085 - Nazis in the Balkans - The Invasion of Greece and Yugoslavia - WW2 - April 11, 1941
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- Опубліковано 10 кві 2020
- This week, the German Army invades Greece and Yugoslavia as it launches Operation Marita and Operation 25 respectively. They also take some remarkable captives in North-Africa.
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Written and Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Produced and Directed by: Spartacus Olsson and Astrid Deinhard
Executive Producers: Bodo Rittenauer, Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Research by: Indy Neidell
Edited by: Iryna Dulka
Map animations: Eastory ( / eastory )
Colorizations by:
- Olga Shirnina, a.k.a. Klimbim - klimbim2014.wordpress.com/
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- Carlos Ortega Pereira, BlauColorizations, / blaucolorizations
- Owen Robinson - / owen.colorization
Sources:
- FORTEPAN / MARTIN DJEMIL, MARTIN DJEMIL
- FDR Presidential Library & Museum
- Bundesarchiv
- Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe
- Side cap and veteran icons by Andrei Yushchenko from the Noun Project
- IWM: E 2961, E 4702, E 2987, A 9796
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This is the second double-length episode, with the Invasion of the Benelux and France being the first one (May 18th 1940). Now, there are two things I want to point out in this comment. First of all, like our May 18th episode, this episode is packed with the amazing maps made by Eastory. If you haven't already, subscribe to ua-cam.com/users/eastory. Furthermore, this week the final episode of our Between Two Wars series aired, covering the world on the brink of World War Two. The entire series of 58 episodes long, covering all the events leading up to WW2, can be watched in this playlist (ua-cam.com/play/PLrG5J-K5AYAU1R-HeWSfY2D1jy_sEssNG.html) or simply by going to ua-cam.com/users/timeghost.
Cheers, Joram
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Time for Goering to change name again.
Very good episode guys. I love the episodes where you detail the individual troops movements.
Double-length = best length. Love it.
Spoiler
The episode containing Pearl Harbor and the Counter offensive at Moscow might have to be 30 minutes
19 minutes, just wow. First like then I watch.
"Let them come"
Germany: *comes*
Stalin: *supriced picachu face*
USSR: stops nazi in the battle for Moscow and launches a successful counter-offensive.
Hitler: NEIN! NEIN! Kein einziger Schritt zurück!! Das war ein Befehl!!!!
@@user-xw5xo3bv1n also USSR: slaughters millions of its own people by throwing them at meatgrinders
@@panzerofthelake506 Enemy at the Gates is not even close to a historically accurate movie. It's all 100% fiction.
@@commissarluke2898 agree but Stalin did kill many red army generals like Mikhail Tukhachevsky the greatest general of the red army at that time. Now when the Germans invaded all the generals in the field couldn't wipe their own ass let alone defend against the veteran German army.
@@panzerofthelake506
Correlation of battlefield casualities (KIA, MIA, DOW) of USSR and Axis on Eastern Front.
6,880,600 to 4,437,400. 1:1,55.
Correlation of casualities between France and Germany in german French campaign, Allies to Axis.
Total: 2,260,000 to 163,676. 13:1.
KIA\MIA\W: 360,000 to 163,676. 2,1:1.
Yeah, tell me more about meatgrinder and bad army performance.
I come from a small town in Minnesota near another small town named Belgrade. When the Nazis invaded Yugoslavia the radio reported that the Nazis had taken Belgrade one of the locals went to the hardware store in Sunburg Minnesota and started to buy up all ammunition they had for his deer rifle; he stated they may have take Belgrade, but they will never Get Sunburg . The great grandson of the man in the story currently owns the hardware store in Sunburg.
Lol
@Richard Schiffman H. G. Wells, not Welles
Haha, that was crazy dude. Reminds me of a story my dad used to tell me about a certain man living in his homevillage, back in early 20th century. So, this is primitive central Greece, mountain region near the historical city of Delphi, where some people didn't have a clue that cars existed. World War One is happening, so the Entente army is building roads in that part of the country, so units can reach the Macedonian Front; local labourers from the neighbouring villages are hired for the project. So there comes a day that one particular guy goes to the construction site for the first time, walking and chitchatting in a group with his co-villagers. Suddenly a car, boarded with french engineers, is approaching from the road near them; the man, stricken with fear or maybe excitement, runs towards the car, shouting at his mates "behold, a great beast! Lets go get that animal!". He throws his cape onto the car's windscreen, and is ready to attack, but the window opens and the frenchmen are shouting angrily to him "No compre, no compre" which apparently means "you don't understand, you don't have a clue!", before moving onto their business. Of course, everybody around burst out laughing, and the legend is that someone died of laughter that day. No just joking, they just nicknamed him "No compre" and the legend is that they called him like that till the day he died, like 40-50 years later.
@@maximusmactatus3964 i am greek and i have never heard of that story.
Thank you for posting it!
Reading from Minneapolis, Minnesota. I love this! 😂😂
- Refuses to trade 6 Italian captured generals for O'Connor
- Releases Greeks POW because of how they managed to beat the Italian invasion
Even Germany who was an ally was mocking Italian incompetence back then.
- It's not known who didn't accept the switching, but surely also the italians would have never released O'Connor in those case, except Bergonzoli the other generals were merely divisional generals, I wonder how many british divisional generals had the same skills as O'Connor.
- Hitler said many things, just like Churchill, but the main problem is not mocking the italians, as the british tried to make it look like, but because the germans didn't have time to keep them prisoners, they had to liquidate the greek campaign as fast as possible, the fact that the greeks (those captured by the germans in the eastern regions never saw Albania) kicked back the italians into Albania was not important except morally since they hadn't conquered Albania and they didn't have the initiative anymore, and also keeping those prisoners meant that they had to be feed when Germany had already a bad harvest between 1940-1941 (this explains the great pillage of food during the occupation of Greece). This also explains why the Germans decided to occupy the smallest parts possible of Greece, keeping the strategically most important locations, giving Eastern Thrace to Bulgaria and leaving the rest to the italians to occupy.
@@lorenzodimaio8449 To be fair, O'Conner was a Corps commander, the British had taken several corps commanders too. I suspect its more the case that they saw the value of O'Conner and Combe whom launched an extremely effective campaign even if their opponents were failures, it was still an exceptional piece of battlefield command. Due to losing these guys, the British army would take over a year arguably before it became combat effective and even then its leadership was stll problematic still.
Greece 🇬🇷 🏆💪
@Plamen Stoev Greece knew Bulgaria was thirsty for eastern thrace, and the metaxas line was being build in order to give time to greek army to mobilize. Bulgaria is a square country and could mobilized faster than Greece with the means and economy of both countries at the time, the shape of Greece meant that the bulk of men, would need 2 weeks to be transferred to north and the rest needed another week to transferred from distant parts like the islands. once the mobilization took part the counter offensive could start. later the metaxas line was served as a buffer for 2 fronts. Greece didn't had clear information on the Bulgarian army condition, information gathered were extreme unreliable and overestimated, Greece expected that soon the Bulgarian army could have a force of 300 battalions, and except of the tanks CV33 and the Vickers 6ton MkE soon it would be increased with German or Czechoslovakian made light tanks Bulgaria was bargaining. and the greek army had limited antitank guns. After Italy invasion intel from Bulgaria was stating that tanks of Bulgaria would be up to 200 units! send by germany from countries that conquered! of course now we know that weren't true. but then no one can confirmed this and they were very disturbing news for the high command. that's why the HQ was stationed 3 infantry divisions + 2 brigades there and 14 divisions in Albanian front. as the months passed and Bulgaria show no signs to enter the war those 3 divisions were stripping from personnel and reserve equipment and send to the Albanian front, maybe 30% of them were send to the front. the original plans ( mobilization plan 1939IB, created for a threat of two wars front with Bulgaria and Italy. initially no one could predict a war with germany in 1939!) plans that the metaxas line hold an invasion of a full Bulgarian army with 8 infantry divisions and 1 cavalry divisions were required to hold the front until the rest of the army mobilized. in general the greek side having blurred and un confirmed informations for Bulgaria intentions nor their army status. they supposed that Bulgarian army was ready for war atleast on a limited front. what was the status of Bulgarian army in early 1941?
@Plamen Stoev haha many topics. 1 million troops of Bulgaria? how many population had Bulgaria? its seem very fetch stressed!
"He who defends everything defends nothing." - Frederick the Great
"UA-cam without comments is like music without instruments"
How did you post this comment 1 day ago if the video was released today?
@@s.a.g5417 Patreon supporters get to see the video earlier
@@s.a.g5417 He's John Titor.
@@tiihtu2507 you mean tito?
Hitler:Let's prepare the invasion of USSR!
Mussolini:Can you help me with Greece,they fight back!
Hitler:You had one job!
🤣🤣
well it happens when you shoot pepperonni pizza instead of 7.92 Mauser
Actually Hitler was furious that the Italians invaded Greece since the poor Greece had to rely on British supplies and would in return have to agree to base British aircraft that could hit the Romanian oil fields, vital to Germany.
@@VersusARCH actually the Greeks refused to let the British built air bases or use Greek ones on the northern part of Greece cause they didn't wanna provoke Germany.They also refused to let British soldiers into Greece until some 2-3 weeks before the German invasion
These map animations are so beautiful.
They truly are! They're made by Eastory - make sure to subscribe to his own YT channel as well as he makes great stuff. ua-cam.com/users/eastory
@CommandoDude The Great War animations are still pretty good too, though.
@@WorldWarTwo awesome work
@CommandoDude to think, in the beginning, Indy had to get up and point to the map on the wall
" Hence we will not say that Greeks fight like heroes, but that heroes fight like Greeks."
-British Prime Minister Winston Churchill
@Polemarch Tell those things to the Turks cause they think in Syria is happening some kind of WW3. They act like heroes or some shit. Hail to the heroes of the Greek Army and Resistance.
Churchill sayed that, and he was a alkoholic Rat!
@@user-bi3vs7id6c And he stand against the Nazis like hell.
@@user-bi3vs7id6c
Winston Churchill might have been a bit of an alcoholic, but he was also a hero, who led British people through the Second world war, he saw the rising danger of Nazi Germany even before the war begun, he stood up for my country when the UK and France betrayed us in the Munich conference, he was the one, who refused to surrender after the fall of France. Thanks to him we don't have to live under Nazi terror today.
So my question is: Who are you and what did you ever achieve to compare Winston Churchill to an alcoholic rat?
@Yeah Nah
I can't deny that, many brave Soviet soldiers fell while liberating my country, and I'm thankful to them.
But if there wasn't the Yalta conference, Prague would have been liberated earlier by the Americans.
After the war USSR took Carpathian Ruthenia. The fathers liberated us in 1945 so their sons could occupy us in 1968, in an occupation that would last until *1991*
Trouble in the Balkans? Well I never!
Who could have predicted that there would be fighting in such a peacefull Region?/s
The powderkeg never disappoints.
@Tarik Hodzic It's tradition!
@@PetarJovanovic993 1991 was nearly 30 years ago crazy my great grandfather lived in 5 countrie but in the same village lol
@@dimitriosdrossidis9633 The Nazis set the people against each other, also paving the way for the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s.
"We will give you any six captured Italian Generals if you return O'Conner to us."
*laughs in German*
Clearly got the exchange rate wrong
It'd have been a fairer trade had they been Italian janitors given how their generals performed
Here, I'll trade you six old socks for that tasty sandwich! Totally fair compromise...
I think they went about this trade completely wrong. The British should have made assurances to Germans that none of the captured Italian generals would be released befor the war's end. That would be a fair better deal for Germans than to return Italian generals.
actually it's not known who didn't accept the switching, but anyway the meme is good.
Britain should have threatened to release the Italian generals instead.
niceeeee!!!!
The GHC - Oh, Hamburg...
Oof!
Me: *hears double length*
Me: *starts dancing*
For the Yugoslavs and Greeks though, it's the funeral dance.
