“I am very sorry that, due to old age, I still have not long to live to thank the Greeks, whose resistance played a decisive role in the Second World War”.
Today's events in Greece have a very long history. They write a lot about the Soviet troops brought into Prague in 1968. But very little, or rather nothing at all, is remembered and written about the fact in the history of the intervention of Great Britain and the United States in the internal affairs of Greece, about 36 years of repression, the shooting of a peaceful demonstration in Greece, as if it didn't exist. History always has a double bottom. Especially if the party to the conflict acts contrary to the proclaimed values.
The British expedition against the sovereignty of the Greek people in December 1944 was twice the size of the British corps in Greece in 1941 against the forces of the Wehrmacht and relied on parts of collaborators.
“It should be noted that Mr. Churchill and his friends are strikingly reminiscent in this respect of Hitler and his friends. Hitler began the business of starting the war by proclaiming the racial theory, declaring that only German-speaking people constituted a complete nation. Mr. Churchill begins the business of unleashing war also with racial theory, arguing that only nations that speak the English language are full-fledged nations, called upon to decide the fate of the whole world.
German racial theory led Hitler and his friends to the conclusion that the Germans, as the only complete nation, should dominate other nations. The English racial theory leads Mr. Churchill and his friends to the conclusion that the nations that speak the English language, as the only full-fledged ones, should dominate the rest of the nations of the world.
After the retreat of the German army, British troops and Greek pro-monarchist military formations landed in Greece. In accordance with the official history, allegedly, it was they, and not the partisans, who liberated Athens. The partisans and their leaders at that time did not have information about the agreements signed in the Kremlin between Churchill and Stalin, according to which Greece became a zone of influence of Britain. The treaties actually conveyed the fate of the partisans ELAS into the hands of Great Britain.
On October 12, 1944, the Germans left Athens and the port of Piraeus, the 1st ELAS Corps took control of the capital, saved its facilities, including power plants, from destruction by the leaving Germans. At 9 am, ELAS city detachments entered the city center and removed the remaining Nazi symbols from the Acropolis of Athens. Today, the liberation of the city is celebrated on October 12, when it was liberated by ELAS units.
On October 14, the first British paratroopers arrived at the airfield in Tatoi, not far from Athens (the Palace of King George II is located in Tatoi). They were met by ELAS partisans, who occupied the airfield on October 12. This angered Churchill, who was preparing to clash with ELAS and the anti-monarchist government-in-exile of Georgios Papandreou. The "mistake" of the BBC was corrected by the English commander-in-chief Wilson Henry Maitland, who reported to Churchill that Athens had been liberated from 13 to 14 October by British units and the Holy Detachment.
At the same time, speaking in Parliament on December 8, 1944, Churchill was forced to admit: "British troops carried out an invasion of Greece, which was not due to military necessity, since the position of the Germans in Greece had long since become hopeless".
On October 18, the government of Georgios Papandreou arrived in Athens, which was met by an honor guard of the ELAS forces. In 1935, Georgios organized the Democratic Party, later renamed the Democratic Socialist Party. He took part in the Second World War, in 1942 he was captured by the Italians. In 1944 he fled to the Middle East, where he organized a government in exile.
On November 3, 1944, the entire territory of Greece was completely liberated from occupation. For the invaders, there was a threat of being cut off by the Red Army that had entered the Balkans. The emergency message from the ELAS High Command said: “The enemy ... under pressure from our troops and relentlessly pursued by them, left Greek territory. ... The long-term and bloody struggle of ELAS was crowned with the complete liberation of our homeland ".
Meanwhile, the landing British troops practically did not have to conduct military operations against the departing units of the Wehrmacht. The number of ELAS at that time was 119 thousand officers and soldiers, partisans and partisans of the reserve and 6 thousand people of the national police.
“We must hold Athens and ensure our rule there. It would be good if you could achieve this as far as possible without bloodshed, but if necessary with bloodshed.”.(p.) W. Churchill to General Scobie.
The military clash between the forces of EAM - ELAS - KKE and British armed forces, supported by their internal political Greek allies, ranging from the socialist Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou to the "security battalions" that had previously collaborated with the SS, was later called & # 916 ; & # 949 ;κ ;ε ;μ ;β ;` 1 ;ι ;α ;ν ;ά ;, or December events. Greek historians rightly consider them the only events of their kind in Europe at the end of World War II. Having actually driven the fascists out of their own country, the Greeks faced British-American fascism.
Henry Maitland Wilson. In November-December 1944, he led the fighting to defeat the people's liberation
movement in Greece. In December of the same year, he was appointed head of the British military mission to the Joint Chiefs.
headquarters in Washington. Participated in the Yalta and Potsdam conferences in 1945.
As a result of the shooting of the rally, 33 demonstrators were killed and 148 wounded. The fighting lasted 33 days and ended on January 5-6, 1945. This clash was the prelude to the civil war in Greece.
Let us analyze the chronicle of the events of December 1944.
The British army, still at war with Germany, issued guns to locals who collaborated with the Nazis to shoot at civilians who supported the guerrillas with whom Britain had been an ally for three years.
The crowd carried Greek, American, British and Soviet flags and chanted: "Long live Churchill, Viva Roosevelt, Viva Stalin" in support of the anti-Hitler alliance. Twenty-eight civilians, mostly young boys and girls, were killed and hundreds were injured.
Britain's logic was cruel and insidious: Prime Minister Winston Churchill believed that the influence of the Communist Party within the resistance movement he had supported throughout the war - the National Liberation Front, EAM - had grown more than he had expected.
Moreover, he considered this influence sufficient to jeopardize the plan to restore the king of Greece to power. Thus, Churchill treacherously supported Hitler's supporters against his former allies.
As a consequence of this betrayal, Greece plunged into the abyss of civil war. Every Greek citizen knows about this event, but in different ways, depending on which side his ancestors were on.
Before the war, Greece was under the rule of a monarchical dictatorship. The dictator, General Ioannis Metaxas, received his military education in Imperial Germany, while the Greek King George II - the uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh - was of British descent.
Both dictators and kings were anti-communists and Metaxas banned the Communist Party, KKE. After the outbreak of war, Metaxas refused to accept Mussolini's ultimatum to surrender and declared his loyalty to the Anglo-Greek alliance.
The Greeks fought bravely and defeated the Italians, but were unable to resist the Wehrmacht. By the end of April 1941, the country was occupied. The Greeks - at first spontaneously, and later as part of organized groups - fought in the resistance. The right and the monarchists were more indecisive than their political opponents. England's natural allies were therefore the EAM - an alliance of the left wing and the Agrarian Party of which the KKE was dominant.
The occupation was terrible. Stripping and torturing women was a common means of extracting "confessions". Mass executions took place, and for purposes of intimidation there were gallows guarded by security officials to prevent them from being destroyed. In response, ELAS (People's Liberation Army of Greece) carried out daily counterattacks against the Germans.
Partisan movement born in Athens, but based in the villages, so that Greece is gradually liberated from the countryside. The British conducted joint operations with the guerrillas.
By the autumn of 1944, Greece was devastated by occupation and famine. Half a million people died - 7% of the population. ELAS liberated dozens of villages and set up provisional governments. After the withdrawal of German troops, ELAS kept 50,000 armed partisans outside the capital, and in May 1944 agreed to the entry of British troops, under the command of Lieutenant General Ronald Scobie.
December 3, Sunday. On the morning of Sunday, December 3, several columns of Greek republicans, anti-monarchists, socialists and communists marched towards Syntagma Square. Despite the government ban, hundreds of thousands of Athenians, as usual, peacefully filled Syntagma Square. Most of the demonstrators chanted slogans: "No new occupation!", "Collaborators to trial!". However, some of them greeted the British: "Long live the allies, Russians, Americans, British!" Police cordons blocked their path, but several thousand broke through. As they approached the square, a man in military uniform shouted: Shoot the bastards!
Unexpectedly, civilians were shot by the police. After the first victims, the demonstrators did not disperse, but continued to chant: “Papandreou's murderer!”, “English fascism will not pass!”. The news of the execution mobilized people from the working-class districts of Athens and Piraeus. Another 200 thousand people approached the city center. The shooting was stopped. 33 people were killed and over 140 wounded.
December 4 a general strike (previously scheduled for 2 December) and funerals were held for the victims of the previous day's rally. The funeral service took place in the cathedral church of Athens, after which the funeral procession headed to Syntagma Square. At the head of the procession stood out a banner held by three young women dressed in black. The banner read: "When a people is threatened by tyranny, they choose either chains or weapons".
The funeral procession was also shot. In the massacre of civilians, the British used mainly the ultra-right parts of Χ ; and former employees of the occupiers who lived in hotels on Omonia Square. About 100 people were killed and wounded. An angry mob, now accompanied by lightly armed ELAS groups, laid siege to the Mitropolis Hotel in Omonia Square, intending to burn it down.
But at that moment, when the resistance of the collaborators was broken, and they were ready to surrender, British tanks appeared, which took them to the Thissio area.
The bodies of unarmed demonstrators are shot by the police and the British army in Athens on December 3, 1944.
The pro-government historian, Englishman Chris Wodehouse, has argued that it is not clear who opened fire first: the police, the British, or the demonstrators.
