THE CHETNIKS

Chetniks pose with German soldiers

 A German military officer converses with Kosta Pecanac (the pre-war president of the Chetniks) and Dazafer Deva (a collaborator from Kosovo) in Podvjevo.

 Pećanac Chetniks. The Pećanac Chetniks, also known as the Black Chetniks were a Chetnik irregular military force which operated in the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia under the leadership of vojvoda Kosta Pećanac. They were loyal to the German-backed Serbian puppet government and fought against Yugoslav Partisans and the Chetniks of Draža Mihailović from 1941 to 1943.

From the beginning Tito's claim to lead Yugoslav resistance was challenged by Col. Dragoljub ('Draza') Mihailović, who formed in mid-I941 his mainly Serbian 'Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army' ('chetnik' is the traditional Serbian name for guerilla) on Ravna Gora Mountain in Western Serbia, although until March 1943 Kosta Pecanać controlled 8,000 rival Chetniks in Macedonia. Mihailović's Chetniks had mobile (active) and territorial companies, formed into battalions and brigades led by civilians styled 'chieftain' (vojvoda) or by Army officers. Some 10,000 Chetniks fought alongside the Partisans in July 1941, and by 1943 there were 30,000 mobile troops. After November 1941 Partisan-Chetnik cooperation deteriorated into armed hostility; for Mihailović, now Minister of War to the Yugoslav government-in-exile, and receiving Allied aid, saw in Tito a deadly rival, and Communism as anathema to his Serbian' nationalism. After January 1943 his troops were re-designated 'Yugoslav Army of the Homeland', fighting Germans, Italians, Croats and Partisans alike.

Throughout 1942 Chetnik fortunes steadily improved. In January 1943 they were re-organised, and based on a three-man 'trojka' cell. Between 15 and 30 Trojke formed a company, three companies a battalion, three battalions a brigade, three to five brigades a 'corps', named after a local river or mountain and often only 2,500 strong. Troops were under ten Area Commands-Serbia (Corps I to 37); Stari Ras (38 and 39); Montenegro-Sandjak (40 to 45); cast Bosnia-Herzegovina (46 to 54); Western Bosnia (55 to 57); Dalmatia & Coast (58 to 63); Slovenia-Istria (64 to 67): Southern Serbia (i.e. Macedonia) (68); Backa-Baranja; Srem. Mobile forces were extracted from these units and designated 'Flying Brigades' and 'Shock Corps'.

With early 1943 came disaster. The Chetniks were badly mauled by Tito at the Neretva River, and retreated from Bosnia and Montenegro into Serbia to defend the Chetnik heartland. Meanwhile Allied aid was switched to the Partisans, whom King Petar now recognised. In March 1944 Mihailović re-formed his corps into 'Groups of Corps' 1 to 12, and 'Groups of Shock Corps'. The elite 4th Group of Shock Corps, with 9,000 men, defended South-West Serbia, but after initial success was forced back. The arrival of Soviet troops compelled a dispirited Mihailović, now totally isolated, to retreat in October with his depleted forces to take refuge in the Bosnian mountains. His hostility to the Partisans had led his movement along a dangerous path, beginning with a simple disagreement over immediate objectives, but leading in many cases to outright collaboration with Axis forces against the Partisans. This had robbed the Chetniks of their credibility, both at home and with the Allies.

21st "Waffen-Gebirgs Division der SS" - the Skanderbeg

Karl von Krempler

The historical and political precedents for the creation of a greater Sqiperia or Greater Albania was set during World War II when the Kosovo and Metohija regions along with territory Southwest of lake Skutari from Montenegro and the western region of Southern Serbia, or Juzna Srbija (now part of Macedonija), were annexed to Albania by the Axis powers led by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, under a plan devised by Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler to dismember and to destroy the Serbian Nation and people, which the Germans and Italians perceived as the main threat to the axis powers and to the Third Reich in the Balkan.

On April 7, 1939, Italian troops invaded and occupied Albania forcing the Albanian ruler King Zog I Ahmed Bey Zogu, to flee to Greece. Italy formally annexed into the Kingdom of Italy under the Italian king Victor Immanuel and established a military government and viceroy. The Italian began a program to colonize the country when thousands of settlers immigrated to Albania. An Albanian Fascist Party was established with Albanian Black skirts based on Italian models. The Albanian Army consisted of three infantry brigades of 12 000 men.

On October 28 1940, Italy invaded Greece from Albania with 10 Italian divisions and the Albanian Army but were driven back.