I really hope when they get up to Operation Barbarossa, and especially when Japan and America enter the war that all the episodes go for this long or longer. Obviously a lot more 'stuff' is happening during this period so why should the episodes go for the same amount of time? I could watch these episodes for hours on end.
"Hitler instructed to release from captivity all Greeks taken prisoner as soon as an armistice should be signed." I'm sure that decision won't come back to haunt him. He admired how tough Greek resistance against the Italians was. Soon the German soldiers wouldn't be admiring it as much.
One man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist.
Literally nothing to do with what I said.
@@creatoruser736
Everything to do with what you said.
If you invade a country and act as a conqueror to a proud people dont expect to live a peaceful time.One way or another you will feel the consequences of what you started,German soldiers had no reason to be in Greek soil,matter of fact they had no reason steeping foot outside their borders
Germany: we come to help Greece in the name of European Community.
Greece: every f.. time.
Well, it's not called the European Community anymore. :)
@@seneca983 aye lol, if you know somebody for so long, you give him Nicknames xD
with friends like that who needs enemies?
Well played! Haha!
ahahahah so f.. true!
The thing that should be mentioned is the German bombing of the national library of Serbia(then Yugoslavia) in Belgrade. The library burned for 3 days and it burned to the ground. It was not an accident, it was done on purpose and by Hitler's orders on the first day of bombing, 6th of april even though that Belgrade was declared an open city so no army was in it and every attack should be considered a war crime.
So many books and scripts were lost that day and only one book survived since it was not in the building. Some examples include cyrillic scripts from 12th century, ottoman scripts about Serbia (Turks ruled over Serbia from 1459 to 1804).
The library had over half a million books, papers, maps, personal libraries of some of the greatest Serbs of 19th century and it was the biggest one in this part of Europe.
There is no any direct Hitler's order for bombing National library/ Ne postoji nikakvo direktno naređenje A. Hitlera za bombardovanje Narodne biblioteke, domaća izmišljotina ne bi li se sebi dalo na važnosti.
@@panicatack6318 Whether it was Hitler's order or not, it doesn't matter, it was the Germans' work. They did the same thing to the Polish national library in Warsaw, after the Warsaw Uprising. Also hundreds of thousands, if not over a million priceless, tangible pieces of history destroyed. The amount of cultural devastation committed by this single nation is mind boggling.
Yet the Arabs are responsible for protecting and maintaining a huge part of ancient Greek knowledge. Makes you think about who people consider uncultured
@magicblanket The OP doesn't look like a "fan" od the Allies, he simply mentioned something that did happen. As a side note, were the Germans "innocent victims" tho? The fans of the Axis tend to forget, that the Nazis were democratically elected, and their popularity only skyrocketed after the victories over Poland and France. That places some collective guilt.
@magicblanket But isn't demanding war reparations a kind of collective punishment already? After all, the state does not have its own money, only that of its citizens, not all of which supported the actions of their country. If we are okay with war reparations, we already are okay with collective punishment, and the only question is of purely arbitrary nature - what punishment to choose.
I have served my duty in the Greek Army as an artillery gunner, and my unit was stationed in the town of Sidirokastro, Serres, very close to the Metaxas Line forts. I have visited the Ruppel Fort and I confirm that it was some serious ass fort. The Germans would have never managed to pass through, if they had n't managed to bypass them and reach Salonica, a fact which forced the defenders to surrender, as their HQ was captured, the whole army was in retreat, and there was nothing to defend anymore. The Germans could not believe the fierce resistance they met, and they acknowledged it by presenting arms to the defenders, an action never seen before or after during WW2, at least to my knowledge. Thank you gentlemen for reminding us of such glorious moments in History, and being so objective in doing so .
the forts were meant as a stop gap measure against invaders "bulgarians, they thought they would be", to give time to mobilize and bring troops in number from the south.
no fort can remain battle worthy long term...one just goes around it or blasts it into rubble.. the germans probably regret NOT BYPASSING RUPEL and HELLAS...
Italy: and you are?
Greece: better than you.
🤣🤣🤣
Italy: and you are?
Greece: real roman descendants
We are no Roman descedants.We are Spartan ones
@@user-zh1ct8xe9l Well....we were calling ourselfs Romans for more than 1000 years so...... we are defenetly Romans, Spartans, Athenians, Macedonians and so on.......this is all part of our history.... ;)
@@user-zm8nb8pk4n Yes Romans because we were part of the Roman world,not because we were "racially" Romans,Greeks are not Latins.
A little known fact.
Yugoslavia became the second in history to successfully bombard military targets on the German Reich during April 1941. Prior to our war aviation, it was the only one that succeeded the United Kingdom with its RAF.
In accordance with the war plans, immediately after the attack, Yugoslav Army bombers successfully bombed German, Italian and Hungarian targets across southern Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania. All Austrian and Hungarian cities in those April days declared an alarm about the possible actions of the Yugoslav aviation, which otherwise had an exceptional reputation in the world.
For example, from the Banja Luka airport of Rovine (Nova Topola) under the command of Colonel Stanko Diklic, commander of the 8th Bombardment "Revenge" regiment, the pilots who first bombed the Third Reich flew in, which was the greatest war effort of the time, especially given the then best the world’s German air defense.
These actions left such a strong impression on the Germans that at a later trial in Belgrade in 1947, the German Luftwaffe general, who commanded the bombing of our country, Alexander Lehr, said: "... Royal aviation attacks on Graz, Brook on Mura, Brook at Light and Mistelbach, in groups of two to three twin-engine aircraft, significantly slowed down our activities ... "
france bombed berlin in june 1940, wasnt only britain.
13:20 Sabaton Coat of Arms starts playing
A most enjoyable and spectacular episode indeed, we Salute the Heroic Greek Nation holding out to the bitter end against the invading Axis Armies on main land Greece. But it's not over yet the extremely hard fighting in The Battle of Crete is yet to Come in May , hold on to your hats !!!
Dude, why do you have the poster from the 1936 Olympics as your profile picture?
Damn my neighbours are freaking badass even in defeat. Respect to the brave Greek soldiers who have fallen in defence of their country, from 🇹🇷
Gracious from Turkey! I thought you guys didnt get along real well? :(
@@ThroneOfBhaalBrothers from another mother.
Greeks and Turks hate, admire and respect each other. Even tho their goverments many times do not.
@@aarengraves9962 Government's can be a pain in the ass. ;)
@@ThroneOfBhaal we hate eachothers nationalists and our governments
“Let them come” I get the feeling Stalin’s gonna regret those words soon
Note that he did not rule out a German attack, he just professed confidence about the outcome to a foreign diplomat, confidence he may not really have felt.
"Dobar dan there!" "Generalni Kenobi!"
Hello there! Your move.
@@12coudak000 You mean in Latin?
War: starts in Yugoslavia
Balkan people: well, here we go again
“Hence, we will not say that Greeks fight like heroes, but that heroes fight like Greeks”. Winston Churchill.
Churchill was a alkoholic RAT
Adolf Hitler:
"For the sake of historical truth I must verify that only the Greeks, of all the adversaries who confronted us, fought with bold courage and highest disregard of death.. " (From speech he delivered to Reichstag on 4 May 1941)
Joseph Vissarionovich Tzougasvili Stalin:
"I am sorry because I am getting old and I shall not live long to thank the Greek People, whose resistance decided WWII." (From a speech of his broadcast by the Moscow radio station on 31 January 1943 after the victory of Stalingrad and the capitulation of marshal Paulus)
@@bazingaTv ahahhahahahah i love other nations myths then i realize its all shit
@@TheWeedmate historically truth. Go back to your cave
Best episode so far. Balkans are always interesting. Greeks showed fierce resistance but the main bulk of the army was still fighting Italy in Albania. From 1400 dead german soldiers 1150 were in Greece during operation Marita
The Germans only had about 150 KIA in the Yugoslav fighting. Greece was a little bloodier for them. But the real bloodletting for them will start in June...
"The forts are not surrender..they are occupied"was the exact answer from Douratsos Commander of Fort Roupel
Where were the Turks in WWII? Oh wait, at first they were allies with the Nazis and at the end of the war they declared war on Germany. Turkish heroism...
@Haris Begić German-Turkish Treaty of Friendship 1941-44 and then on 23.02.1945 Turkey declared war on Germany.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German%E2%80%93Turkish_Treaty_of_Friendship
Well we weren’t exactly feeling suicidal you know
"In 1941, Turkey was the first country to send humanitarian aid to Greece to relieve the great famine in Athens during the Axis occupation."
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek%E2%80%93Turkish_relations
Plethon Dimos did you even read that article? It says the treaty was a non-aggression pact that was a means to maintain turkey’s neutrality in the war. From what i’ve gathered that had always been inonu’s intent.
@@plethondimos576 where's the ally part? you greeks always expect others to come die for you, in 1920 when you attacked us to expand your ethnic empire you thought the british would die for you, in WW2 you think Turks should die for you, not even 30 years after you attacked us!
*COAT OF ARMS! BANNERS FLY IN THE WIND!*
*FOR THE GLORY OF HELLAS!*
Pulled into war to serve a vision, that's supposed to last a thousand years
Part of a machine, unstoppable as merciless as tidal waves
Siege of Tobruk began after 9th April 1941 at coast of North Africa. As long as British Commonwealth garrison held this port Rommel couldn't dare to move to Egypt while a substantial force left in his rear flank. To eliminate this last Allied position in Libya Rommel and Afrikakorps made first moves but they were quite bad and misguided moves. Axis did not have any maps of Tobruk defences (Italians who constructed them , did not provide it because no one in German side asked them so) and Rommel probably flush with victory euphoria so far (he routed an entire British armored division so far and recaptured Cyreneica with a lot of enemy supplies and three generals) and due to a misleading Luftwaffe air reconnisance report that there were several vessels in Tobruk harbour and British were evacuating Tobruk via sea (just like Dunkirk , Rommel assumed. Actually the vessels incoming to Tobruk harbour were bringing 18th Australian Brigade as reinforcement and extra supplies for siege , they were only evacuating a few wounded so far) assumed with overconfidence that it is only a matter of marching to the Tobruk and entire rear guard would give up arms.
With that wrong assumption , on the morning of 10th April , he ordered just recently arrived 15th Panzer Division commander General Prittwitz Von Gaffron to march to Tobruk and capture the place at once , when General Von Gaffron objected that his division was still en route and he had no maps , Rommel retorted back that British are escaping and there was nothing between him and Tobruk. Poor Von Gaffron assured with Rommels (ignorance/overconfidence/overoptimism ?) went from Derna to Tobruk in his staff car reached eastern side of Tobruk with a huge anti tank ditch encircling the perimeter. Actually a column of German trucks and scout vehicles tried just the thing Von Gaffron attempting , to pass through enemy perimeter and reach Tobruk harbour but ambushed by Australian artillery (using Italian captured field guns the diggers named bush artillery) and repulsed. When General Von Gaffron passed them , ignoring retreating German troops warning , his own staff car came under fire from Australian artillery and took a direct hit. Both newly arrived 15th Panzer Division commander Von Gaffron and his driver were killed instantly. Germans lost seven trucks , three scout vehicles and one staff car with mangled remains of a general , pulled back. So British Commonwealth also took a small payback for loss of four generals in last week.
When General Jochann Streitch , commander of 5th German Light Division , learned complately unnecessary and preventable death of General Von Gaffron , his ire fell immediatly upon his superior Rommel whom he considered conducting operations quite rashly with impunity almost arrogant overconfident way , when he went to mobile Rommels HQ with his personal staff car (captured British vehicle) Rommel said arrogantly how dare he Streitch to use a British car (as if Rommel himself was not using a British captured truck) they almost shot him , Streitch retorted back "In this case you would lose both of your division commanders in one day Herr General !"
Thanks for the addition!
The darkest week for the Allies so far since the fall of France.
Millennial Watchman Caused by total Hybris on part of the British, the Greeks and the Serbian coup leaders.