However, 14 years after the massacre, Athens police chief Evert Angelos admitted in an interview with the Akropolis newspaper that he personally ordered the demonstrators to be dispersed by force, according to orders received from above.
Nikos Farmakis, a member of the far-right organization "Χ" who took part in the shooting of the demonstration, confirmed that the signal to start the shooting was given by the chief of the Athens police, Evert, waving a handkerchief from the window of the police headquarters.
5th of December Churchill sent a telegram to General Scoby: “You are responsible for maintaining order in Athens and for the liquidation of all EAM-ELAS groups. …You can make any rules you want to impose strict control on the streets or to capture any rioters, no matter how many. In cases where shooting may start, ELAS will, of course, try to put women and children in front as cover.
Here you have to show dexterity and avoid mistakes. But do not hesitate to open fire on any armed man in Athens who will not obey the English authorities or the Greek authorities with whom we cooperate. Of course, it would be nice if your orders were backed up by the authority of some Greek authorities ...
However, act without hesitation as if you were in a defeated city, engulfed in a local uprising ... As for the ELAS groups approaching the city, then you and your armored units should certainly be able to teach a lesson to some of them so that others will be discouraged. You can count on the support of all appropriate and reasonable actions taken on this basis. We must hold Athens and secure our dominion there. It would be good if you could achieve this as far as possible without bloodshed, but if necessary with bloodshed.”
Immediately after receiving this directive, Scoby ordered the attack on ELAS. British planes began bombarding her positions in Thebes. At the same time, tank and infantry formations were thrown against ELAS in Athens.
On December 5, Lieutenant General Scobie declared martial law and the next day ordered an aerial bombardment of the working quarter.
At the end of the Dekemvriana (Dekemvrian, civil war), thousands were killed; 12,000 leftists are rounded up and sent to camps in the Middle East. The armistice was signed on 12 February. A chapter in Greek history known as the "White Terror" began, where every suspect who helped the Elas during the Dekemvriana or even the Nazi occupation was sent to the camps set up for their internment.
December 6 Churchill's open armed intervention began with the support of Roosevelt against the national freedom movement Greek people. The 4th division (10th, 12th, 23rd infantry brigades), the 2nd paratrooper brigade, the 23rd armored brigade, the 139th infantry brigade, and the 5th Indian brigade took part in the battles of the first days. The 23rd Armored Brigade was equipped with 35 Sherman tanks. The number of two infantry battalions deployed by air was 5 thousand people.
In addition, the British had auxiliary units of up to 10 thousand people. The main body of British reinforcements of the first wave: three infantry divisions - the 4th Indian, 4th and 46th British - arrived in mid-December. The British expedition against the sovereignty of the Greek people was twice the size of the British corps in Greece in 1941 against the forces of the Wehrmacht.
The British interventionists relied on illegitimate government forces, which included the 3rd Mountain Division (2,800 people), parts of the gendarmerie and city police, members of the ultra-right organization X, numbering from 2,500 to 3,000 armed people, members of other small organizations.
However, the largest number, about 12 thousand people, were from the "security battalions" that had previously collaborated with the Nazi occupiers. British troops were transferred to Greece on American planes. The American officers who were in Greece remained neutral, not hiding their sympathy for ELAS.
December 8 Churchill telegraphed General Scobie: “Our clear objective goal is to defeat EAM”. New reinforcements and Marshal Alexander were sent to Athens.
December 11th Marshal Alexander and Macmillan Harold arrived in Athens. Assessing the situation of Papandreou as the most difficult, Alexander demanded the urgent transfer of another division from the Italian front and decided to openly use the "security battalions" of the collaborators along with the British troops.
December 17–18 British aircraft bombed workers' quarters and ELAS positions in the capital and suburbs, inflicting numerous casualties on the civilian population. On the night of December 17-18, ELAS forces carried out a successful operation, occupying the Cecil, Apergi and Pentelikon hotels in the northern region of Kifissia, which housed RAF (Royal Air Force of Great Britain) personnel. A total of 50 officers and 500 RAF enlisted men were taken prisoner.
20th of December The EAM Central Committee handed over a protest to the chairman of the International Red Cross, I. de Renier, against the British bombing of the civilian population, which has already killed more than 2,500 people.
Alexander informed Churchill that in order to keep the situation in Athens and begin political negotiations, it was necessary to send additional forces. At the same time, 40 thousand British soldiers were already in Athens and the region. General Scobie was removed from command of operations. Gerosisis commented on it thus: "A man knew how to fight against the barefoot Indian tribal leaders, but not against the national guerrilla army".
21 December Marshal Alexander wrote to Churchill that there was no military solution in Greece, only a political one. The marshal emphasizes that ELAS could not defeat Hitler, and it is unlikely that it can be defeated by military means.
On the night of 24 to 25 December ELAS saboteurs mined the Grande Bretagne hotel, where the Greek government and the British headquarters were located. 1 ton of explosives was planted in the sewer channel, which led to the foundations of the hotel.
December 25 Churchill arrived in Athens accompanied by Anthony Eden, the foreign minister.
Churchill leaves the destroyer HMS Ajax on board and disembarks,
going to negotiations in Athens to participate in the conference.
Prior to this, on October 18, the British had established a provisional government under the leadership of Georgios Papandreou and were ready to restore the monarchy. The people and the resistance met them as allies. There was nothing but respect and friendship for the British. We had no idea that we had already lost our country and our rights. EAM withdrew from the provisional government due to demands, the demobilization of the partisans. Negotiations ended on 2 December.
During November, the British began building a new National Guard, which was entrusted to the Greek police and the disarmament of the military militia. In fact, disarmament was applied only to ELAS, not to those who collaborated with the Nazis.
Any notion that the Communists were ready for revolution is wrong in the context of the Agreement between Churchill and Stalin in Moscow on October 9, 1944. The south-east of Europe was divided into "spheres of influence", as a result of which Stalin "took" Romania and Bulgaria, and England, in order to maintain balance in the Mediterranean, took Greece.
The British and the Greek government-in-exile decided from the outset that ELAS would not be allowed into the new army. Churchill wanted a showdown with the KKE in order to be able to restore the king. The Greek communists decided not to try to take power in the country, the KKE wanted to insist on a center-left government. If they wanted a revolution, they would not have left 50,000 armed men outside the capital after liberation.
The detachments of the ELAS reserve, unanimously supported by the population of the capital, responded with a successful counter-offensive and, during fierce battles, surrounded the British troops and their Greek accomplices in the central region, which was jokingly called "Scobia". The position of the British government was also complicated by the fact that world public opinion opposed its interference in the internal affairs of Greece.
The well-known English writer Herbert Wells wrote in those days in the London Tribune: “Churchill's intervention in Greece has dishonored our nation. If we don't do away with Churchill, he will do away with us. World events are developing at lightning speed, but Churchill's ideas, taken out of the Indian barracks and ... his aristocratic home, form a kind of complex of outdated incoherent nonsense ...
Let Churchill go and take all the kings of the Earth with him, so much the better for humanity.”
December 27 - January 5, 1945- heavy fighting, up to hand-to-hand. On January 4, a column of about 100 British tanks broke through the line of defense and moved along the Rue Lenormand. The ELAS Central Committee decided to retreat to the foot of Mount Parnita. With the prospect of continuing the war, the ELAS Central Committee moved to the village of Mavreli. The Central Committee was full of optimism, because every time the British tried to move north, they ran into regular ELAS units and were defeated with heavy losses.
This confirmed the statement of Marshal Alexander that it would not be possible to defeat ELAS by military methods: the ELAS detachments would regroup and once again become invincible. ELAS controlled at that time 80% of the country's territory, having huge human reserves and the support of the people.
December 28th Churchill departed from Greece, "from this accursed country," as he described it. He managed to convince Papandreou of this "prime minister of the blood" to resign.
At the same time, it was Churchill who proposed to keep Papandreou in power throughout the crisis. Now the British Prime Minister shifted all the blame for the December bloodshed onto the Greeks themselves.
He also managed to convince the king, who was out of the country, to agree to the regency of the Archbishop of Damascus, whom Churchill himself called "quisling", "communist" and accused him of behaving like de Gaulle. For the post of Prime Minister, Churchill proposed the nominal leader of the pro-fascist EDES League - Plastiras Nikolaos.
Churchill reported on the Greek events to both Roosevelt and Stalin, describing the Greek rebels as rebels who could interfere with the common struggle against fascism.
Churchill was in a hurry to complete the intervention in Greece before the meeting of the "Big Three" in the Crimea, scheduled for February 4-11, 1945. He understood that at the peace conference it would be difficult for him to explain not only to the allies, but also to his own people, why they occupy part of the Greek territory and fight against the Greek Resistance, instead of fighting Hitler on the Eastern Front.
January 8 EAM accepted the British offer of a truce. The British needed a breather. To move to the north, where ELAS was strengthened, they needed new forces. Churchill knew that the forces of EDES, X, the "security battalions" without British support, would be swept away in a few days. In addition, some of the officers of the Greek aviation were suspected of sympathy for the EAM, however, as well as the Greek Navy, many of whose ships were ready to go over to the side of ELAS.
January 11 an armistice was signed. The protocol was signed by General Scobie, as a representative of the British army, Dzimas from the political leadership of EAM and Major Atinelis, as a representative of the ELAS General Staff. The truce was to come into force on 14 January.
