940 (15th August is Virgin Mary day and probably the second biggest religious celebration after Easter for Greeks) the Italians torpedoed and sunk the cruiser Elli at the island of Tinos, where it was sent to join the celebrations. While everyone knew the Italians did it, war wasn't declared in order to gain time and better prepare the army. If you ever visit Tinos, go to the big Panagia church and you can see remnants of the torpedo.
The most vicious battle was the battle of Hill 731. Greeks should hold it at all costs. After many days of italian bombardment it renamed Hill 725.The whole hill went down 6 meters because of that.They still kept it. You can still see pictures of old women carrying ammunition to their backs for the greeks to the snow mountains. Also you can see the name of the battle scarved to a stone outside of the Greek Parliament to this day.
"Okhi", the Greek word for "No", attributed to Metaxas (falsely) in his rejection of the Italian ultimatum, is pronounced "o-kh-i", like you're about to clear your throat, not "o-ch-i". It is the name of the national holiday on October 28.
bro what? don't you know how to read Greek? By saying it's read like that is making things worse. The Greek word for No is read like this O-H-I not what you wrote.
@@Novachrono641 No, the "h" in English is a soft breath out. The "kh" is the phonetic symbol in English for the harder sound, which corresponds to the Greek as spoken in "o-kh-i" but has no equivalent in the Latin alphabet. The narrator uses the harsh "ch", as in "reach", which is a gross error and needed correcting.
@@nikhtose I don't think it will be better if you just add the k for example when you say hello the H is clearly heard and said. With the k it will sound weird especially for non English speakers. But just saying O-H-I is a better option. Although i agree with you about the way the youtuber is pronouncing the word which hurt my ears quite a lot since i am a Greek as well.
@@Novachrono641 Yes, the "kh" diphthong is a phonetic symbol, but appears in standard English, as in the Ukrainian city of "Kherson", which marks the correct pronunciation.
I got straight A’s in History all through high school and I now I never learned anything worth remembering. But I remember things I remember in your videos. And I am entertained and engaged. They ought to be showing these videos in History class, after fact checking of course.
You didn't got the right teachers.......mine used to enrich her lessons with anecdotes and interesting details, plus she suggested books to read to those of us that showed extra interest for a specific part of the lesson......R.I.P.,unforgettable Mrs Doannides.
I think we can thank Mussolini for the ultimate destruction of the German Army on the eastern front. Hitler came to the rescue of the Italians and had to postpone Operation Barbarossa for three months or until June. Would Hitler have taken Moscow if the attack had begun in April? They may have taken Moscow before General Winter took over.
My grandfather was in the Cretan V division and i remember him telling me about this battle and that his division was one of the first to be sent in and he did not know whether he would live or die but that he out his faith in God and his Greek brothers next to him. He was. GREAT man, kind as an angel!
Proportionally Greece had the highest number of losses in WW2, not counting the communist attack after the war. In absolute numbers the biggest losses were those of the USSR of course, but as a proportion of the population it was Greece.
I love Italy so much I find it hard to see they were part of the axis. many brave Italians fought If they had not been facist and halted hitler it could have been over by '43. who knows though, lessons from history we never seem to lrearn. rule#1 don't be a facist......it rarely ends well
My understanding is the Greeks initially declined a British intervention which they believed would draw in Germany. The Greeks drove the Italians out actually taking control of some Albanian areas. A major problem for the Greeks was logistics. Having, in the inter war period, armed themselves with Italian army equipment they were unable to obtain new Italian ammunition and parts. This forced them to accept the British offer of help. Receiving British equipment was useful but these new weapons were not interchangeable with their existing equipment and the British intervention did indeed draw the Germans in. Mind you the failure of the Italians forced the Germans to intervene anyway as well as the Yugoslav refusal to joint the Axis . It is forgotten that Britain had provided Greece with foreign aide from it's 1821 independence to prevent the Greek kingdom from economic collapse and then seeking help from their fellow Orthodox Christians, the Russians, who had always sort warm water port in the Mediterranean for it's Navy which was seen as a direct threat to the British . Despite dependence on this British aide the Greeks had resented the influence this gave the British over Greece.
the italian weapons in greece in 1940 were minimal, only 4 destroyers and some artillery tractors Pavesi. some rifles produced by Breda in the interwar period were the greek model manlicher Shoenauer M-1903. most of the artillery and machineguns were of French origin, some older models of howitzers were Skoda and the only british gun was BL 6-inch 30 cwt howitzer from WWI but in small numbers. A/A guns and A/T guns were German origin Rheinmetall simply becouse in interwar period only germany was accepted greek tabacco and other raw materials for payment via clearing method instead of hard currency demanded by france and britain. after the war britain send small numbers of british weapons and some italian captured rifles and guns from north africa campaigns. alot of captured italian wepons captured by greek army pressed to service ither locally or send to rear for refurbish and if necceessary to modify for use. metaxas did not accept at first britain ground forces unless they were atleast 8-10 infantry divisions needed to guard the bulgarian borders, britain only offered 2-3, unsufficient number which metaxas feared that it would only give the pretex germany to invade. interesting enough the period 1937-1939 all pleas for arms sales by britain and france were not satisfied, they were thinking that the country that would join the axis! they could not be more wrong! and they were primery arming turkey, yugoslavia and bulgaria instead! only after the poland invasion they were offer lawns for arms sells but by then they were too late, as they offered delivery after a 6-10 months period time! also pleas for arms sales from the USA were also unsuccesfull. when Franche fell so quickly that was shock to the greek general staff, they did not expect so quick fall, this was demenishing the possibilities to get munnition and spare parts from france and also a skeptisism to the efectiveness of the army as was based basically on french doctrine and organisation! also was lead to the fear of tanks becouse the country had none (except of 4 for experimental in interwar period) and limited A/T guns. despite the italian types were small in numbers and the terrain help to defeat them along with artillery and mines on pedeterminated places of destruction in Kalpaki in the Kalamas-Elea defence line, a fear arouse on the generall staff and plans were made to avoid the open plains on the counteroffencive and seek to contest the high grounds for safety reasons.
The British could not afford troops to defend the Balkans or to start an offensive from the Balkans. In the end some troops were spared but it was only a small force. Those British troops were taken from Tobruk, thus making things easier for Rommel down there, but Greeks and British together were no match for the German war machine when Hitler moved in to save Mussolini. The number of troops needed to defend Macedonia was 500,000 according to later estimates made by the military experts and such a number was impossible in 1941. Meanwhile just before the German invasion the Greek government did not allow the RAF planes to take off from Macedonia and bomb the Romanian oil fields, in a vain effort to appease Hitler and make him stay away and not invade. But in any case those oilfields could not have been taken out so easily, as was demonstrated later in the war when the Americans made the attempt. Also in 1941 there was no American lend lease assistance for Greece. American lend lease was still several months away for the British in Africa too, so the Germans clearly had the upper hand.