They didn’t learn their lesson from France 1940 by thinking they would fare differently against Germany despite being so much weaker than France in 1940 and Germany was much stronger with more allies supporting them.
Bravery without a doubt though but Yugoslavia and Greece should have done everything to be as close to Germany and as far away from Britain as possible.
But this is hindsight of course.
Not necessarily. By what means would Hitler's Reich rule such a vast Region? Manpower shortages within all Axis ranks not least being German are still legion. Is not the logical next step after this crushing Victory to order Spain to close off the Western Mediterranean? The Island of Crete is still holding out. Further East however is the far more important Island of Cyprus. And in the middle of all this sits the tiny Island of Malta...a hugely symbolic post of Christendom against the *invader.* Certainly Hungary, Bulgaria, Italy and Croatia are happy...but is even Austria the Ancient Ruler of much of the Region? The German Kreigsmarine has wild ideas of seizing the Eastern Mediterranean...which says to me the German Naval Command is completely ignorant of the Barbarossa Plan despite Admiral Canaris being in charge of all intelligence for the upcoming Generalplan Ost. How could Admiral Raeder be made ignorant of such an ambition? I think if such an attack now validated in the Balkans be made known as mere preliminary to *The Big One* he would have immediately ordered the standing up of some type of *Austrian Navy* to defend interests in the Adriatic and support Rommel in North Africa. Instead Rommel will have to rely exclusively on *Italian*(Mussolini) support for his Army...a hardly stable logistical Regime for any Army least of all an Army in North Africa. This attack there can be no doubt creates more questions than answers that indeed must be...but will not be...answered in literally the coming days. And in the firing line is beyond all doubt the German Kreigsmarine.
@@bingobongo1615 italy wasn't strong
@@bingobongo1615 i mean greece could not ally or be close to germany at any point because of italy i mean i dont have to explain to you why greece could not ally germany
@@bingobongo1615 Vinnisl a I really hope Indy does a video explaining why the Yugoslav Coup leaders were so ignorant about how hopelessly impossible it would be to defend against a German invasion. I saw in the Facebook group somebody asked this. The Timeghost page responded saying they thought the would have several months to prepare for an invasion, and they would receive British and Greek reinforcements.The thing is even with all of this, their task would still be pretty much impossible. The French had 8 months to prepare for an attack, they had the BEF on their soil, the Germans had to go through the Belgian and Dutch armies to get to them, they were attacking through a much narrower area, and as you said, the French army was a lot more powerful. You'd think at the very least they'd know not to spread their forces out so thinly and have a strong reserve to counter a beakthrough, which were the main areas where the French failed.
Yes hindsight is 20-20 but after the swift annihilation of the Yugoslav army followed by 4 years of brutal occupation. You'd think the Yugoslavs would realise that Prince Paul was right and the Coup leaders were wrong. But no he was vilified as a traitor and the Coup leaders were remembered as heroes. The Yugoslavs are a strange people.
This week is marked by the German invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece. I will concentrate my posts solely on the events in the Greek campaign:
On Sunday, April 6, at 0530 hours, Prince Victor zu Erbach-Schönberg, the German ambassador to Athens, presented a note to the Greek Premier Alexandros Koryzis informing him that the Third Reich was at war with the Kingdom of Greece.
Meanwhile, at 0515 hours, the Germans had already crossed the border and invaded Greece through Bulgaria, according to the plans of 'Unternehmen Marita' (Operation Marita), with 6. Gebirgs (Mountain)-Division in the right, 5. Gebirgs-Division plus Infantry-Rgt 125. in the centre, and with 72. Infantry-Division in the left.
The German plan anticipated that:
-XL. Panzer-Corps (Lt. Gen. Georg Stumme) was to invade Yugoslavia, pivot southward from Skopje to Monastir, and launch an immediate attack across the Greek border on the Greek defences, and the Greek town of Florina near the Greco-Yugoslav border. Other Panzer-Corps elements were to make contact with the Italians along the Albanian border.
-XVIII. Mountain-Corps (Lt. Gen. Franz Böhme) was to make a surprise thrust across the Greek border from Bulgaria, with its two mountain divisions (5. and 6.) and 72. Infantry-Division, and capture the vital road crossing, in the narrow valley, known as the Roupel Pass. Its 2. Panzer-Division was to follow the course of the Strymon river, turn southward, and drive towards Salonika.
-XXX. Army-Corps (Lt. Gen. Eugen Ott) was to reach the Aegean coast by the shortest route and attack from the E the fortifications of the 'Metaxas Line' that were situated behind the Nestos river, in the Greek Western Thrace.
The Germans had a difficult task. Bunker for bunker, all Greek 21 independent fortification complexes along the 'Metaxas Line' had to be knocked out. The line took its name from the man who envisioned it and constructed it in late '30's as a deterrent against Bulgaria, the Greek Premier Ioannis Metaxas. The whole chain of fortifications belonged to T.S.A.M ('Eastern Macedonia Army Section') a corps-sized formation under the overall command of Lt. Gen. Constantine Bakopoulos. In reality, T.S.A.M was severely undermanned as it was only 8,500-strong, because the mass of the Greek Army was fighting against the Italians in Albania. The largest fortification was 'Fort Roupel' with 27 officers and 950 other ranks, which covered 6.1 km (3.8 mi) out of the 155 km-long (96 mi), Metaxas line.
The Greek XVIII Infantry Division (Maj. Gen. Leonidas Sterghiopoulos), an only in name division with just five battalions and one infantry company as reserve force, was deployed to the E and S banks of the Strymon river, manned bunkers Istibey, Kelkaya, Arpalouki and Paliouriones, and combined three subsectors.
The crucial 'Rodopolis subsector' was under Lt. Col. Loukas Kitsos, composed of II/70, II/91 infantry battalions, one mountain battery of St-Étienne 65 mm Mle 1906 guns, a section of two Schneider 85 mm Mle 1927 guns, one 3.7 cm Pak 36 AT gun, and was ordered to cover the exposed left flank of the 'Metaxas Line'. More specifically, two companies from II/91 btn, with one mortar section of 81 mm mortars, and the 37 mm AT gun, were ordered to defend a 6 km-long (3,7 mi), line.
The battle began at 0515 hours on April 6. The battalions of Gebirgsjäger (Mountain-Hunter)-Rgt 141. (Lt. Col. Eberhard Ebeling) from 6. Gebirgs-Division, reached the Greek defensive line through snow-covered mountainous passes that were considered as inaccessible by the Greeks but, as soon as they crossed the border, received heavy fire from all sides. The Germans had to clear the resistance of the Greeks who had occupied strong positions.
At Hill 1079 one Greek platoon under the CO of II/70 Btn, 1st Lt Christos Maroudis, held for three hours the Germans. The last Greek soldier fell at 1000 hours. Not one Greek defender survived.
Αt Hill 1120, Maj. Constantine Yiakoumis managed to gather two platoons from II/70 btn, a MG section of four Chauchat M1915 CSRG, and a mortar section with two 81 mm mortars. The Greeks put up an obstinate resistance with a spirit of sacrifice, but eventually, they succumbed to the larger German force. Only four Greeks were standing after the battle. Maj. Yiakoumis was KIA.
The Greek II/91 btn (Maj. Stylianus Kallonas) offered obstinate resistance to wave after wave of German attacks at Hill 1521. The battle there was brutal. The Greeks held until 1030 hours, when they were ordered by the division to regroup at Hill 989. II/90's casualties amounted to 51 KIA, 150 WIA.
As the German Gebirgsjäger succeeded in overcoming Greek resistance in the sector, fire from unrecognized camouflaged Greek MG-pillboxes began. Gebirgsjäger-Rgt 141. lost its CO Lt. Col. Eberhard Ebeling (KIA) from machine-gun fire that came from the pillboxes Π7, Π8 and Π9 located on a hill called 'Beautiful slope'.
Each one of the three pillboxes was manned by a machine-gun squad operating the 13.2 mm Hotchkiss ΗΜG. MG-Pillbox Π8 was under Sgt. Dimitrios Itsios. As the German assaults continued, it became obvious to Itsios that eventually he and his men wouldn't be able to stop the Germans, so he ordered them to leave, while he would stay alone and cover their retreat. Two of his men disobeyed his orders and stayed with him. He and the two men fought for another four hours manning the MG-pillbox Π8. Eventually, after firing more than 38,000 rounds, Π8 went silent as they ran out of ammo. When the Germans arrested the two Greek soldiers and Sergeant Itsios, the CO of 6. Gebirgs-Division Maj. Gen. Ferdinand Schörner, along with a German officer who spoke Greek and acted as a translator, came face to face with him. Gen. Schörner congratulated Itsios on the obstinate resistance he offered that had cost him 238 casualties, ordered his men to present arms as a sign of respect, and then ordered Itsios' execution. Sgt. Dimitrios Itsios was 34 yo.
The Greek VII Fortress Brigade (Col. Georgios Salvanos), organic element of XIV Infantry Division (Maj. Gen. Constantine Papaconstantinou) occupied the area between the Ε bank of Strymon river and the W reaches of the Lower Nevrokop plateau, approximately 80 kilometres (48 mi) in length. The Sector combined two Subsectors:
-the 'Siderokastron subsector' to the W (including the Roupel Fort, among others), and,
-the 'Karadag Subsector' to the E, which included the forts of Babazoras, Maliagha, Perithori, and Persek.
The German assault on the Karadag Subsector began at 0515 hours in the morning of April 6, 1941 without artillery preparation. The Germans encountered stiff resistance and at 0700 hours, they requested immediate artillery support. For three hours the two Greek forts of Perithori and Babazoras received heavy artillery bombardment with no effect. At 1100 hours the battalions of German Infantry-Rgt. 105. (Col. Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller) advanced against the smaller forts of Lisse and Pyramidoid, but they received heavy fire from all sides and their advance was stalled. The Germans then assaulted Fort Perithori, where a fierce battle ensued, but soon Greek obstinate resistance foiled the German effort.
Meanwhile, in order to help the advance, I./125. Gebirgsjägerbataillon (Mountain-Hunter-Battalion under Maj. Ernst Sonntag) was ordered to cross the Strymon (Struma) river with assault boats. The battalion's Pionier-Sturmboot-Kompanie (Battle Engineer-Assault boat-Company) boarded assault boats and started paddling across the river, while dozens of Junkers Ju 87 ground-attack aircraft, pounded the Greek fortifications.
At the confluence of the Strymon and Axios (Vardar) rivers, the boats received heavy machine-gun fire. Many engineers were killed or wounded. Some severely wounded were drowned. The survivors reached the riverbank and made contact with the forward elements of the advancing Infantry-Regiment 125. (Col. Erich Petersen).
Also on April 6, Sq. Ldr Marmaduke Pattle shot down two Luftwaffe Messerschmitt BF-109E over the Roupel gorge. He'd claim eight more victories by April 12, and two more Bf 109E fighters on the ground, subsequently claiming five in a day on April 14 and during five sorties, and six more on April 19.
The first day ended without a significant success for the Germans as none of the bunkers was captured, despite local isolated successes.
On Monday, April 7, 1941, the Greeks in Albania opened a powerful full-scale offensive against the Italians with the aim of linking up with the Yugoslav army. The Greeks took some Italian fortified positions, captured hundreds of prisoners and a quantity of equipment and ammunition.
Along the Metaxas Line, the advance of Gebirgsjäger-Rgt 85. was checked, and its III./85. GebJgBtl (Maj. Albin Esch) was badly shaken, suffering 181 casualties, while its I/85. GebJgBtl (Maj. Erhard Gnaden) reported 192 KIA, WIA by 1600 hours. A company from I/85. GebJgBtl was pinned down at Roupesko hill by accurate Greek arty fire.
Greek artillery fire from the bunker Kelkaya pounded Gebirgsjäger-Rgt 100. (Col. Willibald Utz) and as it advanced, fire from rear positions and from the northern hillside of the bunker Istibey started. The regiment was pinned down between the surface fortifications of Kelkaya and the hillside of Istibey. I/100. GebJgBtl (Lt. Col. Max Schrank) lost 102 men.