The official forces of popular resistance were the 1st ELAS city corps, numbering (according to documents) about 20 thousand women and men, of which only 6 thousand people possessed weapons, with a minimum supply of ammunition. The British estimated the strength of ELAS in the city at 6,300 poorly armed fighters. The only mechanized detachment used fire service vehicles. However, ELAS enjoyed the support of the people and had a constantly updated reserve.
So, the regiment of the eastern quarters of the city, numbering 1300 fighters, having lost 800 people, on the last day of the December events, totaled 1800 fighters. During the fighting, units from the Peloponnese, Central Greece and Thessaly, a cavalry brigade and the 54th regiment arrived in Athens, numbering up to 7 thousand armed people.
British tanks and infantry break into the building of the Athenian EAM government, along Korai Street, in the city center.
According to a number of researchers, in December 1944, ELAS units actually conducted military operations against the intervention of the British army, which sought to restore a conservative pro-British monarchical regime in the country. The fighting continued until January 5-6, 1945, killing over 5 thousand Greeks. The fighting ended in a military defeat for the ELAS forces in Athens.
In early 1945, the number of British soldiers in Athens reached 100,000. Without exaggeration, the British intervention in Greece began.
February 8, 1945 conference opened three chapters powers Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt in Yalta about the end of the Second World War and the post-war order of the world.
12th of February, despite the fact that the ELAS command, ordinary supporters of the EAM and members of the KKE were against peace with the British, the EAM leadership signed the Varkiz agreement. The leadership of the EAM and the KKE believed that the Agreement had been signed; in fact, it was a capitulation. ELAS was to be disarmed until March 15, 1945.
Ilias Tsirimokos, Yorgis Sianthos, Dimitrios Partsalidis signing the Varkiza Agreement, February 12, 1945
The agreement meant that Greece was handed over to the control and arbitrariness of the British, collaborators and monarchists, without any guarantees for the democrats and members of the Resistance. Indeed, the British arrested a large number of supporters of the EAM and the KKE, according to rough estimates, only in Athens - about 10 thousand people. They were sent to concentration camps in North Africa, where there were already 15 thousand Greek soldiers, supporters of the EAM, from the units of the Greek army disbanded in 1943 in the Middle East.
Together with the prisoners in the Athens area, the total number of prisoners of EAM supporters reached 40 thousand people.
In the most acceptable "loss table" of the opposing sides in the battles of Athens, the British forces lost 210 men killed, 55 missing and 1,100 captured. The "government forces" lost 3480 killed (889 gendarmes and police and 2540 army) and a large number of prisoners. The losses of ELAS are estimated at 2-3 thousand killed and 7-8 thousand prisoners, not including among the last citizens of leftist beliefs and supporters of EAM arrested by the British.
Interpretation of Soviet silence
Researcher Vasilis Kontis writes that while there was a danger of a separate peace between the United States, Britain and defeated Germany, Soviet troops, who entered the Bulgarian-Greek border in the summer of 1944, did not intend to cross it.
According to other Greek historians, on the eve of the Yalta Conference, the Soviet government did not want to upset the British and jeopardize their interests in other regions.
They also write that after these events, Stalin maintained a strange silence and avoided condemning the British, but on the other hand did not create obstacles to the actions of ELAS. Regarding this behavior of Stalin, Churchill noted that while the US condemned the British intervention in Greece, Stalin remained strictly and faithfully faithful to our October agreement and for many weeks of fighting against the communists in the streets of Athens, not a single word of condemnation was noted on the pages " Pravda and Izvestia.
Other historians, commenting on the information that came to light in last years believe that, before the armistice, the USSR warned the leadership of the KKE, through the former Secretary General Communist International Georgy Dimitrov that he (the leadership of the KKE) should not expect any help. The Bulgarian historian I. Baev writes that the Bulgarian Communist Party motivated its response by the danger of international complications and the lack of weapons.
Historians about the December events
For a large part of modern historians, the December events - clean water imperialist interference in the affairs of an allied state, since in wartime, when Hitler's Germany was not yet defeated, Britain sent almost 100,000 soldiers to Greece to protect its geostrategic interests.
Another part of historians considers the events as the second phase of the civil war (considering the inter-Greek clashes during the years of occupation as the first phase), which later led to the third phase, the large-scale Civil War of 1946-1949.
Supporters of the first concept emphasize the fact that the British forces were 6 times larger than the number of motley formations of the Papandreou government, and with the participation in the battles of British aviation and navy, we are actually talking about foreign intervention. They also believe that under the conditions of ELAS dominance in the country, without British intervention, a military confrontation between the right-wing forces and ELAS had no chance of success and was practically ruled out.
Greek Prime Minister Papandreou lays a wreath at the monument to the unknown
soldier in Syntagma Square, after the liberation of Athens, October 1944
There is a third concept, whose supporters, such as P. Rodakis, agree that the December events were imposed by the British, but on the other hand, they believe that the KKE and EAM got involved in this clash, although they could have avoided it, since all the communist parties did Western Europe.
The outcome of the December events marked the beginning of political instability in the country and bloody terror against the members of the Resistance, which continued until and after the outbreak of the Civil War in 1946.
entered into second world war October 28, 1940, when the Italian army launched an invasion from Albania. The Greek army won the first major victory among the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition, defeating the aggressor and forcing the Italian troops to retreat to Albania.
The war was preceded by the sinking of the cruiser Elli on August 15, 1940 by an "unknown" submarine during the Orthodox celebration of the Mother of God Day, on the raid of the island of Tinos, and other provocations of fascist Italy, after which Greece carried out a partial mobilization. The Italian ultimatum was presented to the Prime Minister of Greece, General Metaxas, on October 28, 1940, at 3 am. The ultimatum was rejected. The Italian invasion began at 5:30.
The war was preceded by the sinking of the cruiser Elli on August 15, 1940 by an "unknown" submarine during the Orthodox celebration of the Mother of God Day, on the raid of the island of Tinos, and other provocations of fascist Italy, after which Greece carried out a partial mobilization. The Italian ultimatum was presented to the Prime Minister of Greece, General Metaxas, on October 28, 1940, at 3 am. The ultimatum was rejected. The Italian invasion began at 5:30.
The Italian advance was coastal zone Epirus and Western Macedonia. In front of the 3rd Italian Alpinist Division" Julia"(11,000 soldiers) was tasked to move south along the Pinda ridge to cut off the Greek forces in Epirus from the Greek region of Western Macedonia. The brigade of Colonel K. Davakis (2,000 soldiers) stood in her way. Resist the onslaught Julia"And having received reinforcements, Davakis launched a counteroffensive, after which the Greek army launched a counteroffensive on both the Epirus and Macedonian fronts and transferred hostilities to the territory of Albania. In January 1941, the Greek army occupied the strategic mountain pass Klisura (Occupation of the Klisura Gorge).
Greek artillerymen firing from mountain version French 65mm cannon (Canon de 65M Mle1906 L/18.5) in the mountains during the war with Italy in the winter of 1940/41. This photograph in Greece is one of the symbols of the struggle of the Greek people against the Italian invaders during World War II.
Greek gunners firing a mountain variant of the French 65mm cannon (Canon de 65M Mle1906 L/18.5) in the mountains during the war with Italy in the winter of 1940/41. This photograph in Greece is one of the symbols of the struggle of the Greek people against the Italian invaders during World War II.
Greek soldiers resting in the mountains during the war with Italy
Greek soldiers resting in the mountains during the war with Italy
The victories of the Greek army in this war were the first victories of the armies of the anti-fascist coalition over the Axis countries. The famous Greek archaeologist and participant in that war, M. Andronikos writes that “ when Italy decided to invade Greece, the Axis dominated Europe, having previously defeated the French and British and concluded a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union. Only island England still resisted. Neither Mussolini nor any “reasonable” person expected Greek resistance under these conditions. Therefore, when the world learned that the Greeks were not going to surrender, the first reaction was surprise, which was replaced by admiration when the news began to arrive that the Greeks were not only accepting the fight, but also winning". In March 1941, having received reinforcements and under the direct supervision of Mussolini, the Italian army attempted to launch a counteroffensive (Italian Spring Offensive). The Greek army repelled the offensive and was already 10 km from the strategic Albanian port of Vlora.
April 6, 1941 , saving the Italians, Nazi Germany was forced to intervene in the conflict, after which the conflict is called the Greek operation.
November 12, 1940 Hitler signed Directive No. 18 on the preparation of " if necessary"Operations against Northern Greece from the territory of Bulgaria. According to the directive, it was planned to create in the Balkans (in particular, in Romania) a grouping of German troops consisting of at least 10 divisions. The idea of the operation was refined during November and December, linked to the option " Barbarossa” and by the end of the year was set out in a plan under the code name “ Marita"(lat. marita - wife). According to Directive No. 20 of December 13, 1940, the forces involved in this operation increased sharply, up to 24 divisions. The directive set the task of occupying Greece and demanded the timely release of these forces to carry out " new plans”, that is, participation in the attack on the USSR.
Thus, the plans for the conquest of Greece were developed by Germany at the end of 1940, but Germany was in no hurry with their implementation. The failures of the Italian troops in Greece, the Nazi leadership sought to use to further subjugate Italy to the German dictates. The still undecided position of Yugoslavia, which in Berlin, as in London, they expected to win over to their side, also made them wait.