@@kajamix My unfortunate dad was one of those unfortunate enough to be captured on Crete. He always blamed the lack of air-power for that complete shemozzle. An artillery gunner supporting the New Zealand army he said they would force the Germans to retreat at night and the next day the Stuka's would bomb they right back. His battery were issued Lewis guns salvaged from the badly damaged HMS Liverpool. That is scrapping the bottom of the barrel for every weapon they could find. The Naval version had a bullet pan with double the number of bullets to the army mode which made it a lot heavier to carry around.
@@binaway In Crete the defenders made the mistake of chasing the Germans from the Maleme airport at Canea when that was possible. The Germans were about to give up but they were given time to regroup and when it became possible for German transport planes to land at that airport the battle was lost. There was no RAF. The Germans from mainland Greece were much closer and had aerial control. Also they managed to sink two British destroyers. Later Crete was of no use to supply the Africa Corps but could have been useful to the British if they held it because they could bring planes and attack German positions in mainland Greece. My father was from Crete but at that time he was in Macedonia with the retreating forces.
The British supplied captured Italian artillery from North Africa, and a small air contingent. Sending any British troops to Greece was a major strategic error. The 150 tanks and two infantry divisions should have been used to drive the Italians out of North Africa before Rommel could get established. Instead the North African Campaign dragged on until May 1943. Churchill was a great prime minister, but a worse than useless military strategist.
A couple of things that irritated Hitler. 1. Not only were the Italian Army not that good, but the Italian Industrial Infrastructure was not that good to produce the needed planes, tanks, bombs, rifles and ammunition to equip their own Army. 2. Even though an Axis Ally, Japan did not invade Eastern Russia to support the German Invasion from the West. As a result, Stalin was able to transfer 400,000 of his best Winter troops to defend Russia against the Germans-a decisive in the German defeat at Stalingrad. You can thank his chief Russian spy, Richard Sorge to get this information from the Japanese Military to Stalin. You can also thank Russian General Zhukov who had decisively defeated the Japanese Army in Manchuria in the mid 1930s. As a result, the Japanese Army did not want to tangle again with the Red Army.
Very good content, and a very good video. Thank you. It would have helped me if there were more maps and better animated maps. I really could not follow the battles on the ground.
Greek resistance delayed barbarossa launch for 2 weeks, which prevented germany to capture moscow before winter kicks in... may have been decise to defeat the nazis
Something worth mentioned that most people don’t know, is that before the war began with the Italians, Metaxas had reached an agreement with the Germans for the purchase of German artillery about 5 years before the Greek italian war. So the German artillery was used to enforce the Greek line of defence and offence against the Italians.
I mean, obviously the Italians would go for Africa, the Balkans and Greece; Mussollini wanted the Mare Nostrum. Why anyone in Berlin ever thought Italy had any interest or incentives to slog around Eastern Europe with the Germans is beyond me: It's dreary, balls cold and an all around unpleasant place.
MY GRANDFATHER SHOWED ME A PHOTO OF THE NAZI FLAG OVER THE ACROPOLIS. HE SAID "IF GERMANY DID NOT HAVE TO RESCUE THE ITAILIANS IN GREECE WHICH DELAYED THEIR INVASION OF RUSSIA BY 6 WEEKS, THEY WOULD HAVE MADE IT TO MOSCOW."
10:22 The Julia division (pronounced Yulia btw) were also Alpini, and they had huge losses in Greece and later Russia. The famous warsong "Sul ponte di Perati" is their song about the defeat there
My great-grandfathers fought the Bulgarians in Macedonia during the occupation in 1941 to 1944. After the occupation ended, they left the communist militia to join the more democratic resistance movements, something for which they were executed by the communists during the civil war of 1946
I have often wondered whether the losses of men and material that it cost Hitler to bail out Italy and the delay it had on the start of Barbarossa could have caused the Germans to fall short in their objectives in Russia before winter set in. If so, did that contribute to the eastern campaign failure?
Paul the Btrish secret service backed Tito who of course was communist, to fight to create Yugoslavia, this meant Hitler had to lnvade to protect his right flank, before Barbarossa and like you said it put his invasion well into June meaning he was out of time for Barbarossa.
There is alot of missed information that should be acknowledged; Britain was bound to assist Greece by the declaration of 1939, which stated that in the event of a threat to Greek or Romanian independence, "His Majesty's Government would feel themselves bound at once to lend the Greek or Romanian Government […] all the support in their power. General Alexandros Papagos, Commander-in-Chief of the Hellenic Army, asked Britain for nine fully-equipped divisions and corresponding air support. The first help from Britain and the Commonwealth came in the form of RAF squadrons commanded by John d'Albiac, which were sent in November 1940. Force W began arriving October 31 Island of Crete.
In essence, during that period, Britain could not help Greece, it did not have the ability nor the means, and it sacrificed ANZAC simply to honor the agreement, it was sent to Greece but it was not enough, it was a drop in the ocean, they fought bravely in all of Greece and the Greeks they never forgot that.
no british soldiers or equipment arrived in greece till the late feb of '41 nore fought against the italians ,they helped against germans and not in the front borders with bulgaria and yugoslavia from the germans invated ,they formed a secondary line of defence much southern and in crete
Ioannis Metaxas, declined any actual support by the British troops. His excuse was not to provoke the Germans to interfere. Alexandros Papagos had suggested some call to arms, just in case, when the Italian divisions passed to Albania and started to deployed in the Greco-Albanian borders. Metaxas rejected that either.
@@user-jf6yv8rj2s This is a fact. In January 1941, the British made a proposal to Metaxas in order to bring forces to the front of Epirus. Metaxas asked the British for 10 divisions along with the corresponding air force. The British retorted that they could offer 2 divisions with only a small air force. Then Metaxas replied "You'd better not send us anything. The only thing you'll manage to do in that case is provoke the Germans to attack." This is not true in the period of May-October 1940 there were pre-recruitments and secret recruitments in 30 units with various justifications mainly for training in new weapons. According to Italian calculations, the VIII Division together with the border sector forces was expected to have a peacetime manpower estimated at ¼ of the wartime strength of a Greek infantry division. However, apart from the fact that this VIII Division was found fully manned, it was also presented reinforced as only in terms of Infantry, its power was increased since instead of 9 it had 15 battalions, while in Artillery it had been reinforced with 1 additional regiment.