(End of Part1)
(Part 2)
Αt around 1600 hours, Stoßtruppe (Shock troops) and Sturmpioniere (Assault Engineers) from the German III./100. GebJgBtl, after having successfully obstructed Istibey's openings, pumped asphyxiant gas and smoke into the fort and forced its garrison to surrender. 215 Greeks, the fort's CO Maj. Xanthos Pikoulakis included, made prisoner. The Germans ordered the Greek flag to be lowered at the bunker only after it was abandoned by the Greeks, as a sign of respect. Istibey sustained 95 casualties (25 KIA).
At around 1800 hours, the German III./100. GebJgBtl denied a Greek counter-attack launched by troops from bunker Kelkaya, and accidentally discovered an entrance to the bunker on the E side. Stoßtruppe and Sturmpioniere entered the underground system and forced the Greeks to surrender with explosives and smoke. 4 officers and 150 other ranks came out of the bunker, believing they were gassed. Shortly afterwards, the mountain-hunters of 11th Company from III./100. GebJgBtl took another outside fortification to the E after fierce fighting. Additional 40 Greeks made prisoner. Corporal Johann Sandner from 11th Coy, would become the Wehrmacht's youngest ever (20 yo) recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for his actions at Kelkaya.
Istibey (Maj. Xanthos Pikoulakis) and Kelkaya (Cpt. Telemachus Zakynthinos) capitulated. They are the first Greek bunkers of the Metaxas Line that fell to Gebirgsjäger-Rgt 100. (Col. Willibald Utz).
On the same day, the skiers of 1st Greek Skier Battalion, under the former alpine ski champion Maj. Ioannis Paparrhodou, having just concluded their training, received their baptism of fire on the Albanian front. More specifically, the Greek skier battalion, attached to the Greek 22nd Infantry Regiment (Lt. Col. Constantine Polychroniades), of XIII Infantry Division (Maj. Gen. Sotirios Moutoussis), from T.S.D.M. ('West Macedonia Army Section', a corps-sized unit under Lt. Gen. Georgios Tsolakoglou) acted as a 'spearhead', and assaulted Hill 2100 aka 'Beldam's Grave', which was defended by the battalions of the Italian 83rd Infantry Regiment (Col. Alberto Barassi), from 19th Infantry Division (Div. Gen. Zenone Bovini). For the next 48 hours, the Greeks would engage the Italians in a brutal close combat, costly for the Greeks (415 all ranks out of action). The skiers will mourn their first casualty in the battle: Skier Georgios Pappas was hit from a piece of mortar shrapnel and was KIA. After the end of the battle, Maj. Paparrhodou was ordered to report to Maj. Gen. Sotirios Moutoussis as he was named divisional artillery commander of XIII division (Maj. Paparrhodou was originally an artillery officer).
On Tuesday, April 8, 1941 after the rapid collapse of the Yugoslav defence, the German 2. Panzer-Division reached the Greco-Yugoslav border, attacked the Greek border defences, blew up the anti-tank obstacles, and crossed the border. The Greek screening troops were pushed back and MG positions were taken out. The Strymon (Struma) valley, the weak spot of northern Greece that so many invaders from the N have exploited since antiquity, a 17,000 sq. km (6,700 sq. mi) basin that reaches the Aegean sea, was now open for the Germans. The breakthrough was expanded to the W and E and the mass of the division began moving rapidly towards Salonika.
The Greek Δ1 Field Arty Sq. (Maj. Georgios Kourouklis) delivered an intensive rate of fire with its Krupp 7.5 cm Gebirgskanone 1904/10 guns set at the village of Perithori, and denied a German effort to take Hill 742 at 0630 hours. At 0800 its guns began providing fire support to the bunkers of Perithori and Maliagha. At 2000 hours bunker Partalouska requested urgently fire into German Sturmgeschütz III tanks and infantry readied near it. The guns fired 240 shells inside 10' and dispersed the assembled German force.
At Kilkis, just 48 km (30 mi) N of Salonika, the German 2. Panzer-Division overran the Greek XIX Motorized Division. Over 100 vehicles were destroyed or crippled. 7 tankettes were captured intact. Hundreds of Greeks were captured. The town of Kilkis was taken early in the afternoon.
The Greek XIX Motorized Division (Μaj. Gen. Nikolaos Lioumbas) was formed in the Greek capital in mid-January, comprised of 40 Italian Carro Veloce CV-33/35 tankettes and Fiat-Ansaldo M13/40 medium tanks (war spoils), 100 British Universal Carrier vehicles, 4 British Vickers 6-ton MkVI light tanks, and 2 British Carden-Loyd tankettes, and fielded three regiments.
Meanwhile, Bunker Lisse offered stiff resistance to wave after wave of assaults launched at 0430 hours on April 8, by the battalions of Infantry-Rgt 105. (Col. Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller ). Stoßtruppe and Sturmpioniere teams however, managed to climb atop Lisse's cupolas and casements, trying to place and lit the charges they had brought with them, but the fort's CO Maj. Georgios Detorakis ordered his troops to counter-attack; Greek troops poured out, climbed atop the fort and engaged in a brutal hand-to-hand combat with the Germans. Soon, before a larger force, the Germans retreated, leaving behind a number of dead and wounded. At 0600 hours the German regiment assaulted bunker Perithori but its troops were pinned down some 100 metres in front of the fort, caught between heavy barbed wire entanglements and intense enemy fire.
At 1400 hours on April 8, the German infantry advanced through swampy terrain and assaulted forts Perithori and Maliagha, while simultaneously tried to seize Hill Syllas. The German attack was hurled though against stiff resistance offered by the surprised Greek defenders, who did not expect an attack through difficult terrain.
Bunker Popotlivitsa (Cpt. Thelounis), a half-built fort, capitulated at 1900 hours of April 8, after inflicting 122 casualties on the German I./85. Gebirgsjägerbataillon (Maj. Erhard Gnaden) that assaulted it. 123 Greeks made prisoner. Still, the guards manning three concrete MG-pillboxes at the foothill of Roupesko, opposite Popotlivitsa, continued stubbornly to resist.
During the night of April 8-9, the garrison of the Greek bunker Arpalouki (13 officers, 354 other ranks under Maj. Dimitrios Karathanos) unable to defend it effectively after the capture of Kelkaya by the Germans the previous day, abandoned it at 0300 hours and retreated towards the Strymon river, where accidentally stumbled upon a large German force that assaulted the Greeks and decimate them.
At the end of day, the situation had become dangerous for the Greeks as the entire T.S.A.M ('East Macedonia Army Section') was cut off and four of the Greek bunkers were either captured or abandoned.
On Wednesday, April 9, 1941, early in the morning, elements of the German 2. Panzer-Division entered Salonika.
The divisional commander was leading the column into the city and met with a delegation. The mayor handed the city over to General Rudolf Veiel.
Lt. Gen. Constantine Bakopoulos, CO of T.S.A.M guaranteed an unconditional surrender. The capitulation document was signed at 1300 hours and would go into effect on April 10 at 1300 hours.
[Corporal Johann Sandner] i.imgur.com/sQtCPQP.jpg
(End of Part 2)
(Part 3)
At the Metaxas Line, at 1330 hours a unique incident took place: the gunners of 2nd Section/3rd Battery, under 2nd Lt. (Reservist) Georgios Kartsovitis, of Δ1 Field Artillery Squadron, reinforced with a MG Squad from Bunker Partalouska, and infantry from Maliagha, launched an assault with fixed bayonets against Hill Kouri which was occupied during the night by a large German force and harassed the Greek guns. After a 10' barrage laid down by the remaining gun of the section, the Greek gunners retook the hill at the point of the bayonet. 102 Germans made prisoner.
The garrison of Bunker Echinos (Maj. Christos Drakoussis), in W. Thrace, abandoned it, and withdrew towards the village of Kentavros.
Fort Roupel stoutly resisted while the German artillery and Luftwaffe pounded it 24/7. The main German effort afterall, according to the original planning was directed against the bunker itself and had as its objective to force the Roupel defile.
German messengers carrying white flag, came at 1700 hours to inform the fort's commander of the capitulation signed four hours ago. Roupel's CO Maj. Georgios Douratsos replied that 'forts do not surrender unless captured by the enemy' (sic).
German messengers carrying white flag, came at 1930 hours to Bunker Paliouriones to inform its commander Maj. Alexandros Hadzigeorgiou of the capitulation signed at 1300 hours. The Greek CO agreed to surrender the fort on April 10.
During the night of April 9-10, at 0200 hours, a large German force of about 400 men, under the command of a Lieutenant-Colonel, occupied Hill 964, and posed a serious and direct threat to the Karadag Subsector's major headquarters command post located near it. The Subsector's CO Col. Georgios Salvanos, acting swiftly and decisively, gathered as many men as they could be transferred from the still unaffected sections of the front, assembled his HQ Company, and succeeded in isolating the German force, and preventing it from achieving further progress.
At dawn of Thursday, April 10, Col. Georgios Salvanos informed of the capitualtion signed the day before, withdrew with his men towards the Greek town of Serres. About 28 kilometres (17 mi) from the town, a German motorcycle with a Captain carrying white flag, approached the Greek Colonel and negotiated the procedure with him by which the Greek troops may enter the town of Serres, in French. The two men agreed the procedure, and the Greek troops under Col. Georgios Salvanos paraded the streets of Serres under the applause and the cheers of the Greek locals, for one last time, before they delivered their weapons to the German authorities.
At 0900 hours, April 10, Fort Paliouriones capitulated. The German commander ordered his men to present arms as a sign of respect, while the Greek flag was lowered at the bunker only after it was abandoned by the Greeks.
Roupel capitulated on the same day at 1300 hours.
The Germans ordered the Greek flag to be lowered at the bunker only after it was abandoned by the Greeks. Roupel suffered 44 KIA, 122 WIA.
On Thursday, April 10, 1941, bunkers Roupel (Maj. Georgios Douratsos), Usitas (2nd Lt. Ioannis Damianos), Persek (Cpt. Spyridon Thymis), Babazoras (Maj. Anastassios Kotsis), Partalouska (Cpt. Stavros Drakoularakos), Paliouriones (Maj. Alexandros Hadzigeorgiou) capitulated. When Perithori (Cpt. Spyridon Daratos) capitulated, the German troops who inspected it, found the German Stoßtruppe that had penetrated during the previous night into the corridors of Platoon Δ, killed to the last man. Bunker Maliagha (Cpt. Efstathios Theodoropoulos) was abandoned.
Also on April 10, the German 50. Infantry-Division (Maj. Gen. Karl Adolf Hollidt) from XXX. Army-Corps (Lt. Gen. Eugen Ott), crossed the Greek region of Western Thrace and reached the Aegean Sea. The last Greek combat-worthy formation in W. Thrace, 'The Evros Brigade' (Maj. Gen. Ioannis Zissis), crossed the border to Turkey in order to evade captivity. Gen. Zissis committed suicide at the Turkish town of İpsala, when the Turks disarmed his men and asked him to deliver his personal sidearm.
After 75 days of Greek diplomatic and consular efforts, 1,000 all ranks would be repatriated to Greece, while 1,300 officers and other ranks from the brigade would make it to the Middle East.
These 1,300 troops would form the nucleus of the 'Royal Hellenic Army in the Middle East' and more specifically of 'I Greek Brigade' (Col. Pausanias Katsotas) that would be formed on June 23, 1941. It would be a 5,000-strong brigade placed under British command, re-equipped with British arms, complemented by volunteers from the local Greek communities of Egypt, and Greek officers and other ranks evacuated to Egypt and the British-controlled Middle East from the occupied Greek mainland and Crete, and would take part in the Second Battle of El-Alamein.
.
After four days of heavy fighting the Germans broke through the Metaxas Line.