On March 27, 1941, a coup d'etat took place in Yugoslavia. The pro-fascist government of Dragisha Cvetkovic fell, and Dusan Simovic became the head of the new government. In connection with this event, the German government decided to speed up the overall implementation of its plans in the Balkans and move from methods of political pressure to open aggression.
On March 27, immediately after the coup in Yugoslavia, Hitler held a conference in the Imperial Chancellery in Berlin with the commanders-in-chief of the land and air forces and their chiefs of staff. It announced the decision make all preparations to destroy Yugoslavia militarily and as a national entity". On the same day, Directive No. 25 on the attack on Yugoslavia was signed.
The German command decided to start the attack on Greece simultaneously with the attack on Yugoslavia. Plan " Marita' has been completely redesigned. Military operations against both Balkan states were considered as a single operation. After the plan of attack was finally approved, Hitler sent a letter to Mussolini, saying that he was waiting for help from Italy.
The invasion was supposed to be carried out by applying simultaneous strikes from the territory of Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria in converging directions to Skopje, Belgrade and Zagreb in order to dismember the Yugoslav army and destroy it in parts. The task was to seize primarily the southern part of Yugoslavia in order to prevent the establishment of interaction between the armies of Yugoslavia and Greece, to connect with the Italian troops in Albania and use the southern regions of Yugoslavia as a springboard for the subsequent German-Italian offensive against Greece.
Against Greece, it was planned to deliver the main blow in the direction of Thessaloniki, followed by an advance to the Olympus region.
The 2nd and 12th armies and the 1st tank group were involved in the operation. The 12th Army was concentrated on the territory of Bulgaria and Romania. It was significantly strengthened: its composition was brought up to 19 divisions (including 5 tank divisions). The 2nd Army, consisting of 9 divisions (including 2 tank divisions), was concentrated in southeastern Austria and western Hungary. 4 divisions were allocated to the reserve (including 3 tank divisions). For aviation support, the 4th Air Fleet and the 8th Aviation Corps were involved, which together numbered about 1200 combat and transport aircraft. The overall command of the grouping of German troops aimed at Yugoslavia and Greece was entrusted to Field Marshal V. List.
On March 30, 1941, the High Command of the Wehrmacht ground forces set tasks for the troops. The 12th Army was to attack Strumica (Yugoslavia) and Thessaloniki with two corps, strike in the direction of Skopje, Veles (Yugoslavia) with one corps, and attack with the right flank in the Belgrade direction. The 2nd Army was tasked with capturing Zagreb and developing an offensive in the direction of Belgrade. Combat operations against Yugoslavia and Greece were planned to begin on April 6, 1941 with a massive air raid on Belgrade and the offensive of the troops of the left wing and the center of the 12th Army.
The Greek army was in a difficult position. Prolonged hostilities depleted the country's strategic reserves. The bulk of the Greek troops (15 infantry divisions combined into two armies - " Epirus" and " Western Macedonia”) was stationed on the Italo-Greek front in Albania. The entry of German troops into Bulgaria and their exit to the Greek border in March 1941 confronted the Greek command with the intractable task of organizing defense in a new direction, where no more than 6 divisions could be deployed.
The arrival of an expeditionary force from Egypt, which began on March 5, 1941, could not significantly change the situation, which included two infantry divisions (the New Zealand 2nd division, the Australian 6th division), the British 1st armored brigade and nine aviation squadrons. Destined for landings in Greece, the Australian 7th Division and the Polish brigade were abandoned by the British command in Egypt due to the actions of the Germans in Libya.
To repel aggression, the Greek command hastily created two new armies: "East Macedonia" (three infantry divisions and one infantry brigade), which relied on the fortifications of the Metaxas line along the border with Bulgaria
AND " Central Macedonia "(three infantry divisions and English expeditionary corps), which, using the mountain range, took up defense from Olympus to Kaimakchalan. The armies did not have operational-tactical communications and could easily be cut off both from each other and from the troops concentrated on the Albanian front. The Greek command did not have strategic reserves. In deploying forces, it proceeded from the assumption that the enemy would operate only from the territory of Bulgaria and would not go through Yugoslavia.
The threat of a German attack increased the defeatist mood among the Greek generals. In early March 1941, the army command "Epirus" brought to the attention of the government that he considered the war with the Germans futile, and demanded to start diplomatic negotiations with Germany. In response, the government changed the leadership of the army "Epirus" appointed a new army commander and new corps commanders. However, these measures failed to achieve a turning point in the mood of the highest command of the Greek army.
The situation in the Balkans required joint action by Great Britain, Greece and Yugoslavia. On March 31, the Chief of the British General Staff, General Dill, arrived in Belgrade, accompanied by Dixon, Eden's personal secretary. For two days, Dill negotiated with Prime Minister Simović, Minister of War General B. Ilić and General Staff officers to harmonize the efforts of Yugoslavia and Greece and mobilize their military and economic capabilities to fight the impending aggression. The exchange of opinions showed that Great Britain was not going to render significant assistance to Yugoslavia and Greece.
On April 3, at the railway station south of the Greek border town of Kenali, new negotiations were held between the military representatives of Great Britain, Greece and Yugoslavia. It was about establishing interaction between the Yugoslav army, Greek and British troops. The negotiations were attended by the commander-in-chief of the Greek armed forces, General Papagos, the commander of the British Expeditionary Force, General Wilson, and the head of the operations department of the Yugoslav General Staff, General Jankovic. However, due to the extremely limited amount of assistance from Great Britain, the fears of the Yugoslav and Greek authorities to aggravate relations with Germany, an agreement on the interaction of the Yugoslav army with the Greek-British forces could not be reached.
The German troops launched an invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece on the night of April 6 according to the scheme they used when unleashing hostilities in 1939 and 1940. The main forces of the 4th air fleet suddenly attacked airfields in the areas of Skopje, Kumanovo, Nis, Zagreb, Ljubljana. Tank and infantry divisions of the 12th German Army simultaneously crossed the Bulgarian-Yugoslav border in three sectors, 150 German aircraft raided Belgrade.
Simultaneously with the actions against Yugoslavia, the left wing of the 12th German army from the territory of Bulgaria launched an offensive against Greece in the Thessaloniki direction.
The grouping of German troops (six divisions, including one tank division, united in the 18th and 30th corps) had a great superiority in manpower and equipment over the army " East Macedonia ". However, relying on the line of fortifications and the mountainous terrain favorable for defense, the Greek troops offered stubborn resistance to the enemy for three days. But at this time, the 2nd German Panzer Division, advancing through Yugoslav Macedonia along the Strumitsa river valley, bypassing Lake Doyran, went to the rear of the Greek army " East Macedonia ”and on April 9 captured the city of Thessaloniki. On the same day, this army capitulated.
The rapid advance of the German divisions in Yugoslavia put the Greco-British army in an extremely difficult position. Central Macedonia ". By reaching the Bitola area, German troops created a threat to bypass its positions from the rear and isolate it from the Greek troops fighting in Albania. On April 11, the Greek High Command decided to withdraw forces from Albania to a new line of defense - from Mount Olympus in the east to Lake Butrint in the west. The withdrawal of Greek troops from Albania began on 12 April.
Meanwhile, the German divisions, advancing from the Bitola region through Florina and further south, again created a threat to the coverage of the Anglo-Greek forces and during April 11-13 forced them to hastily retreat to the city of Kozani. As a result, the German troops went to the rear of the army " Western Macedonia ", isolating it from the troops stationed in the central part of the country.
The British command, considering resistance to the aggressor troops unpromising, began to plan the withdrawal of its expeditionary force from Greece. General Wilson was convinced that the Greek army had lost its fighting capacity, and its command had lost control. After Wilson's meeting with General Papagos on April 13, it was decided to retreat to the line of Thermopylae, Delphi and, thus, leave the entire northern part of the country to the enemy. British units from April 14 retreated to the coast for evacuation.
On April 13, Hitler signed Directive No. 27, in which he specified the plan of action for German troops in Greece. The Nazi command provided for the delivery of two blows in converging directions from the areas of Florina and Thessaloniki to Larissa in order to surround the Anglo-Greek troops and frustrate attempts to form a new front of defense. In the future, the advance of motorized units was planned to capture Athens and the rest of Greece, including the Peloponnese. Particular care was taken to prevent the evacuation of British troops by sea.
In five days, the British Expeditionary Force retreated 150 km and by April 20 concentrated in the Thermopylae area. The main forces of the Greek army remained in the north-west of the country, in the mountains of Pindus and Epirus. The rest of the army Central Macedonia "and army troops" Western Macedonia ”, who suffered heavy losses, were reassigned to the commander of the Epirus army. This army was retreating, holding battles with Italian troops and being subjected to heavy air strikes. With the Germans entering Thessaly, the opportunities for retreat to the Peloponnese at Army of Epirus was almost non-existent.
The order of the Greek government to withdraw troops from Albania, failures at the fronts caused a long-awaited crisis in the ruling circles of Greece. Generals Army of Epirus demanded a cessation of hostilities with Germany and the conclusion of a truce with her. They put forward only one condition - to prevent the occupation of Greek territory by Italy.