A significant part of the footage refers to the Greek civil war (1946-1949) and to the ''battle of Athens'' (December 1944). It has nothing to do with the Italian-Greek war of 1940-1941
Tbf, as a historian I have to point out Hitler holds a good part of the responsibility for this. Italy's initial plans were to invade Yugoslavia sometime between late August and early September, but Hitler dissuaded Mussolini because 1) He didn't want the Axis to deploy troops in the Balkans, thus giving the british an excuse to open a new front there 2) He wanted Yugoslavia to join the Axis voluntarily, not by being invaded. Mussolini agreed to this, but then in October he woke up to the news of german troops entering Romania. The Greek invasion was poorly planned in two weeks, during the wintertime, as a revenge to this move by the Germans, and obviously it ended in favour of the defenders who had a huge geographical and atmospherical advantage, but if Hitler never sent troops to Romania, Italy would have never invaded Greece in winter, and would have at least waited until spring 1941, when more troops (rather than just the 80,000 troops used in the invasion) would have been trransported overseas. Historiography in the last 3-4 decades has been revising Germany's responbilities for several defeats during ww2, which in the past had been unfairly attributed to its allies (be it Italy, or romania, or even Japan) because it was based a lot on the germans' point of view, while nowadays any historian agrees that surely many defeats were caused by Hitler and German HQ's underestimation of co-planning and co-operation of its military campaigns, like in this case.
ΟΧΙ means NO, pronounced Ohi not ch. like hoplites, we do not say choplites eg…. Very good video. Greeks reached Tirana but our “allies” did not allow the annexation after the war although the northern ipeirous is still populated by Greeks and Albanians in the region are still a minority. Although Greece was always truthful and faithful to its alliances and commitments our western allies almost always act like snakes against us.😢
The need for Germany to come to Italy's aid in Greece may have forced the postponement of Barbarossa from 15 May to 22 June. Perhaps those lost weeks prevented Germany from capturing Moscow before winter and ultimately cost it the war. Quite a penalty to pay for supporting the absurd Duce.
A correction is in order here. The Balkan wars you refer to in the begining of the video, were not for Greece (or any other of the Balkan allies) a war of independence. This in the case of Greece had been achieved a century earlier during the Greek War of Independence of 1821 and subsequently Serbia, Bulgaria and Montenegro also became independent. The first Balkan war was for Greece a war of iberation of historic Greek areas with majority Greek populations (namely Epirus and Macedonia) that were still under Ottoman rule. The second Balkan war was between the former allies (more accurately Bulgaria vs Greece and Serbia initially) because of territorial disagreements over the former Ottoman lands.
You have a very confusing error on the description stating "...early hours of October 28, 1941..." when it was in 1940. With the correct timeline, people will understand how much the Soviet Union invasion was delayed due to the german invasion of Greece to save the italians. Please correct it. Otherwise a nice video.
Generally good text, however few filmshots on the video are actually from the greco - italian war. Some were frome different fronts and some from guerila fighters of 1943-44 period.
This delayed the invasion of the Soviet Union by months, making a huge difference as it stole months of good weather that could have been used to take Moscow. Instead the Germans hit the "season of mud" and then froze outside the walls of Moscow. Stalins movement of the start line for the German invasion westwards by 100s of kms via the division of Poland was the other deciding factor.
This sheds light on the opportunistic nature of the Axis alliance. Italy was not a Nazist country and had no global racial plan, even planning a defensive alliance with the UK against German expansionism. The Germans didn't tell the Italians that they were planning to open another front east (arguably right choice, since it was a big secret), thus not allowing for a joint strategy.
I realize that it may be difficult to find enough film of the Italian and Greek army to match the dialogue, but too much of what you provided as Italians on the attack were Germans, including several scenes of fallschirmjager jumping out of Ju 52s. Ok for beginner's but irritating to anyone who knows what they are looking at.
This is one of the key factors that delayed the nazi germans from invading the soviet union. The Italian army fighting capabilities and military hardware did not much the superiority of the Germans. The Italians relied on ww1 tactics instead of improving there military. There leadership was poor as well. The Italian army were not bad fighters but the Italian military command structure was just poor
New idea for a video... Robert R. Garwood, A Private in the USMC was supposedly captured on September 28, 1965, near Da Nang There seems to be many reports that he was a defector for the VC and worked as an interpreter. The Official report is that he's the Last POW from the Vietnam war... Why did was he returned on March 22, 1979 instead of in Operation Homecoming in 1973 after the Paris peace accords? This is a bit strange and would also help perk some ears concerning the POW/MIA subject.
Unlike France, the Italian people didn't have their heart in the dictator ruling them (Vichy). This also meant that Fascism was weaker and had no global plans, thus enabling most of the Italian army and people to oust their dictator when it was possible, in 1943. The Free French front only unified in 1943, making France no less Fascist-oriented than Italy. Yet Italy helped Nazi plans of global substitution for less time and almost to no ideological agreement.
To this day, the 28th of October is a massive holiday here in Greece. It commemorates those who fought and died in the war against the invaders, and is second in our National Holidays only to The 25th of March, our day of Independence. We will always remember those who went into the North to defend our country - our grandfathers, great grandfathers, uncles. We live because of their sacrifice.
IF GERMANY DID NOT WASTE 6 WEEKS RESCUING THE ITAILIANS, THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN IN MOSCOW.
@@joangratzer2101 America could have easily nuked Germany to oblivion. gg no re
@@malcolmholmes2596AMERICA HAS A LOT OF HEROES LIKE YOU; BUT NO BABY FORMULA. INCREDIBLE SACRIFICE MADE BY GERMANY; YOUR NOT WORTHY TO HAVE THEM PISS ON YOU.
I once met a Greek who came to America in the 1950s, he was in his 90s and living in a retirement home where my wife worked. When the Nazis came he took to the hills with a partisan group. I spoke at their Veteran's Day commemoration where we honored all the veterans living there, and he was thrilled when we recognized him as a fellow combatant against a common enemy. He's gone now, but it was an honor to know him.
You might want to remind the brutes of the Golden Dawn party and other thugs of the struggle against be fascist beasts
Greece resisted the Axis powers for 219 days, occupied almost half of Albania and this was essentially the First Victory that an allied country managed against the Axis powers.
Unless you include the battle of Britain, but the Greeks kicked ass indeed.
@@unchainedsoulsubs1371 I don't include it, it is a battle that took place mainly with air means and it does not have the same characteristics as the battle of Greece, which was not a superpower but a small country with poor means to wage war with Italy, Germany and Bulgaria at the same time
A victory against Italy is no victory.