The German forces that succeeded it, suffered 1,700 KIA, ~1,000 MIA, 3,800-5,000 WIA (figures vary by author and country). 1,011 Greeks were KIA and WIA, 340 were MIA (German and Greek figures are taken from the Greek translation of Giorgio Rizzo's book 'Grecia: La Guerra Subdola' -Oct. 2014). The Germans did not hold captive Greek soldiers, by order of Gen. Wilhelm List, they were disarmed and left free to return home.
After the defeat of Yugoslavia, elements from XL. Panzer-Corps (Gen. Georg Stumme) were now able to assist the campaign in Greece. The German 73. Infantry-Division (Maj. Gen. Bruno Bieler) and Leibstandarte-SS 'Adolf Hitler' (SS-Obergruppenführer Josef 'Sepp' Dietrich) invaded Greece from Monastir. Forward elements of the German brigade-sized unit that began as Adolf Hitler's personal bodyguard, reached Florina in NW Greece unopposed, but there its advance was checked by the Greek 1st and 3rd Cavalry Regiments from 'The Cavalry Division' (Maj. Gen. Georgios Stanotas), reinforced with a Horse Artillery Battery with 75 mm mle.1919 Schneider guns. At Pissoderi, a mountain route located near Florina that drives through the Varnus mountain range, and leads to the Albanian city of Korçë, a battle not unlike some of those fought in Poland between the old and the new ways of warfare took place.
According to the German Historian Heinz Richter:
'The vanguard of the elite brigade-sized Adolf Hitler's personal bodyguard that tried to advance through the mountain pass of Pissoderi, was repulsed by the dismounted troopers of the Greek Cavalry and the effective Greek artillery fire.'
The allied 'W-Force' (composed of 2nd New Zealand Infantry Division (Maj. Gen. Bernard Freyberg), 6th Australian Infantry Division (Maj. Gen. Iven Giffard MacKay), Greek XII Infantry Division (minus two battalions) under Col. Georgios Karambatos, 1st British Armoured Brigade (Brig. Harold Vincent Spencer Charrington), named after its CO Gen. Henry Maitland Wilson), withdrew from the Haliacmon line.
On the night of April 10-11, 1941, the two-day 'Battle of Kleidion' (else found as 'Battle of Vevi') opened. Two battalions from the German Leibstandarte-SS 'Adolf Hitler', while attemting to cross the pass of Kleidion, a winding defile, with steep, rocky and treeless sides between 100 metres (109 yards) and 500 metres (547 yards) wide, just S of the town of Vevi, 22 km (14 mi) W of the town of Florina near the Greco-Yugoslav border, made contact with forward units from the allied 'Mackay Force', a hastily assembled allied force of two battalions (2/8 & 2/4) out of 19th Australian Brigade (Brig. George Vasey), British 9th Battalion, King's Royal Rifle Corps (Lt. Col. G. C. Ashburner), New Zealand 27th (Machine Gun) Battalion (Lt. Col. S. D. Mason), Greek III Battalion/Dodecanesian Volunteers (Maj. Constantine Drandakis), named after its CO, the Australian Maj. Gen. Iven Giffard MacKay.
Shortly after midnight on Friday, April 11, LSSAH's Aufklärungs-Abteilung (Reconnaissance Battalion under SS-Sturmbannführer Kurt Meyer) assaulted the positions of the Greek III Batallion/Dodecanesian Volunteers, but before obstinate Greek resistance its advanced stopped. The Germans made no move for the rest of April 11, but during the night of April 11-12 the Greeks were ordered by the allied command to withdraw mainly because of the Greek unit's lack of AT weapons.
SS-Sturmbannführer Fritz Witt, CO of 'Battle-Group Witt' (Kampfgruppe Witt) consisting of two battalions from LSSAH and a 8.8 cm Flak section with two guns, was ordered on April 12, to clear resistance from the pass and open the way to the heart of Greece.
As a result of the ferocious battle that opened on April 12 at 0830 hours, the Australian 2/8th Battalion (Lt. Col. John Wesley Mitchell) became disorganized suffering 505 casualties and lost a great deal of its weapons and equipment. KG Witt lost 132 KIA, WIA. Two Germans made prisoner. Witt's brother, Franz, was among the dead.
Mackay Force was defeated, but with its actions at Kleidion bought two days for the retreat and regrouping of allied forces further to the S.
Also on Saturday, April 12, the Greek General HQ alarmed by the rapid progress of the German invasion, ordered a withdrawal from Albania.
The Greek armies despite being the victors in the Greco-Italian War, began the long retreat home.
The Italian 11. Army (Gen. Carlo Geloso), started to push the Greeks back. On April 14 the Bersaglieri of VIII. Army Corps would occupy Korçë, and on April 17, Ersekë. While pulling out of Albania, the Greeks would be trapped at the Katara Pass and would surrender to the Germans on April 22, 1941.
@@apmoy70 Nice write up. Much appreciated.
Αποστόλης Μ. World record goes to you bro 🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆💪💪💪💪💪 I love my brave honorable country
The general theme of this retelling of events is obstinate stubbornness.
Greece:You can't defeat me
Italy: i know,but he can
Germany : *earrape Erika song
Brian Tarigan lol made me think of...
Greece: We have an army..
Italy: We have a hulk
If we can't protect Greece you can be damn well sure we will avenge her!
That said , not everything was going favorably for Axis in Libya , on 4th and 5th April , Rommel received several objections from first Italian military commander of Cyreneica General Gariboldi and from Berlin to halt their assault , he promptly ignored them though in Berlin they saw that he was stretching his rear supply lines to breaking point especially considering scarcity of his forces (so far Rommel had just one German division and three Italian divisions on the line and a second German division , 15th Panzer Div. was just arriving to Tripoli).
Athe other hand British Mediterranean CiC General Archibald Wavell who realised the enemy offensive complately detached all Allied fences in Libya , ordered best defensive position in Cyreneica , Tobruk , to be held on all costs and quickly began to take necessary decisions and steps. He landed Tobruk on 8th April and after a quick conferance with General Leslie Morshead , commander of 9th Australian Division (best division Wavell had left with and a relatively fresh one , did not engage any operations after retreating Benghazi before Axis advance) to hold Tobruk at all costs , summarising "There is not much between you and Egypt , hold them at least four weeks" Then Wavell flew back to Egypt and began to send every available reinforcement to Tobruk and Egypt-Libya frontier. Meanwhile General Morshead , Australian division commander (whose troops nicknamed him "Ming the Merciless") , realising gravity of the situation began to gather all of his brigades and battalions (miracolusly all of his brigades were very much intact and suffered almost no casaulties so far) to Tobruk fortified position , the gathering and entrenchment of the 9th Australian Div. in Tobruk defenses was complated on 9th April. On top of that every British Commonwealth unit in motion at Cyreneica (like breakout units from Mechili made up 3rd Indian Motorised Brigade , 2/26 Australian Anti-Tank Battalion and two squadrons of Cruiser tanks remained from 2nd Armored Division ) arrived in Tobruk just in time to bolster the defenses. Last of all Wavell began to send every possible reinforcement to Tobruk by sea (Tobruk harbour would prove an invaluable asset for Allies in future to supply the garrison and bring reinforcements. Admiral Cunningham Royal Navy Mediterranean CiC hastily gathered up a "scrap iron fleet" of small vessels for that purpose) including 18th Australian Brigade , one extra squadron of Matilda heavy tanks. Last of all in an epic march drive from Nile Valley all the way to Tobruk via coastal road , 107th Field Artillery Regiment in a two days constant drive with 150 vehicles and over 120 guns arrived fortified Tobruk perimeter just in time before German advance guard cut coastal road just east of perimeter (last British vehicles were taken in along with last military police by grinning Australians who relocated barricades and barbed wire defences on road again for good while just after them German scout vehicles appeared on the road) During incoming weeks these guns manned by Northumberland Aux. gunners would prove an invaluable support for defenders and Australians would call them "Our Dear Pommies"
Great analysis. One little mistake
Scrap Iron FLOTILLA
Australian Destroyer Division with scout destroyer flagship Stuart, Waterhen (sunk in this campaign), Vendetta, Vampire and Voyager.
"This is a double-length episode of WW2"
*laughs in June 1941*
This is the war my father knew: his brother and himself were conscripts in the Yugoslav army. When the surrender happened they took to the hills and fought as partisans, 1941-45. That’s all I know, what little he related to my mum in the early 1960’s.
I was born in Athens in the 80s. My mom had told her neighbor friend that her dad had been a tank commander in the US Army and helped liberate Northern France, Holland, Belgium and Germany during the war. After I was born my grandparents came to visit. Upon hearing this the neighbors threw a party, rack of lamb, the works. My mom didn't have the heart to tell everybody that her father had actually died a decade earlier and this was her step-dad that was visiting. He was in the Army, stateside, wrenching on new aircraft and prepping them for combat use. One of the many mundane and not glamorous jobs that were still important for the war effort. He got to feel like royalty that day and my mom never told him the real reason, just that he was in the Army during the war. Good times!
Busy week indeed, incredible episode Indy.
Thanks a lot!
I imagine plenty of people in British high command and the government were banging their heads against the wall or their desks after their generals were captured.
Meanwhile, I bet there won’t be many comments regarding German-Hellenic relations in this video...
Hellenic? Lol. Haven't heard that since I was at school.
@@luxembourgishempire2826 you know that's actually how we call ourselves plus the official name of Greece is "Hellenic Republic"
@@kr0k0deilos I know I just think it sounds funny... Don't mind me.
Simon, what do you imply by "german-hellenic relations" ??? unless i dont know my greek history , there were no relations ! futhermore - italy attacked greece in october 1940 because of the greek ruler (yes a non democratic super- anti communist military dictaror) general metaxas - refusal to work with italy and germany- and remember , at that moment in time, they were the winning teams . but although metaxas had some similar ideas as mussolini (regarding communism and mass voting) he kept greek honor on the right side of history. look him up - general metaxas. (he actually had a mysterious death one month before the germans attacked ..read into that too)
@The Hoplite I am just not used to hearing the word. But yeah I agree.
My great grandfathers WW2 odyssey through 5 different armies began with the invasion of Yugoslavia. In 1941 he was serving his term in the army as an 18 year old. He was quickly captured by Italian forces. After the invasion was over the Italians were I suppose short handed and offered him to serve in the Italian army on garrison duty.
He accepted and as far as I know had an uneventful service until 1943 when the Italians surrendered. He was again quickly captured this time by the Germans in Travnik, Central Bosnia who again offered him a similar deal, come serve in the German Army or rot away in a POW camp, he once more accepted and was stationed in Wiener Neustadt.
By late 1944 he saw which way the war was going and wanted to be closer to home so he bribed his german commanding officer (with a bunch of food sent to him from home) to let him transfer in the Croatian Home Guard. In that army, he was stationed as part of a railway battalion.
He was captured again around Maribor by the Yugoslav Partisans in April - May 1945 and was released home sometime in 1945.
But the story doesn't end there, the new Yugoslav authorities determined that he didn't complete his original compulsory military service so he had to serve another year in the Yugoslav Army. He served in Požarevac on the Romanian border.
He finally returned home for good in 1947. He returned to Germany once more in 1968 as one of the first guest workers and since he knew German from his time in the German military he held German language courses for other Yugoslav workers. He died in 1980.
Croatian? I think Croatian POWs from the Yugoslav army were released quickly, but not Serbs.
Pozarevac nije na rumunskoj granici, cisto da znas. To bi bilo isto kao da kazes da je Zadar na granici sa Italijom.
@@sonofrivadin3684 ali je blizu, a tamo je garnizon vojske.
Great story! What a lucky life to be captured by 3 different armies without getting injured in such violent times!
It is good story but there is one doubtful feature. You said he was captured "by Germans in Travnik" (my hometown btw) but there was no German units stationed there in 1943 except very small detachment of police trainers (5-10) men. Travnik was Ustase stronghold and they completely controled the city.
I love you guys, thank you for making these episodes
Thank you so much for your continued support! Cheers!