On April 18, a council of war met at Tati near Athens, at which General Papagos announced that, from a military point of view, the position of Greece was hopeless. A meeting of the Council of Ministers on the same day revealed that some of its members supported the deposed generals of the Epirus army, while others were in favor of continuing the war, even if the government had to leave the country. Confusion arose in the ruling circles of Greece. It intensified even more when, on the evening of April 18, Prime Minister Korizis committed suicide. However, at this time, supporters of the continuation of the war prevailed. The new Prime Minister Tsouderos and General Papagos demanded from the army command "Epirus" continue to resist. But the newly appointed commanders of the formations refused to obey, removed the commander of the army, Pitsikas, and put General Tsolakoglou in his place. He sent parliamentarians to the German troops and on the evening of April 20 signed with the commander of the SS division "Adolf Gitler" General Dietrich signed an armistice agreement between Greece and Germany. The next day, Field Marshal List replaced this agreement with a new one - on the surrender of the Greek armed forces, but Hitler did not approve it. Given the insistent requests of Mussolini, he agreed that Italy was among the parties to the agreement on the surrender of the Greek army. This, the third in a row, agreement was signed by General Tsolakoglou on April 23, 1941 in Thessaloniki. On the same day, King George II and the government left Athens and flew to the island of Crete.
On the night of April 25, in the small ports of Attica and the Peloponnese, under heavy bombardment, the loading of the first units of the British troops onto ships began. At this time, other British units tried to restrain the advance of the Nazi troops. The German attempt to defeat the retreating British Expeditionary Force was not successful. Destroying the roads behind them, the British units managed to avoid major battles with the enemy.
On April 25, German troops occupied Thebes, and the next day, with the help of an airborne assault, they captured Corinth, cutting off the retreat to the Peloponnese for the British troops remaining in Attica. On April 27, German troops entered Athens, and by the end of April 29 they had reached the southern tip of the Peloponnese. By this time, the bulk of the British troops (more than 50 thousand out of 62 thousand people), having destroyed heavy weapons and means of transport, were forced to evacuate by sea.
At sea, the evacuation was led by Vice Admiral Pridham-Whippel ( en:Sir Henry Daniel Pridham-Wippell), and on the shore - Rear Admiral G. T. Bailey-Groman and the army headquarters.
In total, 50,662 people were taken out, including the personnel of the British royal air force and several thousand residents of Cyprus, Palestine, Greeks and Yugoslavs. This represented about 80 percent of the forces originally sent to Greece.
The ships of the Greek fleet also went to Egypt.
Armored cruiser Averoff. The crew managed, avoiding bombardments and minefields, to take the ship to Alexandria. There, "Averof" was given the task of protecting allied convoys in the Indian Ocean. Returned to Greek waters after the liberation of Greece in 1944.
Armored cruiser Averoff. The crew managed, avoiding bombardments and minefields, to take the ship to Alexandria. There, "Averof" was given the task of protecting allied convoys in the Indian Ocean. Returned to Greek waters after the liberation of Greece in 1944.
Destroyers:
"Vasilissa Olga"
"Vasilissa Olga"
After the German invasion, the destroyer, along with other ships of the fleet, left for Alexandria, Egypt in May 1941, where she received the British number H 84. . After being upgraded in Calcutta, India in November-December 1941, the destroyer returned to the Mediterranean. In February 1942, as part of the British squadron, the destroyer took part in the Tobruk operation. On March 26, 1942, the destroyer picked up 20 sailors from a British tanker RFA Slavol, sunk by the German submarine U-205 near Sidi Barrani(Egypt). June 10, 1942 "Olga" picked up 53 sailors of a British tanker RFA Brambleleaf, torpedoed by the German submarine U-559, near Ras Alem(Egypt).
The destroyers Spetsai and Kountouriotis, which left Piraeus on April 22, safely reached Alexandria, where until August 1941 they were involved in escort operations together with the British fleet. Later, Spetsai (which received the English tactical number H 38) went to Bombay, where it began to be repaired and re-equipped. Completed on March 27, 1942, the modernization deprived the ship of a stern 120-mm gun and a stern torpedo tube. In place of the latter, a 76.2 mm anti-aircraft gun was installed. The air defense was also reinforced with a pair of 20-mm machine guns, and the anti-aircraft defense with six bombers. Kountouriotis (H 07) left for India in December 1941. Its repair and modernization continued until April 18, 1942.
The destroyers Spetsai and Kountouriotis, which left Piraeus on April 22, safely reached Alexandria, where until August 1941 they were involved in escort operations together with the British fleet. Later, Spetsai (which received the English tactical number H 38) went to Bombay, where it began to be repaired and re-equipped. Completed on March 27, 1942, the modernization deprived the ship of a stern 120-mm gun and a stern torpedo tube. In place of the latter, a 76.2 mm anti-aircraft gun was installed. The air defense was also reinforced with a pair of 20-mm machine guns, and the anti-aircraft defense with six bombers. Kountouriotis (H 07) left for India in December 1941. Its repair and modernization continued until April 18, 1942.
In May, both destroyers began to serve (usually escort) in the eastern Mediterranean and off the coast of North Africa. In September 1942 "Countouriotis" was used to transfer troops to the island of Kastelorizo, where the Italian garrison surrendered to the allies.
"Katsonis" and "Papanikolis" Greece in World War II
Seventy years ago, Greece, on the night of April 29-30, 1941, the last British troops were evacuated from the Peloponnese, and Greece was divided into three occupation zones - German, Bulgarian and Italian. The German units occupied Athens, Thessaloniki and part of the Aegean Islands, the Bulgarians took control of part of Macedonia and Thrace, the rest of the territories went to Italy. At the end of May of the same year, as a result of an airborne operation, German paratroopers captured Crete, the last stronghold of independent Greece.
The tragic events of the spring of 1941 were preceded by five months of the Italo-Greek war, during which the Greeks fought heroically against Mussolini's troops. Despite the numerical superiority of the Italians, thanks to high morale and competent command, Greece not only repelled the invasion, but also transferred hostilities to the territory of Albania controlled by the Italians. And only the intervention of Germany allowed Mussolini to avoid a shameful defeat. October 28, the day Greece answered with a resounding "no" to Mussolini's ultimatum, is still celebrated in the country as a major national holiday.
The Greeks have something to be proud of: they became the first nation to put up serious resistance, as it seemed then, to the invincible troops of the Axis powers. “The Greeks fought with unbending courage and a willingness to die for their country. They capitulated only when further resistance became impossible,” Hitler himself assessed the results of the battle for Greece. An interesting fact: in order not to humiliate the Greeks who had gained the upper hand over the Italian army, the Germans brought their troops into the Greek cities before the arrival of the Italian units. Moreover, Hitler wanted, as a sign of respect for the Greek officers, to keep their weapons on their waist belts - sabers and checkers - but Mussolini insisted on the complete disarmament of the Greek army.
The occupation was a terrible blow for the Greeks, in whose historical memory the memories of the centuries-old Turkish yoke were still fresh.
The slogan "Eleftheria and thanatos!" (“Freedom or death!”), under which the Greeks fought for independence in the 30s of the 19th century, has regained its relevance. In the very first days of the Nazi invasion, many political and public figures of Greece, having lost their freedom, made a choice in favor of death. Among those who committed suicide were Greek Prime Minister Alexandros Koryzis and the famous writer Penelope Delta, who took poison after seeing German tanks enter Athens...
The King of Greece, George II, and the main part of the cabinet of ministers managed to sail to Alexandria before the occupation, where the Greek government in exile was formed, officially recognized by the countries of the anti-fascist coalition. In Athens, the occupiers created a puppet government headed by Georgios Tsolakoglou, the general who signed the surrender of the Greek army. His power was nominal: all major decisions were agreed with the authorized representatives of the Reich. The jurisdiction of the Greek Politia - as the new state was officially called - extended to the entire zone of German occupation and most of the territories occupied by the Italians, with the exception of the Ionian Islands, where Mussolini introduced direct control.
Bulgaria almost immediately announced the annexation of the occupied territory. In the first six months of the occupation alone, more than one hundred thousand Greeks were expelled from these provinces. The export of food to Bulgaria, the confiscation of houses and land belonging to the Greeks led to a shortage of food and a further increase in the flow of refugees. Most Greek researchers evaluate such actions of Bulgaria as revenge for the defeats in the Second Balkan and First World Wars.
In the territories occupied by the Germans, food was requisitioned and livestock, forced loans in favor of the Third Reich and for the maintenance of the occupying troops. The collaborationist government covered these costs by printing money, which resulted in the highest inflation in the history of the country: from 1941 to 1944, prices doubled every day.
The consequence of this was the "Great Famine" of the winter of 1941-1942, only in Attica - this is Athens and the surrounding lands - which claimed the lives of more than 300 thousand inhabitants, that is, about 5 percent of the total population of the country.
Another dark page in the history of the German occupation was the Holocaust in Thessaloniki, where Jews made up about a third of the total population of the city. The Greeks hid Jews in their homes, many representatives of the Greek Orthodox Church officially declared their support: when the German authorities demanded that the mayor of Zakynthos provide a list of Jews living on the island, he indicated only two names - his own and Archbishop Chrysostom. During the war years, more than 80 percent of Greek Jews were shot, starved to death, or sent to concentration camps.