And here we must also mention the action of the Greek Royal Navy which, despite the capitulation of Greece, continued to fight, in 1943, out of the 41 warships conducting escort missions, 27 were British, 11 Hellenic and only 3 French.
Moreover, Hellenic Fleet units participated in the great allied landing in Normandy on
6 June 1944, the greatest combined allied operation of all times. Hellenic ships operated in the Atlantic from England to Cape Town and from Gibraltar to the Azores. The
total distance covered by the Hellenic Fleet during those war operations was approximately 2 million nautical miles within about 185,000 navigable hours. This
means that each ship covered an average of 20,000 nautical miles, which is 80% of
the perimeter of the Earth, under war conditions. The Hellenic Merchant Marine provided many ships for those death convoys and proved a valuable caterer for the Allies, while during the Italian invasion against Greece, its ship, protected by the Hellenic Navy, safely transported almost 80% of the war materials and the troops to
ports of destinations near the front.
@@kal.50bmg32 Here we must have a general picture and not focus on the fact. British parliamentary secretary at the Ministry of War Transport (including Shipping) Philip Noel
Baker, on 28 October 1942, for the first anniversary of «OCHI» (the Greek «NO» to the Italians):
«Had Greece succumbed without a fight to the Axis attacks, no one would have had the right to blame it. I say this while we knew then and we know even better now, what it would have meant for us if Greece had surrendered without a fight. The Axis would then be able to develop lines of communication throughout Europe and its planes and submarines would then dominate across the Mediterranean from the Greek coasts. Our defence in Egypt would be much harder. Syria, Iraq and Cyprus
would be taken over by the Axis and Turkey would also be engulfed. The oilfields of the Middle East would be at the disposal of the Axis. The rear door of Caucasus
would be wide open and we would lose the entire Middle East and perhaps the war. Thanks to the Greek defence we were given the time first to fend off and then
crash the Italian army, which moved from Libya against Egypt, to clear up the Red Sea from enemy ships, to move the American aid to the Middle East and to overcome the hostile threat against it. The results of the Greek defence are even felt today in our struggles. If Stalingrad and the Caucasus stand up today to the German
pressure, it is not unrelated to the Greek defence, by which we are benefiting even two entire years later. The world really has no right to forget the feats of the Greeks
at this historic moment».
Apparently, the already-conquered French were delighted at the drubbing that the Greeks gave the Italians. In southern France, on the Italian border, a notice allegedly appeared. It said: "Greeks! Advance no further! You are now entering France!"😄
The Italians also failed in France where their attack forces were crushed by the French in the South
I'm half Sicilian and I get ashamed to know all the humans suffered from the Romans and later the Italians. But every country has it's dark periods. I should know being American.
@@williamberry8895 I think America's past is not as dark as many people portray it nowadays. I certainly think western culture gets so much flak about its evils because the west was honest in its history and actually wrote it down fairly accurately.
How many conquests through history are completely forgotten because they are lost in the mists of time? How many atrocities are forgotten.
With perhaps a few exceptions, no group anywhere are the original settlers in their homeland. That is, if humans have lived there for more than a few thousand years, odds are second and third waves of migrants are who occupies that area now.
@@williamberry8895 Yeah, most countries were expansionist at some point or were a product of it.
@@MrQ454if your army’s ever been “crushed by the French”, you might be a weak-ass country! 🤔
But the Greeks fought back even against impossible odds, like when the Greek pilot Marinos Mitralexis was attacking an Italian bombing raid, and his PZL 11 was outta Ammo, and went on a Kamakaze run into an Italian bomber, baled out himself and and took the survivors prisoner to march them to nearby Greek positions
Yes that is really stupid to crash your full functioning plane.
@@eisscrat5667 Yes and its really brave to risk your life to fight back when you haven't any ammo to do so, crash you old outdated plane and save the lives that bomber would have taken, no matter what and still find a way to fight back no matter what
The odds weren't impossible. They had far better terrain positions and season to their advantage. The Italian preparation was stupid, thanks to Mussolini's temper tantrum decision. They needed to be crossing the border with a 3:1 advantage in men as a minimum. They never had that and, in fact, were 2:1 outnumbered at the front at a critical point early on. It was a silly invasion Greece would have been a useful ally. The Greeks were brilliant for their part.
@@DrRomaioi Well as you say they had the defensive advantage but as they say who said we can take Greece? Someone who can't take Greece!
he actually landed his plane THEN captured the enemy 2 member crew.
Only one small correction that others have pointed out, the Italo-Greco War started in 1940 A.D, not 1941 A.D.
Correct
My grandfather fought against the Italians as a member of the dreaded Evzonoi, the Greek kilted infantry. Almost lost his legs because of frostbites. My father's uncle, an inhabitant from Constantinople volunteered to fight too. I am proud to descend from them.
It's a good thing that nowadays more and more people are learning through UA-cam about the war of Greece at 1940.
We lost a tenth of our population during WWII, it now feels like their sacrifice wasn't in vain.
Memory and Honor.
The Greeks were total bad-asses during WWII--not only during the invasion, but also the partisans during the occupation. Their destruction through sabotage of Axis supplies sent down through the Balkans for shipment to North Africa played a crucial role in the Afrika Korps' defeat.
As you should be proud. Greetings from Serbia.
@@maxmagnus777 Greetings to brave Serbia my brother.
Tough SOBs.
Thank your grandfather,you made the nation stand with honor
Great video and nice to see something about Greece during WW2. There seems to be a lack of information about Greece and it's role in the war. My grandfather was posted there as part of the British marines
My father lived through this as a young kid. He remembers that, while the Greeks could handle the Italians, the industrial capabilities, along with the corresponding logistical efficiency of the Germans proved too much to deal with. Although there was a formal surrender, the Greek partisans never stopped fighting.
It's a point of view that's overshadowed by everything else. As most people tend to follow perspective they connect to closer. Most of our grandfather's had nothing to do with that theater so our schools skip it. Growing up in America Stalingrad was never mentioned.
Even as much as ww2 as I’ve tried to study, the most I’ve heard about Greece was Crete, other than that you just hear the Greek civil war mentioned, and then nothing else.
@@georgesakellaropoulos8162 Furthermore, the Royal Hellenic Navy did not surrender and fleed with the Goverment to Alexandria, Egypt and supported Allied forces with engagments in the Mediteraniean Sea, Indian Ocean and eventually the D-day landings.
Nope, you just need to go to a real library. I wrote a 30 page research paper on the Balkan's during WW2 for my junior level European History 1939-1950 class. I found dozens of books and doctoral level research papers on the vital importance and problems the allies had in how to free Greece and zones of operations. This was at a mid-tier University in Alabama. The issue is that very few writers want to tackle what looks to be a side conflict when you have so many LARGER battles and campaigns to write about.