As a Greek:heck yeah 3 weeks of episodes for Greece
Yugoslavs:you guys are getting episodes?
hahaha,one more😂
three weeks of seeing your country lose, and you think its "heck yeah"? I cant imagine what I'd feel about a video covering the occupation of anatolia, the start of the destruction of independence, which has never happened since the timurid invasions.
Double-length episode is most welcome!! Thank you Indy and Co!!!
9th Australian Division General "Ming the Merciless" Leslie Morshead gave Order of the Day to Tobruk garrison he commanded (18.000 Australians-four infantry brigades , 12.000 British and 1.500 Indians) "There would be NO DUNKIRK HERE". Tobruk had a well fortified defensive system with two entrenched defensive lines mutually supporting each other , 139 fortified bunkers , constructed but not much used by previous Italian defenders (it is ironic that defences and entrenchments bunkers Italians constructed would be used by Australians against Axis ! Thank you Mussolini) Australians started to strengthen defensive perimeter immediately by sowing additional minefields , digging several extra trenches , barbed wire obstacles and building gun positions. In addition all booty captured from Italians at Tobruk including 80 or so Italian field guns in Australian use would prove a huge asset for Allied garrison.
Erni Muja The rest of the world doesn’t ...
@Erni Muja tbh Aussie here and i never see large numbers written like 15.000, i always use a comma and see it written with such.
@Erni Muja or you could just use 15000
@Erni Muja
G,day,
I thunk y'll find that the bits of the World which were colon-ised by the English still squeak English & they write Numbers in Arabic because that's a lot less clumsy than using the Roman Numerals ; and Rome had colon-ised Britain previously, so perhaps the English-squeakers took to Arabic Numerology as an expression of delight at their Freedom following the collapse of the Roman Empire.
However, there are places (in Eastern Europe..., I thunk) where they use a Full-Stop rather than a Comma to denote THOUSANDS (not the "Hundreds" which you mentioned - by mistake).
So, yeah, if you see "150.000..." you're apparently supposed to use Common Sense, and Context to figure out that it means,
"One Hundred & Fifty Thousands..." ,
rather than
"One Hundred & Fifty, precisely, exactly, and prezactlically, to three Decimal Places !"
You must have led a fairly sheltered life, to have not encountered this fairly common translingual dual correctness of useage, previously (?) !
Such is Life,
Have a good one...
Stay safe.
;-p
Ciao !
@Erni Muja
G'day again,
As it happens..., I tried to stay away from actual Passive Aggression in my Comment to you, limiting myself to the kind of gentle condescension one uses when addressing someone who A) pontificates from the assumption that whatever happens in their own Nation is a Global Norm..., B) incorrectly describes the Convention which does operate in their own Neck of the woods..., & C) concludes their interjection by PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVELY enquiring if the original Poster had "...just messed up ?".
So, if you want to see some actual Passive Aggression Pilgrim - then re-read your original Contribution to this Thread, and then peer into the nearest Mirror...(!).
If you study my Channel Name you'll discover therein my warning and aknowledgement that I do tend towards long rambling communications, wherein I attempt to give fully comprehensive descriptions of what I think, and or explanations of what appears to be going on. Truth in Labelling, they call it.
To lighten the mood I sometimes employ phonetic or sardonic spellings (eg "Thunk" rather than "Thought", etc) and or what the Cognoscienti describe as "Joycean Word Agglomerations" (like, "Prezactically"....), named after James Joyce - who wrote "Finnegan's Wake".
Basically mate, if you're trying to "call out" somebody else's percieved "error" then it's considered good form to ensure that your own interjection is entirely correct and, ideally, friendly rather than judgemental.
In my underconstumbling of "correct" social interactions - and what would I know about "social Conventions" anyway, considering that I'm a Hermit living atop a Ridge in a Forest 15km out of Town...(?) !
So, you may take as much or as little offence as you feel inclined - but there was n't a lot intended.
Please feel free to backtrack me to my Videos or Playlists, where you may readily fact-check the point that I do, in fact, always talk like this.
Where I come from, I'm considered to be the local Fool On The Hill - which is apparently a socially vital role ; because otherwise the Beatles would never have sung of it (!), and somebody has to feed bread to the wild unfenced Kangaroos & Wallabies at Sunrise, when they visit to share Breakfast...
Such is Life,
Have a good one...
Stay safe.
;-p
Ciao !
Edit.
Post Scriptum.
I suspect the "caused a Satellite to crash" comment was referring to the Mars Mission Lander which NASA & the EuroPeon Space Agency jointly crashed onto Mars, when NASA provided Data on how much Delta-V the Mid-Course Correction-Burns needed to deliver..., with the US Figures given in Foot-Pound/Seconds of Thrust..., and the EuroPeon Space Agency - having been metricated since Napoleonic thymes (!), told the Mars-Probe to use the AmeriKan Numbers to operate Rocket Thrusters which had their Throttle Settings all calibrated in Newton-Metres.
And nobody at either end realised that Foot-Pounds are a bit bigger & slightly gruntier than the Newton-Metres - meaning that the Spacecraft's Trajectory brought it directly into the Upper Atmosphere of Mars, rather than into Orbit above it - and therefore the whole Probe made a Meteoric Arrival, and went "Splat !".
So, now they're a lot more punctillious when squeaking Numbers & Quantities & Measurements accross the Atlantic.
But, for the record, the crashed Spacecraft had nothing to do with Decimal Points or Commas to denote Thousands...; it was more like what happens when someone mistakes Kilometres (5/8 of a Statute Mile) for Knots (Nautical Miles per Hour - with a Nautical Mile being 9/8 of a Statute Mile {2,000 Yards versus 1,760 Yards...} ) ; and then the Reporter will make some claim which is completely disconnected to Reality, because "Klicks" & Knots are wildly different - and neither one of them are equivalent to Miles...
;-p
Ciao !
"Greeks don't fight like heroes. Heroes fight like Greeks."
Thank You!!! I am eating through about 4 or 5 episodes a day. I have studied WW2 at School and University and I am still learning such a lot from this channel. Excellent work everyone onvolved!!!
Vevi (really called Banitsa) is my mother's home town. I remember my grandfather telling me stories of him fighting the Germans during that campaign. He was only of a few dozen left from his platoon that weren't killed (out of over 3,000 people).
The devastating success of Operation Marita is a prime example of politics directly and severely affecting military operations. The Yugoslavian army was forced to defend everything or else that would mean the government did not regard the northern provinces as an integral part of the state. Despite this suicidal commitment, the Croats immediately collaborated with the invaders politically and militarily.
As for Greece, the British had repeatedly implored the Greek High Command to begin a faced withdrawal of all forces south of the Aliakmon, but to no avail. The Greeks would not and could not agree for three purely political reasons. First, Macedonia could not be abandoned as it was a region claimed by the Bulgarians for decades and abandoning it to defend the "Old Greece" would make that claim stronger for decades to come, regardless of the outcome of the war. The same applies to South Albania or North Epirus as the Greeks call it, which they consider a part of Greece to this day. Last but perhaps most important, the Albanian front had already caused tens of thousands of Greek casualties, so to abandon an entire region for which so many people were killed and mangled to hold was unthinkable.
The truly sad thing is that if the generals, politicians and populations of Yugoslavia and Greece somehow knew the horrid extent of atrocities the Germans would inflict upon them in later years, they would have preferred to die fighting.
Why are you acting surprised that the Croats saw the invaders of their oppressors as liberators? "Despite this suicidal commitment" give me a break and watch the in between 2 wars episode
@@overlord165 I am sorry, that was not the point i tried to make. I just tried to point out how military outcomes can be decided by political circumstances.
@@MrTionar: "The devastating success of Operation Marita is a prime example of politics directly and severely affecting military operations. The Yugoslavian army was forced to defend everything..."
This is a bit nitpicky but wasn't Operation Marita only the invasion of Greece and the invasion of Yugoslavia instead called Operation Punishment (Unternehmen Strafgericht).
@@seneca983 I thought that was the name of the bombing of Belgrade and not of the invasion but i am not sure.
@@MrTionar: It might be, not sure. But, on the other hand, at least Wikipedia doesn't list Yugoslavian forces among the belligerents in Operation Marita.
Yugoslavia: "We are staging a coup!"
Germany: "Oh really now?" *Panzerlied plays*
Germany: Enters Belgrade, declares "mission accomplished" and sends the bulk of the invading force to invade the USSR.
("Po Šumama i Gorama", a Yugoslav ripoff of the Soviet "Partisan Song" starts playing in the background)
Germany: "Why do I hear boss music?"
@@VersusARCH its not a ripoff, red army music was internationalist
This channel is simply fantastic. As a matter of fact, all of Time Ghosts' productions are highly informative, making the past engaging and relatable.
Well done, as always!
i have been watching this series from about the invasion of greece, this is probably the best series i’ve ever watched, i can’t wait till operation barbarossa seen as it’s the largest ground invasion in history. see you next week!
WW1 Prussian veteran: “Well this worked the last time. What could possible come back to bite us”
Yugoslav partisan: “Let’s see about that.”
@@keptinkaos6384 we never hated the serbs. In ww1 serbs fought for greater serbia. Yugoslavia was just a greater serbia. In 1939 yugoslavia gave croatia some autonomy but it was to late croats couldnt live with injustice. In 1991 serbia showed the world its true form
@colin minhinnick serbs was on island corfu in greece in 1915...en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Retreat_(Serbian)#/media/File:Serbian_heavy_artillery_crossing_the_Babouna_River_in_Macedonia_during_the_retreat_to_the_Adriatic_Sea_coast_1915.jpg
@@ratniveteran7556 So true. Only thing that kept serboyugoslavia alive is that they were on winning side in ww1, and unfortunately allied to the west so they could create their "greater serbia" with a fake name. If someone is on winning side or even "right side" in war that doesn't mean that they are the good guys. Yugoslavia is, and always was, only greater serbia with a different name.
@stosic1903 and how many Croatians, Macedons,Bulgars, Bosnians, Italians and Hungarians did the Serbs torture to death, and how many of their women did they forcibly married serbianising them with rape? Considering what the Serbs did to these nationalities, how they turned Macedon into "hell on earth", starting with the SCS kingdom until the Axis attack, the revenge of these nations does not even reach the mountain that embodies the cruelty of the Serbs. The cruelty in the Gulags is nothing in comparison.....I don't think any other nation, during the course of history, treated their supposed "brother nations" so utterly savagely, with so twisted cruelty..
Yes, Yugoslavia fell quickly after attack of Axis powers, yes many non serbian nations in YU enjoy in that, but we must question to ourselves "Why"? Did many attrocities on Serbs happend in WW2, yes they did. Did it happend on other nations, yes.
But we must ask can we live together? That is the wright question.
Happy Easter to everyone that fest it! Sretan Uskrs svima koji slave!
Actually four British general captured in Libya this week , three of them (O'Connor , Neame and Combe) on Derna road after leaving a conferance in Barce on 8th April , the fourth one , commander of 2nd British Armored Division General Gambier-Parry (the one who deployed his forces which were already insufficient so badly at Cyreneica and lost control of battle) at Mechili fort , when Mechili fell on 8th April to siege of 5th German Light Division , almost half of British garrison managed to break out before the fort fell but the rest (2.000 of them along with a lot of motorised vehicles and tanks) along commander of 2nd Armored Division , General Gambier Parry surrendered. Rommel also captured three massive British command trucks nicknamed as Mammoths whom he took as booty as used one as his mobile command post till end of African campaign in 1943 plus a pair of sand googles whom he would pose a lot in pictures. 2nd Armored Division was wiped out from British Order of Battle "auch"
Actually Gambier Parry was captured by italian bersaglieri at the battle of Mechili.
How much more unlucky can you be?
That was very nice of you to make this 3pisode a double-leght one!
Another great episode and great graphics
Don't forget the naval war. Sharnhorst and Gneisenau have just returned from Atlantic convoy raiding (their best ever surface fleet mission) and this week were bombed in Brest which had serious repercussions on the Bismarck sortie in a months time.