In Greek fiction, the occupation period is most vividly reflected in the works of the playwright Yiannis Ritsos. The surrealistic images that fill his works, more precisely than any statistics, speak of this tragic period of Greek history: “What month? I do not see. Only a bone hangs in the air on a rope, an arm is a bone, a leg is a bone, hope is a bone - wherever you look, the bones obscure your eyes. A mountain is a mountain of bones. The sea is a sea of blood. The whole world is just bones. ... The moon is also a bone, a yellow, gnawed bone in the teeth of a night dog. This is from the monologue of an old woman who lost her son ("Under the canopy of cypresses", 1947)
Partisan actions in Greece began immediately after its occupation. Crete was the first to attack the Germans. At the end of May 1941, the real guerrilla war, which operated about 600 partisan detachments. Despite the spontaneous, unorganized nature of the resistance, the partisans immediately destroyed at least a thousand German soldiers. The Germans responded to partisan actions with brutal repression. During the summer of that year alone, more than 2,000 Cretans were executed without trial or investigation. Some Cretan villages, whose inhabitants resisted stubbornly, were wiped off the face of the earth. The protracted guerrilla war left a special imprint on the mentality of the inhabitants of the island: they differ from the rest of the Greeks in a more severe disposition. Many of them are still illegally owning firearms- with which the Greek government has been fighting for many years without much success.
On the Greek mainland, the forerunner of the anti-fascist movement was Manolis Glezos, who on the night of May 31, 1941, together with Apostolos Santas, tore down the Nazi flag with a swastika mounted on top of the Acropolis.
This brave act, the feat of many Greeks in the fight against the invaders, has become a symbol of the liberation movement. The Hellenic Orthodox Church played an equally important role in the formation of the resistance movement. With the words “The head of the Church does not surrender the capital of his homeland to foreigners,” Archbishop Chrysanthos of Athens and all Greece refused to sign the act of surrendering Athens and recognize the collaborationist government headed by Georgios Tsolakoglou.
In September 1941, the Greeks of the city of Drama raised the first organized uprising, which was literally covered in blood. Many villages in which the rebels took refuge were completely massacred. The suppression of the uprisings in Drama and Crete showed that the resistance that was emerging in Greece needed to be coordinated. The role of a link between the scattered partisan detachments was assumed by the National Liberation Front of Greece (EAM), which operated under the auspices of the Communist Party of Greece. Under the conditions of military occupation, the communists, who had been forced to operate underground for many years, turned out to be the only force with the necessary experience to organize the liberation movement. The main partisan actions were launched in the mountainous regions of Epirus, Thrace and Macedonia, as well as in the Peloponnese, where the Italians established a relatively weak occupation regime. By the end of 1942, a third of the country's territory was controlled by the Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS). In addition to liberating the homeland from the invaders, the underground aimed to protect the social gains of the people and their freedoms. This went against the plans of the émigré government, which expected to return to power after the end of the war.
Speaking about the contribution of Greece to the Second World War, historians emphasize that due to the invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece, Hitler had to delay the attack on the Soviet Union for five weeks.
But for some reason, the fact is overlooked that throughout the entire period of occupation, due to the actions of ELAS, only the Germans were forced to keep about 10 divisions in Greece. Thanks to iron discipline, high morale and the support of the local population, the ELAS army fettered the significant forces of the Axis powers, preventing them from being sent to the Eastern Front. The Germans responded to the actions of the partisans with increasingly cruel repressions. The massacre in Kalavryta became a symbol of Nazi atrocities, when the Wehrmacht troops shot the entire male population of the city over 12 years old. 60 years after this tragedy, German President Johannes Rau visited Kalavrita and honored the memory of the dead, expressing deep regret about what happened. True, when asked about monetary compensation and the return of forced loans, he replied that "this is beyond his competence."
By the fall of 1944, the country was almost completely cleared of foreign invaders. However, this did not bring international recognition to the government formed in the liberated territories. England, which perceived Greece as its sphere of influence, relied on the emigrant government, which did almost nothing to fight the aggressor, but in October 44 returned to the already free Athens on British bayonets. Here is what Churchill wrote to General Scobie, who occupied the Greek capital: “You can introduce any rules at your discretion to establish strict control in the streets or to capture any rebels, no matter how many there are. …Do not hesitate to open fire on any armed man in Athens who will not obey the English authorities or the Greek authorities with whom we are collaborating. However, act without hesitation as if you were in a conquered city, engulfed in a local uprising.
Thus, British troops entered the country not as liberators, but as occupiers. This was openly recognized by the British rulers and clearly felt by the Greeks themselves. It is not surprising that in December 1944, the former ELAS fighters who went to the rally were shot by British artillery ...
The peace that the European peoples found on May 9, 1945, became a short interlude for the Greeks. Victory Day was celebrated against the backdrop of repressions and executions of those people, thanks to whom Greece was liberated from the Germans.
In March 1946, the Democratic Army of Greece arose on the ruins of ELAS, declaring war on the Athenian government. With only limited support from Yugoslavia and Albania - the Soviet Union recognized Greece as a sphere of British interests even before the end of the war - the DSE was doomed to defeat. The peace established in 1949 only consolidated the split in Greek society. For almost 30 years, the country was led by conservative pro-Western politicians, illegitimate from the point of view of a good half of the population. And this half included those people with whom the highest achievements of Greek culture of the 20th century are associated. This is Yannis Ritsos, who fought in the ranks of ELAS and for this he was exiled to one of the remote islands of the Aegean Sea. This is the actor Antonis Yannidis, who left Greece after the civil war and emigrated to the USSR, where he starred in the film "The End and the Beginning" about the resistance of the Cretans to the Nazi invasion in the spring of 41st. This is the great Greek composer of the 20th century, Mikis Theodorakis, who also served time for left-wing convictions, and in the 70s became the main ideological inspirer of the fight against the military junta.
And now, against the backdrop of a deep economic crisis, which is stronger than others European countries Greece is experiencing, the sympathy of the people for the people who fought for their freedom throughout the forties is only growing.
In March last year, the main news of the Athenian newspapers were mass protests against the policies of the current government. One of them was headed by Manolis Glezos.
The police fired tear gas at the demonstrators, causing the "first guerrilla of the Second World War" to be hospitalized for several days. The resulting corneal burns are not the worst thing that a man who served 16 years in prison and was sentenced to death four times experienced in his lifetime. For him, the war for freedom never ended.
Yuri Kvashnin
Who fought in numbers, and who fought with skill. The monstrous truth about the losses of the USSR in World War II Sokolov Boris Vadimovich
Greek losses
Greek losses
According to the official Greek data of the National Council for Reparations, the losses of the Greek armed forces amounted to 13,327 dead, 62,663 wounded and 1,290 missing during the Italo-Greek war of 1940-1941, 1,100 dead as part of the Greek units that fought alongside British troops in the Middle East and 20,650 dead partisans. Losses among the civilian population amounted to 56,225 shot by the German, Italian and Bulgarian occupation authorities, 105 thousand died in German concentration camps, 7120 people who became victims of German and Anglo-American bombing, 3.5 thousand sailors of the merchant fleet who died on sunk German aircraft and submarines, as well as 600 thousand who died of starvation. The number of those who died from starvation, in our opinion, is many times overestimated, in order to increase the amount of reparations due to the country. The number of victims of the Holocaust in Greece is estimated at 69.5 thousand dead Jews. G. Frumkin doubted the official Greek figures, considering them to be significantly overestimated in terms of civilian casualties and estimated the losses of Greece at 20 thousand military dead during the Italo-Greek war, 60 thousand repressed non-Jewish civilians (probably this includes losses partisans), 20,000 non-Jewish deportees (probably also dead), 60,000 Jews exterminated by the Nazis, and 140,000 famine victims. The basis for Frumkin's assessment is as obscure as the basis for the official assessment. It seems to us that the official data on the losses of the armed forces and partisans may be close to reality. But they must be increased by a number of categories of losses not taken into account by the National Reparations Board. They do not include, in particular, losses during the fighting in Crete in May 1941. During the unsuccessful reflection of the German landing on the island, the Greek troops located there lost 426 dead (including those who died from wounds), up to 850 wounded and 5255 captured. In addition, during the fighting in Crete, up to 3 thousand civilians were killed. Big number wounded compared to the number killed during the war in mainland Greece, in a ratio of 4.7:1, suggests that the death toll here does not include those who died from wounds. If we take the proportion of those who died from wounds as 10% of the total number of wounded, then the number of deaths from wounds can be estimated at 6.3 thousand people, and the total number of regular Greek army soldiers who died during World War II, we estimate at 22.4 thousand, including all the missing in the number of those killed. We estimate the total losses of the military, taking into account the losses of the partisans, according to official figures, at 43 thousand people, assuming that the official figure of 20,650 dead partisans also includes the victims of the struggle of the communist ELAS (Greek National Liberation Army) partisans against the British troops in Athens in December 1944. It should be noted that most of the partisans were former soldiers of the Greek army, disbanded by the Germans to their homes. The total number of Greeks who fell into German and Italian captivity in continental Greece was estimated by Hitler at 210 thousand soldiers and 8 thousand officers, and taking into account the prisoners taken in Crete, at 223 thousand people. All of them were soon sent home. Hitler stated in the Reichstag on 4 May 1941 that "all Greek prisoners were released immediately after the surrender, in view of their heroic struggle".