Excellent presentation! I didn't know this info about the Greeks & Mussolini. Well done, and thank you!
It was a dogfight, we had about the same casualties 4500+- on both sides, and in Greece we didn't celebrate the end of the war, but the day of the denial 😁 28/10
NOW YOU KNOW IN WW2 WE FIGHT BOTH FASICTS AND NAZI S
@@christosbekas7446America! Fuk yaaa!
@@juicyj3819 🇺🇸 🇬🇷
@@christosbekas7446 and the communist invasion that followed
Thanks to you and your team for all the fantastic content.
The romans vs greeks line is funny because everyone involved were likely descendants of both
Yep. It's an ignorant line to take and undermines what was otherwise a pretty descent description of the campaign.
How they are Romans? Rome was destroyed by the barbarians long time ago lol.
@@Unknown-bt5rd barbarians didn't kill all the romans, so it's pretty safe to say that a lot of people descend from them
@@Unknown-bt5rd The Germanic tribes was outnumbered by the roman population. The Ostrogoths who took over Rome, admired the Romans and wanted to create a mixture between Roman and Germanic culture. Theodoric the great's dream. Taking the strength of both and removing the weaknesses.
Funnily enough, the Greeks were Roman for twice as long as the Italians. About 1500 years vs. half of that.
My great grandfather fought in the Battle of the Hill 731 as a sniper. He survived the war and died after some years, somewhere around 1970 .
The funniest thing about it is that, after both Italy and Germany conquered Greece, a Italian diplomat came to the greek government to receive their document of surrender. However, the greek delegation did surrender, but not to the Italians.
Cos we're not lose from italians😁
What's the story here? What do you mean by "surrender but not to Italians"?
@@orangejjay i think he meant the greeks surrender to the germans, not to the italians
The biggest disrespect in all of mankind
@@jonathanserrano2006 That's right. The Greeks didn't consider the Italians worthy of a surrender.
At dawn envoy arrives
Morning of October 28th
"No Day" proven by deed
Descendants of Sparta, Athens and Crete
Look now, ready to fight
Enemies charge from the hills
To arms, facing defeat
There's no surrender, there's no retreat
wow!
@@JonLondrezos It’s lyrics to the song Coat of Arms by the band Sabaton
@@kennethhigdon1159 double wow
Always interesting and informative content. Thank you.
It was actually October 28th, 1940. It has become since a Greek national holiday. "Ochi" day, or "No" day, signifying Metaxas' saying No to the Italian ambassador's demands...
My grandfather fought in the wehrmacht. After the war he always showed more respect for his opponents than for his former allies
My grandfather fought the Italians and later the Germans in Greece during WW2. His hatred of the Nazis lasted until his last breath. God Bless Him.
MY GRANDFATHER PROBABLY KILLED YOUR GRANDFATHERS BEST FRIENDS
@@joangratzer2101 I do know he killed many Nazis as a guerilla, after the Germans occupied and later communists during the civil war. He never talked about it but my grandmother and later some of his friends spoke of it. Very sad time for the Greeks.
Why?
@@kerreckt I REMEMBER MY GRANDFATHER SHOWING ME A PHOTOGRAPH OF A NAZI FLAG OVER THE ACROPLOLIS
@@kal.50bmg32 why the fk do you think?
What an outstanding summation of pre WW2 history and during. I learned a great deal; a much better idea of all the players ambitions and so I thank you !!
Education is life.
I didn't know about this part of Greek history. Just goes to show how motivation to protect ones homeland can be a powerful motivator. Plus of course troops experienced with local conditions and hardened by other battles.
Sounds kinda like Ukraine, huh?
the italian ambassador talked to metaxas in 28 of Octomber 1940 not in 1941
With allies like this, who needs enemies?
You make some really good videos of world war 2
So, I never knew there was snow and cold weather in Greece until just now...
Your comment just educated me on that as well I thought it was always tropical in a way
visit between November and March it's very cold, and snows in mountains.
It was one of the worst winters in 50 years. The snow was 80 centimeters or more deep. Many soldiers lost their limbs by frostbite......
Your voice is perfect for this
Thank you, well done!
This winter is going to suck. Just seeing those Greeks and Italians in the snow made me think of how winters seem brutal during times of war. WW1 was the same way
I would say germans trapped in stalingrad is what comes to mind when it snows
If Adi hated this, imagine how he hated the Italians' switching sides in 1943, never mind attacking the British garrison in Egypt, only for the Italians to be sent reeling back into their colony of Libya, then needing the bail out of Rommel and his Afrika Korps.
Another top notch video! Always entertaining and informative. Your work is appreciated. Thanks
An interesting detail: the 15th of August 1940 (15th August is Virgin Mary day and probably the second biggest religious celebration after Easter for Greeks) the Italians torpedoed and sunk the cruiser Elli at the island of Tinos, where it was sent to join the celebrations. While everyone knew the Italians did it, war wasn't declared in order to gain time and better prepare the army. If you ever visit Tinos, go to the big Panagia church and you can see remnants of the torpedo.
Reminds me of that nick cage movie called "captain corelli's mandolin".
Thank you for sharing
🇺🇲🙏🤗
I've been interested in the role. Greece played in WW2 ever since reading Captain Corellis mandolin
The most vicious battle was the battle of Hill 731. Greeks should hold it at all costs. After many days of italian bombardment it renamed Hill 725.The whole hill went down 6 meters because of that.They still kept it. You can still see pictures of old women carrying ammunition to their backs for the greeks to the snow mountains. Also you can see the name of the battle scarved to a stone outside of the Greek Parliament to this day.
Among other battles, its etched on the wall in Syntagma Square.
"Okhi", the Greek word for "No", attributed to Metaxas (falsely) in his rejection of the Italian ultimatum, is pronounced "o-kh-i", like you're about to clear your throat, not "o-ch-i". It is the name of the national holiday on October 28.
bro what? don't you know how to read Greek? By saying it's read like that is making things worse. The Greek word for No is read like this O-H-I not what you wrote.
@@Novachrono641 No, the "h" in English is a soft breath out. The "kh" is the phonetic symbol in English for the harder sound, which corresponds to the Greek as spoken in "o-kh-i" but has no equivalent in the Latin alphabet. The narrator uses the harsh "ch", as in "reach", which is a gross error and needed correcting.
@@nikhtose I don't think it will be better if you just add the k for example when you say hello the H is clearly heard and said. With the k it will sound weird especially for non English speakers. But just saying O-H-I is a better option. Although i agree with you about the way the youtuber is pronouncing the word which hurt my ears quite a lot since i am a Greek as well.