Also I hope u can get the concern/alarm of the Australian government and their reaction to use of Australian troops in continuous last ditch rear guard actions plus PM Menzies trip to the UK and his determination of unseating Churchill as leader of Commonwealth/Empire if the war situation kept worsening for the Allies as this year moved on.
Well done again. Priceless documentary.
The last time I was this early, French Army command still had a coherent picture of the battlefield.
As a Serbian, I believe blame on defeat of Yugoslavia should be put on coup leaders. Had Yugoslav army been evacuted toward Greece the day coup happened, most of our mountain divisions would hold Metaxas line as well as Yugoslav and Albanian border and that would be almost one million more men to defend Greece. Panzers would probably break Greece's eastern borders as they did, but such an operation would certainly buy Soviets and British more time and Afrika Korps would probably withdraw from Africa to help break the line. We did the same thing in WW1 and it worked, most of Serbian army was on the Salonica front.
I watched some videos of some serbian historians of younger generation who blames coup liders for political stupidity. Someone who is clever would not provoke Germany in 1941. From other side terms of the pact were acceptable for Yugoslavia. According to them prince Paul and leader of Croatian mainstream political party Vlatko Macek was right.
They shouldn’t have started the rebellion in the first place but openly „rebel“ in the mountains while leaving the main government intact.
The way the rebelled was stupid and their hopes for Germany not to attack or Britain or Russia to help them were naive.
But this is hindsight of course. The Serbians were still thinking in WW1 terms and were not expecting Germany be that fast or that their own army success in WW1 was more due to the weakness of their main Austrian Hungarian enemies.
Really enjoyed my double helping of history today. Thanks guys!
Great episode! Thanks guys for all the work you do.
Last time I heard the name "Monastir," Cadorna still had a job.
US: "Oh yeah we're definitely neutral in this war."
Germany: _looks at lend-lease to Britain_ "yeah, sure you are." _proceeds to engage enemies_
US: _drops depth charges_
Germany: What the hell man?
On 27 May 1941 the US Neutrality Zone was extended east, again, to a line from Iceland to the edge of the air cover limit at Sierra Leone, a major convoy staging area. The new air base at Sierra Leone was a Lend Lease project.
Map Neutrality Zone May 1941
ww2db.com/images/58128e5c74708.jpg
Double lengthen-episode, what a treat. Great video
One of the best Episodes so far! Good Job👍🏼
It's crazy how much happens in the early War that barely ever gets covered in mainstream popular history. I'm very glad that this channel is here to do what it does.
No not really. I'm not from the US but there are many aspects of the war that get forgotten for various reasons. The WW2 Channel does a brilliant job bringing a great many of them to the forefront of its episodes.
Yep, the 'Sitzkrieg' of 1939-40 kind of gets glossed over all the way to Dunkirk, even though there were plenty of deveopments everywhere.
@Berto That's definitely the case here in the US. It's sort of happened over time, for political reasons, very similar to how the pre-WWI era gets skimmed over. Those were periods of both isolationism and widespread popular support for Germany, of under-the-table US economic support for Britain and France, of crackdowns on civil liberties as the very anti-war American population had to be dragged kicking and screaming into war through massive propaganda efforts. Textbook writers want to portray wartime America as a time of unity and patriotism, when the reality of our entry into both world wars was very messy and complex.
Early April 1941. in Yugoslavia was a total mess where nobody knew what was going on between the coup, the war preparations, military falling apart (mass Croat and Slovene desertion from the army), country disintegration preparations (Croatia), shifting opinions and politics, silly defense ideas (defending everything was completely impossible). One event that portrays this is my grandfathers story:
He was from western Bosnia (mixed village of muslims and orthodox near Novi Grad) but at the time working in central Serbia (Topola). Since the war has started he (foolishly) decided that he wanted to be with his family and traveled back to Bosnia only to find the village without a single Serbian. He was immediately captured by the Ustashe and sent to a concentration camp. After a few days he managed to escape together with two other guys but while fleeing was captured again and returned. With help of some woman (never told me the full story of who she was) he obtained a uniform and managed to flee the camp again only to be stopped and captured AGAIN. They were not returning him to the camp again and together with 7-8 other people was brought in front of the firing squad. They were lined up to be shot when one Ustasha officer recognized him and ordered that he be moved away and they shot the others. Turned out that officer was his neighbor from the village (there were Muslim Bosnians too in the Ustashe) and he decided to spare him. He then learned that his family was not captured but fled the village (his parents and two older brothers wouldn't survive the war, only he and his older sister survived). He was sent to a labor camp in Germany where he was until the end of the war. When they were finally freed by the Americans somehow it came to him to be the leader of a group of prisoners returning back to Yugoslavia and while traveling back with the other ex-prisoners he met my grandmother who was also imprisoned in a labor camp in Germany (she's from a mixed Serbian Croat village around 10km from Jasenovac concentration camp, most of her family ended up there, but she somehow was sent to Germany to a labor camp). Of course, after returning home the Yugoslav Army realized he did not do his military service so he was sent to serve in a border garrison at the Bulgarian border. He was there in 1948. when Tito turned his back to Stalin and it came to near-war between Yugoslavia and the Warsaw pact. They had a few clashes with the Bulgarians shooting here and there. Luckily, things calmed down, he was released from the army and went back to Bosnia to find my grandmother (she waited for him) and together they moved to Belgrade.
Lol that is nothing....my grandfather's brother was forcibly recruited by the Ustashe (or the Domobran's...can't remember correctly), it was either you join us or the bullet...he deserts and manages to join the Partisans, he was with them for some time but they get their ass kicked by the Germans and gets captured, they notice he speaks fluent German (he is of a family of mixed volkdeutschers who served in the army back in Austria-Hungary) and award him as basically a servant and communications man for one of the German officers in the region, that same officer is then later sent to "eastern front" and brings him along to Russia, there the German officer gets killed, he gets captured by the Soviets and is sent to Siberia (gulag) where he spent the rest of the war plus some 5-6 years more and barely survived. After he was released gets sent to West Germany as Yugoslavia wasn't an option. He never again saw any of his family as he was labeled as "a collaborator" by the communist Yugoslav regime, he did communicate with my grandfather but they never saw each other again and he died in Germany. It's hilarious shit....in the meantime my grandfather who was too young at the time of WW2 suffered the consequences for his brother's "betrayal" and as he was old enough by the end of the war gets recruited by the now Yugoslav army and is sent to Kosovo and the border with Albania to serve there (he spent there 6-7 years at least) and fight any remnants of the "Albanian fascist resistance".
Great story, thank you for sharing
Indy, you are such a gigantic (hi)storyteller, i wish i had have history teachers like you in my younger days.
Looking forward to the next episode.
This episode holds a lot of weight for me as my Grandfather was conscripted to fight in the Yugoslav army during the invasion of the country. He was taken prisoner on April 13th at a town called Sremska Mitrovica which is just south of Novi Sad. I unfortunately never got to meet him as he passed before I was born so I was never able to hear his story first hand. The information relating to his capture is almost impossible to find but through this episode its easier to tell which axis force was the one to actually capture him. Love what you guys do from your work on The great war, between two wars and this channel.
It was mostly Hungarian troops who invaded the Vojvodina. This had been in Austria-Hungary and many ethnic Hungarians lived there. I think it was temporarily annexed back to Hungary in 1941, or was at least under Hungarian military occupation.
The Hungarian invasion was not as efficient as the German one - one Hungarian armoured unit managed to run out of fuel just 30 km inside the frontier. There was also some bitter fighting in or near Novi Sad with Yugoslav troops who were probably Serbs.
Svice zora u subotu
dan dolece iz daljine
siromasi ovog kraja
cekaju da sunce sine
cekaju da sunce sine
joj, joj, joj, joj
Za Beograd (za Beograd)
firmom “Krstic” (firmom “Krstic”)
upravo se narod sprema
sve razloge za put ima
samo srece valjda nema
samo srece valjda nema
nema, joj
Nesrecnik sam od malena
od sve muke pesme pevam
voleo bih, majko mila
da sve ovo samo snevam
da sve ovo samo snevam
joj, joj, joj, joj
Puce puska iz potaje
ucitelja naseg nema
prolece je ’41.
prolece je, zlo se sprema
prolece je, zlo se sprema
joj, joj, joj, joj
Majko mila (majko mila)
sta se zbiva (sta se zbiva)
tuzna mi se pesma svira
smrt je dosla u pohode
ovde vise nema mira
ovde vise nema mira
mira, joj
Iznad polja gavran leti
i okuplja svoja jata
ova ptica zloslutnica
predoseca, bice rata
predoseca, bice rata
joj, joj, joj, joj
Svaba jase (svaba jase)
crnog konja (crnog konja)
potresla se sva Evropa
nasa vojska napad ceka
spremila je malog topa
spremila je malog topa
topa, joj
Spremao je dugo svaba
ovaj ludi, strasni let
obec’o se da unisti
i izgradi novi svet
i izgradi novi svet
joj, joj, joj, joj
Zemlja drhti (zemlja drhti)
sve se rusi (sve se rusi)
i nedelje nema vise
fasisticke mutne ptice
sve pod sobom unistice
sve pod sobom unistice
joj, joj, joj
@Zachary Durocher ua-cam.com/video/-CoL3VzunAc/v-deo.html
@Zachary Durocher it's from a cult yugoslav movie happening on invasion day called "who is singing over there", or "tko to tamo peva" in the original, as your attorney, I advise you to watch it :)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust_in_Serbia
King Username69 The Magnificent КО ТО ТАМО ПЕВА! КТО ПОЕТ ТУДА? КОЈ ПЕЕ ТАМО? КОЙ ПЕЕ ТАМ? KO TO TAMO PIJEVA??
Taj film je nešto najbolje što je dala naša - tada još zajednička kinematografija. Fenomenalna priča, crna komedija, grčka tragedija u pokretu: ta dva Roma su u biti neka vrsta grčkog kora u antičkoj tragediji koji svojim pjesmama / glazbenim brojevima objašnjavaju što se u biti zaista događa dok su putnici u autobusu firme Krstić potpuno nesvjesni kamo idu i koje će to imati posljedice.
The Yugoslav movie "Tko to tamo peva" - "Who is singing over there" is something the best of our late ex-Yugoslav movie production. This film is a black comedy and basically an ancient greek tragedy with two Gypsies / Roma singers as ancient Greek chorus singing ominous songs about troublesome Europe prior to Nazi invasion on Yugoslavia. On the other hand there are passengers on the bus owned by Krstić and Son traveling to Belgrade only a day before German attack on the City itself, devoid of any war thoughts.
The film with English subtitles:
ua-cam.com/video/ZwozSLas8DM/v-deo.html
Rear-Admiral Mario Bonetti, commander of Italian Red Sea Flotilla and the garrison at Massawa, had 10,000 troops and about 100 tanks to defend the port. Major-General Lewis Heath, commanding the 5th Indian
Infantry Division, telephoned Bonetti with an ultimatum to surrender and not block the harbour by scuttling ships. If this was refused, the British would leave Italian citizens in Eritrea and Ethiopia to fend for themselves. The 7th Indian Infantry Brigade Group sent small forces towards Adowa and Adigrat and the rest advanced down the Massawa road and rendezvoused with Briggs Force, which had cut across country, at Massawa by 5 April.
Bonetti was called upon to surrender but refused again and on 8 April, an attack by the 7th Indian Infantry Brigade Group was repulsed. A simultaneous attack by the 10th Indian Infantry Brigade and the tanks
of B Squadron 4th RTR broke through the defences on the west side. The Free French overran the defences in the south-west, taking Fort Montecullo, Vittorio Emanuele and Umberto as the RAF bombed Italian artillery positions. Colonel Monclar of the 13th French Foreign Legion Demi-Brigade entered the town at the head of a motorized platoon and captured the Italian Admiralty building and accepted Bonetti's surrender, taking 9,590 prisoners and 127 guns. The harbour was found to have been blocked by the scuttling of two large floating dry docks, 16 large ships and a floating crane in the mouths of the north Naval Harbour, the central Commercial Harbour and the main South Harbour. The Italians had also dumped as much of their equipment as possible in the water.