We also tend to accept the number of victims of the Holocaust given by Martin Gilbert. There was indeed a famine in Greece during the winter of 1941/42, greatly facilitated by the British naval blockade. Before the war, Greece did not starve, because it was able to import the necessary amount of food. Therefore, all the victims of the famine must be attributed to the military losses of Greece, but it is very difficult to determine their number. The autumn of 1940 was unusually dry in Greece, the summer of 1940 was extremely hot, and the winter of 1941/42 was unusually cold. All this significantly reduced the yields of basic food crops. Under pressure from the Greek government-in-exile, England eased the blockade in the spring of 1942, allowing food supplies to reach Greece. Turkey and Sweden also provided assistance to Greece. From the summer of 1942, the International Red Cross was able to establish significant food supplies to Greece, including through the supply of Canadian and Argentine grain. But even earlier he provided significant assistance to Greece with the assistance of the Axis powers. In the winter of 1941, at the height of the famine, the IWC distributed 800,000 bowls of free soup and set up 450 feeding centers for 100,000 children over the age of seven and 130 care centers for younger children. According to the Red Cross, from hunger and lack warm clothes about 250 thousand people died. This figure seems to us the closest to the truth, as given by a neutral institution, whose representatives actually worked in Greece during the famine. It should also be taken into account that at the time of the publication of the report, the IWC was not interested in either exaggerating or downplaying the scale of the famine and was not going to blame either the Axis states or the countries of the Anti-Hitler coalition for its occurrence. Of course, we do not know what primary statistics the ICC had and what the method of estimation was. Probably, the accuracy of the number of 250 thousand dead lies within plus or minus 50 thousand people.
We estimate the total number of losses of the armed forces and partisans of Greece, taking the figures of the National Council for Reparations, at 43 thousand people, the number of victims of repressions and deportations to concentration camps by the occupation authorities, taking the total figure of G. Frumkin, but subtracting from it the losses of the partisans , in 100 thousand people, and the number of victims of famine, taking the estimate of the IWC, is 250 thousand people. In total, this gives Greece a loss of 393 thousand people.
From the book The Longest Day. Allied landings in Normandy author Ryan CorneliusLosses For a number of years, the number of human losses of the Allied troops during the first twenty-four hours of the landing was estimated differently in various sources. No source can claim absolute accuracy. In any case, these were estimates: by the very nature
From the book War at Sea. 1939-1945 author Ruge FriedrichEvacuation of Greece On April 21, the main forces of the Greek army capitulated in Epirus to the Germans, with all their courage not being able to resist the mobile and powerful German military formations. The British withdrew in good time and now hurried to their
From the book 100 great football coaches author Malov Vladimir IgorevichCoached the Austrian national team and the clubs of Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Holland, Switzerland, Greece, Romania, Cyprus, Brazil,
From the book When the Second World War began and ended author Parshev Andrey PetrovichHe coached the German clubs Kickers, Werder Bremen, Borussia (Dortmund), Arminia (Bielefeld), Fortuna (Düsseldorf), Bayern (Munich), Kaiserslautern. Since 2001, he has been coaching the Greek national team, a participant in the 2010 World Cup in
From the book The Defeat of the Georgian Invaders near Tskhinvali author Shein Oleg V.Chapter 5. "Only donkeys cannot fight well in the mountains." Civil war in Greece in 1946 - 1949. On the morning of April 6, 1941, the German army invaded Greece. The Germans delivered the main blow in the direction of Thessaloniki, followed by an advance to the Olympus region. Greek
From the book Who fought in numbers, and who - in skill. The monstrous truth about the losses of the USSR in World War II author Sokolov Boris VadimovichLosses Official figures Russian losses 64 people were killed and 323 wounded and shell-shocked. Considering that several thousand fighters were active on both sides, supported by heavy artillery and tanks, the casualty figures are relatively small.
From the book 100 famous wonders of the world author Ermanovskaya Anna EduardovnaLosses of the civilian population and the general losses of the population of Germany in World War II It is very difficult to determine the losses of the civilian German population. For example, the number of deaths as a result of the bombing of Dresden by Allied aircraft in February 1945
From the book World War II author Churchill Winston SpencerLosses of the United States In the period from December 1, 1941 to August 31, 1945, 14,903,213 people served in the American armed forces, including 10,420,000 people in the Army, 3,883,520 people in the Navy and 599 in the Marine Corps 693 people. Losses of the US military in the Second
From the book The main process of mankind. Reporting from the past. Appeal to the future author Zvyagintsev Alexander GrigorievichSwiss casualties 60 Swiss citizens died in the resistance movement in France. R. Overmans estimates the number of Swiss citizens who died in the German armed forces at 300 people. Taking into account the fact that by January 31, 1944, the SS troops still had 584
From the book Yesterday. Part three. New old times author Melnichenko Nikolay TrofimovichFinnish losses In the Soviet-Finnish, or Winter, war in November 1939 - March 1940, the Finnish army lost 18,139 killed, 1,437 died from wounds and diseases, 4,101 missing and 43,557 wounded, surviving, out of 337 thousand people. drafted into the army. Of the 4101 missing 847
From the author's bookSyracuse - the heart of great Greece According to archaeologists, the settlement of Sicily and its islands began in the 9th millennium BC. e. immigrants from Africa. The first inhabitants were called sesiotes. Sesiotes mastered the north-west of Sicily. Traces of their stay were found near the cities
From the author's bookCHAPTER 6 The Decision to Help Greece So far, we have not made any commitment to action in Greece, except for the extensive preparations that we have been continuously making in Egypt, and those negotiations and agreements with Athens, which have already been mentioned.
From the author's bookChapter 13 Complications in Greece After the Allied retreat in April 1941, Greece was occupied by the Axis powers. The collapse of the army and the departure of the king and his government into exile revived the bitter infighting inherent in Greek politics. Both in Greece itself and in the Greek
From the author's bookChapter 18 English Intervention in Greece Before leaving for Italy at the end of August, I asked the Chief of the Imperial General Staff to draw up a detailed plan for an English expedition to Greece in the event that the Germans should fail there. We have given this operation a conventional name
From the author's bookPresentation of evidence by the assistant to the chief prosecutor from the USSR L. N. Smirnov under the section of the charge "Crimes against humanity committed by the Nazis in the occupied territories" Soviet Union, Poland, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Greece" [Transcript
From the author's bookLosses ... In any feast, to the noise and din of the departed, remember; although they are invisible to us, they see us. (I. G.) ... When I was awarded the highest officer rank, my son Seryozha and my friend and brother of my wife, lieutenant colonel of the medical service Ruzhitsky Zhanlis Fedorovich, were most happy about this.
On October 28, 1940, Greece entered World War II. On the territory of Greece on this day began a massive invasion of the Italian army. By the time of the events under consideration, Italy had already managed to occupy Albania, so the Italian troops attacked Greece precisely from Albanian territory. Benito Mussolini claimed the South Balkan territories and considered the entire Adriatic coast and Greece as natural possessions of the Italian Empire.
By the time hostilities began, Greece was clearly losing to Italy militarily. But this did not make the resistance of the Greek army less fierce. In the very first days of the Italo-Greek war, the troops of Italy were opposed by the border units of the Greek army, which were reinforced by five infantry and one cavalry divisions. At this time, the commander-in-chief of the Greek armed forces was General Alexandros Leonidou Papagos (1883-1955). He was already an elderly man of fifty-seven years of age. Papagos had almost forty years of military service behind him. He received his military education at the Belgian Military Academy in Brussels, as well as at the cavalry school in Ypres. In 1906, he began serving in the Greek army as an officer. By the time the First Balkan War began, Papagos was an officer of the General Staff, but in 1917, after the abolition of the monarchy, Papagos, as a man of monarchical convictions, was dismissed from the armed forces. Then he was restored to the service, showed himself well during the Greco-Turkish war in Asia Minor, then was fired again. In 1927, Papagos was again reinstated in military service. By 1934, he had risen to the rank of corps commander, and in 1935-1936. served as Minister of Defense of Greece. In 1936-1940. General Papagos was Chief of the General Staff of the Greek Armed Forces. It was he who exercised direct command of the Greek army during the Italo-Greek war of 1940-1941.
The Italian army that invaded Greek territory operated in Epirus and Western Macedonia. Nevertheless, on the orders of General Papagos, the Greeks put up the most serious resistance to the Italians. The Italian command sent to capture the Pindus ridge, in order to cut off the Greek troops in Epirus from Western Macedonia, the elite 3rd Alpine division "Julia", numbering 11,000 soldiers and officers. She was opposed only by a brigade of the Greek army numbering 2,000 soldiers and officers. The brigade was commanded by Colonel Konstantinos Davakis (1897-1943) - one of the most interesting figures in the Greek armed forces and, moreover, world military science. A native of the Greek village of Kehrianika, Konstantinos Davakis in 1916, at the age of nineteen, graduated from an officer's school and began serving in the Greek army with the rank of junior lieutenant. A little later, he received a higher military education at the Athens Military Academy, and then in France, where he received training as a tank officer.