@@Novachrono641 Yes, the "kh" diphthong is a phonetic symbol, but appears in standard English, as in the Ukrainian city of "Kherson", which marks the correct pronunciation.
@@Novachrono641 Like German Ch
Great video - comparing Hoplites V Legions, nice touch.
Black shirts are no elite troops actually subpar fascist units of doubtful valor but it varies from unit to unit.
It's true Greeks still use "Hoplite" as military division today, gives me chills
Italy still uses the term "legion" for its military police, the carabinieri.
I got straight A’s in History all through high school and I now I never learned anything worth remembering. But I remember things I remember in your videos. And I am entertained and engaged. They ought to be showing these videos in History class, after fact checking of course.
So your real education started after you'd left school?
Welcome to the club.
You didn't got the right teachers.......mine used to enrich her lessons with anecdotes and interesting details, plus she suggested books to read to those of us that showed extra interest for a specific part of the lesson......R.I.P.,unforgettable Mrs Doannides.
Same for me, very engaging videos
History changes over time as it is recorded by the Victor's. Then re-written as they die out.
@@yougoof ...to the victor goes the spoils. and if the victors don't write the history then the defeated will
I think we can thank Mussolini for the ultimate destruction of the German Army on the eastern front. Hitler came to the rescue of the Italians and had to postpone Operation Barbarossa for three months or until June. Would Hitler have taken Moscow if the attack had begun in April? They may have taken Moscow before General Winter took over.
My grandfather was in the Cretan V division and i remember him telling me about this battle and that his division was one of the first to be sent in and he did not know whether he would live or die but that he out his faith in God and his Greek brothers next to him. He was. GREAT man, kind as an angel!
"Henceforth we will not say that Greeks fight like heroes, but that heroes fight like Greeks", Winston Churchill, 1941
it was 1940 when italians fought with us , 1941 Germans came to Greece .
my Grandfather fought in Albania as a mortar operator
It sounds like you slowed down your talking speed. Thank you
Not to forget that Greece suffered 1 out of 10 of its citizens killed during WW2.
Proportionally Greece had the highest number of losses in WW2, not counting the communist attack after the war.
In absolute numbers the biggest losses were those of the USSR of course, but as a proportion of the population it was Greece.
Exactly, terrible tragedy for a small country!
❤your videos
This is Sparta !
The description contains a mistake, the invasion started on 28th of October 1940, in 1941 they were closing on Moscow.
First victory. Is No joke. Thank you Greece!
I love Italy so much I find it hard to see they were part of the axis. many brave Italians fought If they had not been facist and halted hitler it could have been over by '43. who knows though, lessons from history we never seem to lrearn. rule#1 don't be a facist......it rarely ends well
My understanding is the Greeks initially declined a British intervention which they believed would draw in Germany. The Greeks drove the Italians out actually taking control of some Albanian areas. A major problem for the Greeks was logistics. Having, in the inter war period, armed themselves with Italian army equipment they were unable to obtain new Italian ammunition and parts. This forced them to accept the British offer of help. Receiving British equipment was useful but these new weapons were not interchangeable with their existing equipment and the British intervention did indeed draw the Germans in. Mind you the failure of the Italians forced the Germans to intervene anyway as well as the Yugoslav refusal to joint the Axis . It is forgotten that Britain had provided Greece with foreign aide from it's 1821 independence to prevent the Greek kingdom from economic collapse and then seeking help from their fellow Orthodox Christians, the Russians, who had always sort warm water port in the Mediterranean for it's Navy which was seen as a direct threat to the British . Despite dependence on this British aide the Greeks had resented the influence this gave the British over Greece.
the italian weapons in greece in 1940 were minimal, only 4 destroyers and some artillery tractors Pavesi. some rifles produced by Breda in the interwar period were the greek model manlicher Shoenauer M-1903. most of the artillery and machineguns were of French origin, some older models of howitzers were Skoda and the only british gun was BL 6-inch 30 cwt howitzer from WWI but in small numbers. A/A guns and A/T guns were German origin Rheinmetall simply becouse in interwar period only germany was accepted greek tabacco and other raw materials for payment via clearing method instead of hard currency demanded by france and britain. after the war britain send small numbers of british weapons and some italian captured rifles and guns from north africa campaigns. alot of captured italian wepons captured by greek army pressed to service ither locally or send to rear for refurbish and if necceessary to modify for use. metaxas did not accept at first britain ground forces unless they were atleast 8-10 infantry divisions needed to guard the bulgarian borders, britain only offered 2-3, unsufficient number which metaxas feared that it would only give the pretex germany to invade. interesting enough the period 1937-1939 all pleas for arms sales by britain and france were not satisfied, they were thinking that the country that would join the axis! they could not be more wrong! and they were primery arming turkey, yugoslavia and bulgaria instead! only after the poland invasion they were offer lawns for arms sells but by then they were too late, as they offered delivery after a 6-10 months period time! also pleas for arms sales from the USA were also unsuccesfull. when Franche fell so quickly that was shock to the greek general staff, they did not expect so quick fall, this was demenishing the possibilities to get munnition and spare parts from france and also a skeptisism to the efectiveness of the army as was based basically on french doctrine and organisation! also was lead to the fear of tanks becouse the country had none (except of 4 for experimental in interwar period) and limited A/T guns. despite the italian types were small in numbers and the terrain help to defeat them along with artillery and mines on pedeterminated places of destruction in Kalpaki in the Kalamas-Elea defence line, a fear arouse on the generall staff and plans were made to avoid the open plains on the counteroffencive and seek to contest the high grounds for safety reasons.
The British could not afford troops to defend the Balkans or to start an offensive from the Balkans. In the end some troops were spared but it was only a small force. Those British troops were taken from Tobruk, thus making things easier for Rommel down there, but Greeks and British together were no match for the German war machine when Hitler moved in to save Mussolini. The number of troops needed to defend Macedonia was 500,000 according to later estimates made by the military experts and such a number was impossible in 1941.
Meanwhile just before the German invasion the Greek government did not allow the RAF planes to take off from Macedonia and bomb the Romanian oil fields, in a vain effort to appease Hitler and make him stay away and not invade. But in any case those oilfields could not have been taken out so easily, as was demonstrated later in the war when the Americans made the attempt.
Also in 1941 there was no American lend lease assistance for Greece. American lend lease was still several months away for the British in Africa too, so the Germans clearly had the upper hand.
@@kajamix My unfortunate dad was one of those unfortunate enough to be captured on Crete. He always blamed the lack of air-power for that complete shemozzle. An artillery gunner supporting the New Zealand army he said they would force the Germans to retreat at night and the next day the Stuka's would bomb they right back. His battery were issued Lewis guns salvaged from the badly damaged HMS Liverpool. That is scrapping the bottom of the barrel for every weapon they could find. The Naval version had a bullet pan with double the number of bullets to the army mode which made it a lot heavier to carry around.