@@Infernal460 Well he preferred to send them out in a last offensve against the British. But it didn't go well.
Your videos are such a deep source of joy for me. Keep it up !
Awesome episode... Thoroughly enjoyed it...
(Greeks dont fight like heroes, heroes fight Greeks) churchill quote
I have been to fort Rupel in greek macedonia, you guys should go they still have soldiers there which can take you round as a tour and tell you the history of the fort, its absolutely amazing, and you get great views too!
We would have loved to go there but we're all immobilised because of Corona.
Really appreciate the long episode!
Love your channels. Please keep it up!!!
Getting some serious "Friday night in the 1970's" vibes from this tie, Indy. Imagine this one on a black shirt... 4/5
I was one year in Roupel (metaxas line) as a soldier between 2009 and 2010. In mount belles, at a village called Rodopolis!..
Visited the area, read the files and history.
There is a story of Iltsios you should research who spend about 30.000 bullets against Germans. Hold his post until the end, the German officer congratulated him and then execute him!
Famous quotes was said during Roupel assault like "forts do not surrender, forts are supposed to be captured"...
Some other guy mentioned the whole story about this soldier in the comments section below.
@@motocount Yeah I found it. In great extent and lots of content. It was nice to remind us all those details in his source material!!!
Good video, thanks for the great content.
It's my Birthday today and this is a great Birthday gift. Thanks for the quality content every week!
Happy Birthday!!
Giorgios Douratsos said to the Germans " forts do not surrender, they are conquered" and when the last valiant defenders of fort roupel surrendered the Germans stood in attention, for the Greeks had earned their respect .
Also there is this "myth" here in Greece that because Hitler had to plan/start gathering forces for the invasion of Yugoslavia/Greece, that ultimately delayed operation Barbarossa and because of that he missed his time window before winter came etc etc...could you prove / disprove this myth
It's interesting, because whatever he planned or changed or wanted, because the spring thaws came late in 1941 it would have been physically impossible to invade the USSR until around June 10th at the earliest. So while on March 27th, Hitler estimated that a Yugoslavian (but not German- that had been planned for five months) campaign may delay Barbarossa for up to four weeks, and while von Brauchitsch issued the order April 7th changing the Barbarossa date to June 22nd, even had they not done so the invasion could not have been carried out until June anyhow.
Mike , the invasion of crete lasted until late may , meaning that the barbarossa campaign had to begin during the summer . For your information , taking crete was essential, since the Romanian oilfields were exposed , and therefore the resistance of the locals to the invasion was of great importance and helped defeat nazism.
@@christermi Again- as I wrote in my first comment- the change in date had been ordered well before any invasion of Crete had been decided on, so it is false to correlate the two. And also again, because of the late arrival of the spring floods, whatever date was decided on- no invasion of the USSR would have been possible in any case until around June 10th at the earliest.
@@Southsideindy even though you are correct in your statements , there are make hypotheses regarding why the attack against the Soviet union was delayed . You should know that hitler accused the failed Italian offensives against Greece of being the reason behind Germany's defeat .
@@christermi Why would I not know that?
And what are you doing, just moving the goalposts? Look, you said that the Battle of Crete was A or THE reason for the delay of Barbarossa. It was not. That is demonstrable fact. And- as you say- my statements are correct, so it was physically impossible for any invasion to take place until after the spring flooding, which came late, so not until June 10th or so in the best case whatever they "wanted" to do.
I don't understand where you're going now? If you wanna discuss why Barbarossa failed that is a different discussion. For here and now, you made the point that it was delayed by the attack on Crete. That argument is invalid- as the timetable had changed before the invasion was ordered or planned. (and doubly invalid since the Flieger 7 and mountain divisions Germany used in Crete were not earmarked for Barbarossa anyhow). The Battle of Crete had no effect on the timetable of Operation Barbarossa.
Indy: This is a double length episode.
Me: YES
Another great video guys!
Just stumbled across you're channel. I'm addicted.
Always underappreciated in any war, are the efforts of engineers, as in this case at 03:06, men from the South African Engineer Corps (SAEC) who repaired the bridge over the Awash River - this, only one of several blown bridges to be repaired, and road obstacles and demolitions to be cleared (whilst under fire) on the road to Addis.
I can actually hear "Colonel Bogey March" tune while looking at these pictures.
Make a special episode about for roupel
Great episode ! Thanks !
Simply amazing! Tanks a lot you Guys for this video!
A question for out of the fox hole: What kind of relationship Albanian locals and Greek army had during their occupation of southern Albania ? Were they happy to be liberated from their Italian occupiers and thankful for that or had a dislike for the Greeks considering history is not too bright between these two nations.
The Greek army managed to be as respectable as possible to the Albanians (no cases of mass looting, the vaults of municipalities were intact etc), but the Greek army did not hide that he wanted to annex the area, where a Greek minority still lived and had proclaim an autonomous state in 1913. So the Albanians in general were indifferent, they took no sides...
Have in mind that 60% of the population of that period in that area was Greeks!
@@VladTevez In Gjirokaster, something like a third of the population were ethnic Greeks. It was the home town of future Communist leader Enver Hoxha. Although ethnic Albanian himself, he had some grasp of the Greek language, he probably heard it a lot while growing up.
Χαράλαμπος Βεζακιάδης Was not? There were parts in Epirus which were populated by Albanians up to 60% and making it a province with a big Albanian minority (though not majority). In southern Albania there are little to no Greeks, more like orthodox Albanians and that is why they may be called Greeks (Identity problems of the Balkans as you know).
Mehmet Esat ince The Albanians were indifferent about the Greek Army, and some orthodox Albanians maybe were even happy to see the Italians being slashed and so on (in Kosovo there was much more Hate for Italians than a substantial hatred amongst Albanians of Albania for them).
The Greeks though were not seen as Liberators, more like a friend that you would normally not be with because of his political mindset but has also the same enemy. There was not a real opinion on the Greeks I would say.
06:40 YOUGOSLAVIE SUFFERED A LOT IN WWII (I SAY IT AS A POLISH) - SŁAWA BRACIA ❗
thank u brother. we suffered enormously in ww1 and in ww2 mostly Serbia and for that we were rewarded by Europian Union by taking our territory on Kosovo and Metohia and giving it to Albanians who collaborated with third Reich just like Croats did too. we still have our part in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Republika Srpska) dont need to mention that muslims in Bosnia was also Nazi collaborators. saddest part is that since end of ww2 until break up of Yugoslavia was only 47 years later. Josip Broz Tito who was leading Socialistic Republic of Yugoslavia was Croat (there are stories he was even Mason and spy who actually wasnt even born in croatia) made lot of decisions in expense to Serbia too keep peace in Yugoslavia. i guess we had it coming since we choose him over our King. but that is whole another story. thank u for support anyways. Poland have also paid it price no doubt about that. war is still going on just in different ways now it is cold war ,economic war, migrant war , and even virus wars. big powers are walking over smaller nations bur we are resilient people and i have no doubt we will keep our culture witch is most important. there is old saying that history repeats it self . wars in ex Yugoslavia remind me lot on Balkan wars before ww1. i hope this time we skip ww3 and resolve this in some smarter way. Slawa polskoj braci. truth will prevail .
Nice video, I do enjoy watching these ww2 videos.
I have finally caught up with weekly episodes having discovered this channel not so long ago.
Awesome! Welcome to the present.
@@WorldWarTwo and what a present it is!
Italians: Nigeria please! No more advancing in the desert, we're dying here!
Nigerians: Cowabunga it is...
Run boy run
That was faster than when Conrad was in command
I didn’t know you have a WW2 channel! I really enjoyed your work with WW1! Subscribed!
Welcome!
8:57 I don't know why but this made me laugh way more than it should have.
Excellent video as always. Can't wait to hear more about the Rats of Tobruk
6th April 1941 , Damaging of German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in Brest harbour , France.
After conclusion of Operation Berlin (commerce raiding in Atlantic between February-March 1941 during both German battleships sunk or captured 22 merchant ships totalling almost 90.000 GRTs within seven weeks and caused quite a worry in British Admiralty) Admiral Lutjens commanding both German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau decided to sail to German occupied Brest harbour to replenish their suppies , do maintenance work before their next big commerce raiding operation in Atlantic.
Which never came. As soon as Scharhnhorst and Gneisenau reached Brest harbour in western France in 22 March 1941 , RAF Coastal Command (with bases in range at Southern England) started heavy air raids to put both German battlewagons off action. On 6 April, Gneisenau was attacked by British torpedo bombers, which managed to score a single hit that damaged her severely. RAF Bristol Beaufort torpedo bomber that struck the ship was piloted by RAF Flying Officer Kenneth Campbell (VC).
He flew his Bristol Beaufort through the gauntlet of concentrated anti-aircraft fire from about 1000 weapons of all calibres and launched a torpedo at a height of 50 feet (15 m).
The attack had to be made with absolute precision: German battleship Gneisenau , scourge of Allied merchantmen in Atlantic for last couple of months , was moored only some 500 yards (460 m) away from a mole in Brest’s inner harbour. For the attack to be effective, Campbell would have to time the release to drop the torpedo close to the side of the mole. That Campbell managed to launch his torpedo accurately is testament to his courage and determination.
Generally, once a torpedo was dropped, an escape was made by low-level jinking at full throttle. Because of rising ground surrounding the harbour, Campbell was forced into a steep banking turn, revealing the Beaufort’s full silhouette to the gunners. The aircraft met a withering wall of flak and crashed into the harbour. The Germans buried Campbell and his three crew mates, Sergeants J. P. Scott DFM RCAF (navigator), R. W. Hillman (wireless operator) and W. C. Mulliss (air gunner), with full military honours. His valour was only recognised when the French Resistance managed to pass along news of his brave deeds to England
The torpedo struck German battleship Gneisenau in the vicinity of the rear main battery turret. Some 3,050 t (3,000 long tons) of water flooded the ship and caused a 2 degree list to starboard. The flooding also disabled several components of the ship’s propulsion system. The explosion caused significant destruction to the side plating as well as the starboard and centerline propeller shafts. The concussive shock also caused widespread damage to the ship’s electronic components. A salvage tug came alongside to assist in the pumping effort. The ship was severely damaged below the waterline and was obliged to return to the dock whence she had come only the day before; she was put out of action for six months, lessening the threat to Allied shipping crossing the Atlantic. As a result of this the attack, Gneisenau returned to the drydock for repairs for more than six months.
Three days later, on the night of 9-10 April, several British Halifax bombers dropped around 25 t (25 long tons) of 227 kg AP bombs on the ship, four of which hit. All four hit the starboard side of the forward superstructure. Two of the bombs exploded on the main armor deck while the other two failed to detonate. The attack killed 72 initially from German battleship crew and wounded 90, of whom 16 later died of their injuries. The bombs slightly damaged the main armor deck and caused some structural damage on the starboard side. It was decided to make alterations to the ship while she was drydocked for repairs; these included the installation of fourteen additional 2 cm anti-aircraft guns and six 53.3 cm torpedo tubes amidships. The aircraft hangar was rearranged, and the catapult that had been mounted on top of it was removed. The length of repairs and modifications precluded participation in Operation Rheinübung , the sortie by the new battleship Bismarck in May 1941.
Having seen TIK's series on the North African campaign, I could say with high confidence that things in North Africa will only get even more confusing.
@World War Two Love the map animation showing the attacks. Would be nice though to have a time stamp/date in the same frame to show the time of the advance! It's sometimes hard to follow dates and times when only mentioning them. Love this channel it's so informative!
Thanks! I'll pass it on as feedback!
0 dislikes so far. Let's keep it that way. Love the series.