During the First World War, Davakis served on the Macedonian front, where he was poisoned by gases. The courage of Davakis contributed to his rapid promotion in military service. Already in 1918, at the age of 21 and just two years after graduation from the school, Davakis received the captain's rank. A real military officer, he distinguished himself during the Greco-Turkish war, participating in the Asia Minor campaign of the Greek army. After the battle for the heights of Alpanos, he was awarded the "Gold Distinction for Bravery". In 1922-1937. Davakis continued to serve in the armed forces, combining alternate command of military units and scientific and teaching work. He managed to serve as chief of staff of the 2nd division and 1st army corps, taught at a military school, wrote a number of scientific works on military history and tactics of armored forces. In 1931, Davakis received the rank of lieutenant colonel, but in 1937, only forty years, the promising commander retired. This was facilitated by the deterioration of health due to injuries and wounds received in numerous battles.
Nevertheless, Davakis continued to engage in military science. In particular, he put forward the idea of using tanks to break through the line of defense and then pursue the enemy. According to Davakis, tanks and armored vehicles had a clear advantage in operations against fortified defensive lines and helped the infantry move forward. Modern historians consider the Greek colonel Konstantinos Davakis one of the founders of the concept of using motorized infantry formations.
When in August 1940 it was already clear that fascist Italy would sooner or later launch an attack on Greece, a partial military mobilization was carried out in the country. Forty-three-year-old Davakis was also called up from the reserve (pictured). Remembering his front-line merits, the command appointed the colonel to the post of commander of the 51st Infantry Regiment. Then, for the defense of the Pindus ridge, the Pindskaya brigade was formed, which consisted of several infantry, cavalry and artillery units and subunits. 
The brigade consisted of two infantry battalions transferred from the 51st Infantry Regiment, a cavalry detachment, an artillery battery, and several smaller units. The headquarters of the Pinda brigade was located in the village of Eptahorion. Colonel Konstantinos Davakis was appointed commander of the Pindus brigade. The general command of the border troops concentrated on the border of Greece with Albania was carried out by General Vasilios Vrahnos. After the Italian army began its invasion of Greece on October 28, 1940, it was the frontier troops concentrated in Epirus that first met it.
A much more numerous and well-armed Italian division "Julia" was thrown against the Pinda brigade. Colonel Davakis was responsible for 35 kilometers of front line. He expected more powerful reinforcements from the Greek army, so he switched to defensive tactics. However, two days after the Italian attack, on November 1, 1940, Colonel Davakis, at the head of the brigade's forces, launched a brave counterattack against the Italian troops. The Julia division was forced to retreat. During the next battle near the village of Drosopigi, the colonel was seriously wounded in the chest. When one of the officers ran up to him, Davakis ordered to consider himself dead and not be distracted by his salvation, but to engage in defense. Only when the colonel lost consciousness was he loaded onto a stretcher and transported to Eptakhori, where the headquarters of the Pinda brigade was located. Two days later, Davakis came to his senses, but felt unwell. The officer had to move to the rear. Major Ioannis Karavias replaced him as brigade commander.
The victory of the Pinda Brigade over the Italian division "Julia" was one of the first examples of brilliant actions against the armed forces of the Axis. So little Greece showed the whole world that the descendants of the heroic three hundred Spartans are always ready to fight with those who will encroach on the independence of the country. Military historians are convinced that one of the main reasons for the victory of the Davakis brigade was the tactical error of the Italian division commander. The colonel was able to instantly recognize this error and quickly respond to it. As a result of the actions of Davakis, the units of the Greek army that arrived in time were able not only to repel the onslaught of the Italians, but also to move fighting in neighboring Albania. For fascist Italy, this was a serious blow. In December 1940, the offensive of the Greek army continued. The Greeks occupied the key cities of Epirus - Korchu and Gjirokastra. At the same time, General Papagos expressed fears that sooner or later Nazi Germany would enter the war on the side of Italy. Therefore, he proposed in no case to retreat, but to undertake a further offensive, without giving the Italian troops a moment's rest. Lieutenant General Ioannis Pitsikas, who commanded the Epirus army of the Greek armed forces, proposed to organize an attack on the Klisura crossing, which was of strategic importance.
The operation to seize control of the Klisura crossing began on January 6, 1941. Its development and implementation was led by the headquarters of the 2nd Army Corps, which sent the 1st and 11th Infantry Divisions to the Klisur crossing. Despite the fact that the tanks of the 131st Tank Division "Centaur" went on the offensive from the Italian side, the Greek troops managed to destroy the tanks of the Italians with artillery fire. As a result of four days of fighting, the Greek troops occupied the passage of Klisura. Naturally, the Italians immediately launched a counterattack. The 7th Infantry Division "Wolves of Tuscany" and the Alpinist Brigade "Julia" were thrown into the Greek positions. They were opposed by only four Greek battalions, but the Italians were again defeated. On January 11, the division "Wolves of Tuscany" was completely defeated, after which the passage of Klisura was completely under the control of the Greek troops. The capture of the Klisura Gorge was another impressive victory for the Greek army in this war. The Greeks continued the offensive, which was stopped only on January 25 - and then because of the worsening weather. Nevertheless, winter in the mountains turns out to be a serious obstacle even for the most brave warriors.
The Italian command did not want to put up with the defeats from the Greek army that were included in the system. Moreover, this dealt a severe blow to the pride of Benito Mussolini himself, who fancied himself a great conqueror. In March 1941, the Italian army again launched a counteroffensive, trying to return the positions captured by the Greek troops. This time, the course of hostilities was observed by Benito Mussolini himself, who hastily arrived in the Albanian capital of Tirana. But the presence of the Duce did not help the Italian troops. The Italian spring offensive, under which name this operation entered the world military history, after a week of fighting ended in a new complete defeat of the Italian troops. During the Italian spring offensive, a new example of the heroism of the Greek soldiers was the feat of the ΙΙ / 5 infantry battalion, which defended Hill 731 in Albania. The battalion was commanded by Major Dimitrios Kaslas (1901-1966). Kaslas was a typical example of a native of the lower classes - a peasant son who worked in his youth in a bakery and graduated from evening school, he entered military service, at the age of 23 he passed the exams for the officer rank and became a junior lieutenant. However, promotion was difficult and in 1940, by the time the war began, Kaslas was still a captain and only then was promoted to major for distinction in battles. Despite the fact that the Italian troops attacked the hill 18 times, they were invariably defeated and retreated back. V world history the battle at the 731st height entered as "New Thermopylae".
The complete failure of the Italian spring offensive confused all the cards of the leadership of the Axis. Adolf Hitler was forced to come to the aid of an ally. On April 6, 1941, German troops launched an attack on Greek territory from Bulgaria. They managed to get through the southern Yugoslav lands to the rear of the Greek troops who fought in Albania against the Italians. On April 20, 1941, Lieutenant General Georgios Tsolakoglou, who commanded the Western Macedonian Army, signed the act of surrender, although this was a direct violation of the order of the Greek commander-in-chief Papagos. After the surrender, the German-Italian-Bulgarian occupation of Greece began. But even under the conditions of occupation, the Greek patriots continued the armed struggle against the invaders. Most of the officers and soldiers of the Greek army never went over to the side of the collaborators.
The fates of the main participants in the Italo-Greek war developed differently. The most tragic was the fate of a real hero - Colonel Konstantinos Davakis. While Konstantinos Davakis was being treated in the hospital from his wound, the troops arrived in time to help the Italian army, which was suffering more and more defeats from the Greek troops. Nazi Germany. The superior forces of the enemy managed to occupy Greece, although the partisan resistance of the Greek patriots continued until the end of World War II. The occupiers began mass purges. First of all, all potentially unreliable elements were arrested, including patriotic officers and former officers of the Greek army. Of course, among those arrested was Colonel Davakis. In the city of Patras, the prisoners were loaded onto the steamer "Chita di Genova" and were going to be sent to Italy, where the officers were supposed to be placed in a concentration camp. But on the way to the Apennines, the ship was torpedoed by a British submarine, after which it sank off the coast of Albania. Near the city of Avlona (Vlora), the corpse of Konstantinos Davakis was thrown into the sea. The dead colonel was identified by the local Greeks, who buried him nearby. After the war, the body of Konstantinos Davakis was honorably reburied in Athens - the colonel is still honored as one of the most prominent national heroes of Greece during the Second World War.
The hero of New Thermopylae, Major Dimitrios Kaslas (pictured), survived and became involved in the Greek Resistance. Initially, he served in the pro-English forces of EDES, but then he was captured by the communists from ELAS and went over to their side. He commanded the 52nd ELAS Infantry Regiment and participated in the battles against the invaders. After the war, from 1945 to 1948, he was in exile - as a member of ELAS, but then was amnestied and retired from the Greek army with the rank of lieutenant colonel - as recognition of his front-line merits. Kaslas died in 1966.
General Alexandros Papagos in 1949 received the rank of stratarch - the Greek analogue of the marshal rank, and until 1951 he was the commander-in-chief of the Greek army, and from 1952 to 1955. served as prime minister of Greece. General Ioannis Pitsikas was captured by the Nazis and sent to a concentration camp. In 1945, he was liberated from Dachau by American troops who came to the rescue. After his release, he retired with the rank of lieutenant general, some time later he was the mayor of Athens and the Minister for Northern Greece, and died in 1975 at the age of 94. After the liberation of Greece from the Nazis, the collaborator General Tsolakoglou was sentenced to death by a Greek court. Then the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, but already in 1948 Tsolakoglu died in prison from leukemia.