@@binaway In Crete the defenders made the mistake of chasing the Germans from the Maleme airport at Canea when that was possible. The Germans were about to give up but they were given time to regroup and when it became possible for German transport planes to land at that airport the battle was lost.
There was no RAF. The Germans from mainland Greece were much closer and had aerial control. Also they managed to sink two British destroyers.
Later Crete was of no use to supply the Africa Corps but could have been useful to the British if they held it because they could bring planes and attack German positions in mainland Greece. My father was from Crete but at that time he was in Macedonia with the retreating forces.
The British supplied captured Italian artillery from North Africa, and a small air contingent. Sending any British troops to Greece was a major strategic error. The 150 tanks and two infantry divisions should have been used to drive the Italians out of North Africa before Rommel could get established. Instead the North African Campaign dragged on until May 1943. Churchill was a great prime minister, but a worse than useless military strategist.
Great video!
A couple of things that irritated Hitler.
1. Not only were the Italian Army not that good, but the Italian Industrial Infrastructure was not that good to produce the needed planes, tanks, bombs, rifles and ammunition to equip their own Army.
2. Even though an Axis Ally, Japan did not invade Eastern Russia to support the German Invasion from the West. As a result, Stalin was able to transfer 400,000 of his best Winter troops to defend Russia against the Germans-a decisive in the German defeat at Stalingrad.
You can thank his chief Russian spy, Richard Sorge to get this information from the Japanese Military to Stalin. You can also thank Russian General Zhukov who had decisively defeated the Japanese Army in Manchuria in the mid 1930s. As a result, the Japanese Army did not want to tangle again with the Red Army.
Very good content, and a very good video. Thank you. It would have helped me if there were more maps and better animated maps. I really could not follow the battles on the ground.
Greek resistance delayed barbarossa launch for 2 weeks, which prevented germany to capture moscow before winter kicks in... may have been decise to defeat the nazis
Something worth mentioned that most people don’t know, is that before the war began with the Italians, Metaxas had reached an agreement with the Germans for the purchase of German artillery about 5 years before the Greek italian war. So the German artillery was used to enforce the Greek line of defence and offence against the Italians.
I mean, obviously the Italians would go for Africa, the Balkans and Greece; Mussollini wanted the Mare Nostrum. Why anyone in Berlin ever thought Italy had any interest or incentives to slog around Eastern Europe with the Germans is beyond me: It's dreary, balls cold and an all around unpleasant place.
Ww2 was the best sequel ever. I even put it above The Godfather part 2
Churchill said in the future it will not be said that Greeks fight like heros, but that heros fight like Greeks.
MY GRANDFATHER SHOWED ME A PHOTO OF THE NAZI FLAG OVER THE ACROPOLIS. HE SAID "IF GERMANY DID NOT HAVE TO RESCUE THE ITAILIANS IN GREECE WHICH DELAYED THEIR INVASION OF RUSSIA BY 6 WEEKS, THEY WOULD HAVE MADE IT TO MOSCOW."
10:22 The Julia division (pronounced Yulia btw) were also Alpini, and they had huge losses in Greece and later Russia.
The famous warsong "Sul ponte di Perati" is their song about the defeat there
Outstanding! Thx.
I love all your channels.
Actually insane to think about how different the world might be today if hitler didnt make an ally of italy
My great-grandfathers fought the Bulgarians in Macedonia during the occupation in 1941 to 1944. After the occupation ended, they left the communist militia to join the more democratic resistance movements, something for which they were executed by the communists during the civil war of 1946
I have often wondered whether the losses of men and material that it cost Hitler to bail out Italy and the delay it had on the start of Barbarossa could have caused the Germans to fall short in their objectives in Russia before winter set in. If so, did that contribute to the eastern campaign failure?
Indeed, your assesment is correct.
Paul the Btrish secret service backed Tito who of course was communist, to fight to create Yugoslavia, this meant Hitler had to lnvade to protect his right flank, before Barbarossa and like you said it put his invasion well into June meaning he was out of time for Barbarossa.
There is alot of missed information that should be acknowledged;
Britain was bound to assist Greece by the declaration of 1939, which stated that in the event of a threat to Greek or Romanian independence, "His Majesty's Government would feel themselves bound at once to lend the Greek or Romanian Government […] all the support in their power.
General Alexandros Papagos, Commander-in-Chief of the Hellenic Army, asked Britain for nine fully-equipped divisions and corresponding air support.
The first help from Britain and the Commonwealth came in the form of RAF squadrons commanded by John d'Albiac, which were sent in November 1940. Force W began arriving October 31 Island of Crete.
In essence, during that period, Britain could not help Greece, it did not have the ability nor the means, and it sacrificed ANZAC simply to honor the agreement, it was sent to Greece but it was not enough, it was a drop in the ocean, they fought bravely in all of Greece and the Greeks they never forgot that.
@@gboanavycommunitygbonm-gbons The British/Commonwealth supported the Greeks through Operation Compass
no british soldiers or equipment arrived in greece till the late feb of '41 nore fought against the italians ,they helped against germans and not in the front borders with bulgaria and yugoslavia from the germans invated ,they formed a secondary line of defence much southern and in crete
Ioannis Metaxas, declined any actual support by the British troops. His excuse was not to provoke the Germans to interfere.
Alexandros Papagos had suggested some call to arms, just in case, when the Italian divisions passed to Albania and started to deployed in the Greco-Albanian borders.
Metaxas rejected that either.
@@user-jf6yv8rj2s This is a fact. In January 1941, the British made a proposal to Metaxas in order to bring forces to the front of Epirus. Metaxas asked the British for 10 divisions along with the corresponding air force. The British retorted that they could offer 2 divisions with only a small air force. Then Metaxas replied "You'd better not send us anything. The only thing you'll manage to do in that case is provoke the Germans to attack."
This is not true in the period of May-October 1940 there were pre-recruitments and secret recruitments in 30 units with various justifications mainly for training in new weapons.
According to Italian calculations, the VIII Division together with the border sector forces was expected to have a peacetime manpower estimated at ¼ of the wartime strength of a Greek infantry division. However, apart from the fact that this VIII Division was found fully manned, it was also presented reinforced as only in terms of Infantry, its power was increased since instead of 9 it had 15 battalions, while in Artillery it had been reinforced with 1 additional regiment.
Thanks for the more subdued music.
A significant part of the footage refers to the Greek civil war (1946-1949) and to the ''battle of Athens'' (December 1944). It has nothing to do with the Italian-Greek war of 1940-1941
In the end (April 1945) everyone had betrayed Hitler except Goebels, Eva Braun, Blondie and Doenitz.
Blondie :-))))))))))))))))))))))) Good one mate
Tbf, as a historian I have to point out Hitler holds a good part of the responsibility for this. Italy's initial plans were to invade Yugoslavia sometime between late August and early September, but Hitler dissuaded Mussolini because 1) He didn't want the Axis to deploy troops in the Balkans, thus giving the british an excuse to open a new front there 2) He wanted Yugoslavia to join the Axis voluntarily, not by being invaded. Mussolini agreed to this, but then in October he woke up to the news of german troops entering Romania. The Greek invasion was poorly planned in two weeks, during the wintertime, as a revenge to this move by the Germans, and obviously it ended in favour of the defenders who had a huge geographical and atmospherical advantage, but if Hitler never sent troops to Romania, Italy would have never invaded Greece in winter, and would have at least waited until spring 1941, when more troops (rather than just the 80,000 troops used in the invasion) would have been trransported overseas. Historiography in the last 3-4 decades has been revising Germany's responbilities for several defeats during ww2, which in the past had been unfairly attributed to its allies (be it Italy, or romania, or even Japan) because it was based a lot on the germans' point of view, while nowadays any historian agrees that surely many defeats were caused by Hitler and German HQ's underestimation of co-planning and co-operation of its military campaigns, like in this case.
Batle of 731 is worth a video of its own.
Thank you
Greece is the only country that celebrates the starting of the war against the Axis and not the ending.
ΟΧΙ means NO, pronounced Ohi not ch. like hoplites, we do not say choplites eg…. Very good video. Greeks reached Tirana but our “allies” did not allow the annexation after the war although the northern ipeirous is still populated by Greeks and Albanians in the region are still a minority. Although Greece was always truthful and faithful to its alliances and commitments our western allies almost always act like snakes against us.😢
The need for Germany to come to Italy's aid in Greece may have forced the postponement of Barbarossa from 15 May to 22 June. Perhaps those lost weeks prevented Germany from capturing Moscow before winter and ultimately cost it the war. Quite a penalty to pay for supporting the absurd Duce.
Greece had to be neutralized as it was a threat to be a British base to harass Romania.
Germany didn't need to. The Italians were already reinforcing and resupplying for a spring offensive.
@@NeuKrofta the spring offensive failed miserably for the italians
This is sparta!!!
A correction is in order here. The Balkan wars you refer to in the begining of the video, were not for Greece (or any other of the Balkan allies) a war of independence. This in the case of Greece had been achieved a century earlier during the Greek War of Independence of 1821 and subsequently Serbia, Bulgaria and Montenegro also became independent.
The first Balkan war was for Greece a war of iberation of historic Greek areas with majority Greek populations (namely Epirus and Macedonia) that were still under Ottoman rule. The second Balkan war was between the former allies (more accurately Bulgaria vs Greece and Serbia initially) because of territorial disagreements over the former Ottoman lands.
[04:12] - So, Greece was forced out of neutrality by the British. A fact, not well known by the public.
7:44 It's read "Okhi" not "Ochi" btw
otsi otsi otsi otsi
You have a very confusing error on the description stating "...early hours of October 28, 1941..." when it was in 1940. With the correct timeline, people will understand how much the Soviet Union invasion was delayed due to the german invasion of Greece to save the italians. Please correct it. Otherwise a nice video.
Generally good text, however few filmshots on the video are actually from the greco - italian war. Some were frome different fronts and some from guerila fighters of 1943-44 period.
Nice video
This delayed the invasion of the Soviet Union by months, making a huge difference as it stole months of good weather that could have been used to take Moscow. Instead the Germans hit the "season of mud" and then froze outside the walls of Moscow. Stalins movement of the start line for the German invasion westwards by 100s of kms via the division of Poland was the other deciding factor.
This sheds light on the opportunistic nature of the Axis alliance. Italy was not a Nazist country and had no global racial plan, even planning a defensive alliance with the UK against German expansionism. The Germans didn't tell the Italians that they were planning to open another front east (arguably right choice, since it was a big secret), thus not allowing for a joint strategy.
I realize that it may be difficult to find enough film of the Italian and Greek army to match the dialogue, but too much of what you provided as Italians on the attack were Germans, including several scenes of fallschirmjager jumping out of Ju 52s. Ok for beginner's but irritating to anyone who knows what they are looking at.
You got the date wrong mate, it was 1940
People in the US know little about this part of WW. I knew nothing about it, and I consider myself quite knowledgeable about WW2.
This is one of the key factors that delayed the nazi germans from invading the soviet union. The Italian army fighting capabilities and military hardware did not much the superiority of the Germans. The Italians relied on ww1 tactics instead of improving there military. There leadership was poor as well. The Italian army were not bad fighters but the Italian military command structure was just poor
The most accurate comment made about Mussolini was by Romanians prior to Italian troops departure during Barbarossa, calling him Caesar Absurdus.
Your footage is from many different periods and events, other than the ones you mention
I am very proud to say that my great uncle Emmanuel fought in this war.
New idea for a video... Robert R. Garwood, A Private in the USMC was supposedly captured on September 28, 1965, near Da Nang There seems to be many reports that he was a defector for the VC and worked as an interpreter. The Official report is that he's the Last POW from the Vietnam war... Why did was he returned on March 22, 1979 instead of in Operation Homecoming in 1973 after the Paris peace accords? This is a bit strange and would also help perk some ears concerning the POW/MIA subject.
Garwood was a collaborator.there was a dozen pows during Korean war who stayed after war.
Just a note, it is NOT "ochei", but "ohei"...
"...and if all goes well...?" Even Italy's war songs were wishy-washy...glad Mussolini was Hitler's ally and not ours.
Unlike France, the Italian people didn't have their heart in the dictator ruling them (Vichy). This also meant that Fascism was weaker and had no global plans, thus enabling most of the Italian army and people to oust their dictator when it was possible, in 1943. The Free French front only unified in 1943, making France no less Fascist-oriented than Italy. Yet Italy helped Nazi plans of global substitution for less time and almost to no ideological agreement.
I am Greek American and I am proud of my nation's resistance in the war
Change the 1941 to 1940 in the description
You lost me at 7:50."oh-chee","oh--chee?' Use the voice function on Google Translate. "OH-HEE".
Search for the battle in the hill 731 ...9-24 \3\41...the new thermopiles..
8:05 just look at those wee little tanks.
The date is wrong--its 1940, not 1941
Maps would be beneficial!