Germany sought to assist the Italian-Albanian offensive by operation Alpine Violet, a plan to move a corps of tree German mountain divisions to Albania by air and sea. Instead German built up a heavy concentration of the German Twelfth Army on the northwest Greek Border with Bulgaria, from where the German invasion was launched.

On April 6, 1941, Nazi Germany and the axis powers invaded Yugoslavia, Operation Punishment, and Greece forcing the capitulation of Yugoslavia on the 17th, and Greece on the 23rd. Yugoslavia was subsequently occupied and dismembered. The Axis powers established a greater Albania or greater Shqiperia at the expense of Serbia and Montenegro. Territory from Montenegro was annexed to Greater Albania. From Serbia, the Kosovo and Metohija were ceded to greater Albania, along with the western part of Southern Serbia (Juzna Srbija), now part of Macedonia, an area which was part of Stara Srbija (Ancient Old Serbia). This Kosovo-metohija region and the surrounding territory annexed to Greater Albania was called "New Albania".

To create an ethnically pure Shqiptar Kosovo, which Albanian called "Kosova", the Shqiptari (Albanians) launched a wide scale campaigns of ethnic cleansing and genocide. Ethnic Serbs in the Kosovo-Metohija regions were massacred, and their homes were burned, and survivors were brutally driven out and expelled in policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide.

The Balli Kombetar (BK or National Union) was an Albanian nationalist group led by Midhat Fresheri and Ali Klissura whose political objective was to in incorporate Kosovo-Metohija into a Greater Albania and to ethnically cleanse the region of Orthodox Serbs

The Abanian Committee of Kosovo organized massive campaigns of ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Orthodox Serbian inhabitants of Kosovo- Metohuja. A contemporary report described the ethnic cleansing and genocide of Serbs as follows:

Armed with material supplied by the Italians, the Albanians hurled themselves against helpless settlers in their homes and villages. According to the most reliable sources, the Albanian burned many Serbian settlements, killing some of the people and driving out others who escaped to the mountains. At present other Serbian settlement are being attacked and the property of individuals and of communities is either being confiscated or destroyed. It is not possible to ascertain at the present time the exact number of victims of those atrocities, but it may be estimated that at least between 30.000 and 40.000 perished.

Bedri Pejani, the Muslim leader of the Albanian National committee, called for the extermination of Ortodox Serbian Christians in Kosovo Metohija and for a union of a Greater Albania with Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Rashka (Sandzak) region of Serbia, into a great Islamic state. The grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin El Husseini was presented to Pejani a plan which he approved as a being in the interest of Islam. The Germans however rejected the plan.

On September 3, 1943, Italy capitulated by signing an armistice with the Allies. The German were now forced to occupy Albania with the collapse of the Italian forces. The Germans sent the 100th Jaeger Division from Greece and the 297th Infantry Division from Serbia and the German 1st Mountain Division to occupy Albania. These troops were organized into the XXI Mountain Corps which was under the command of General Paul Bader.

Additional security forces for the interior were needed, however, to free up Germans troops for defense of the coastline. The decision was made to form an Albanian SS mountain division for this purpose. In April in 1944, recruitment for the Albanian SS division began under direction of the newly formed Albanian Nazi party, which has been formed through the efforts of Ernst Kaltenbrunner. Acting upon instructions of Reichsfuehrer SS Henrich Himmler, the SS main office ordered the formation of an Albanian volunteer mountain division on April 17, 1944. SS Brigadefuehrern and Generalmajor of the Waffen SS Josef Fitzhum, who headed the Higher SS and Police Command in Albania, oversaw the forming and training of the division.

The SS high Command planned to create a mountain division of 10.000 men. The Higher SS and Police Command in Albania, in conduction with the Albanian National Committee, listed 11.398 possible recruits for the Waffen SS mountain division. Most of these recruits were "kossovars", shqiptar Ghegs from Kosovo Metohija in Serbia. The Shqiptar Tosks were found mainly in southern Albania. Most of the Shqiptar collaborators with the Nazi forces were the Nazi forces were the so-called Kossovars, ethnic Shqiptars from the Kosmet of Serbia. The Nazi German-sponsored Albanian gendarmes, special police and para-military units were made up by Kossovars. The Kossovars were under the direct control of the Albanian Interior Minister Xhafer Deva.

The Skanderbeg Division was formed and trained in Kosovo and was made up mostly of Muslim Shqiptar Kossovars. There were only a small number of Albanians from Albania proper in the division. The Skanderbeg Mountain Division of the Waffen SS was thus essentially a Kosovo or Kosmet Division. The Division was stationed and operated in Kosovo and other Serbian regions almost exclusively.

Of the 11.398 recruits listed for the Division, 9.275 were ascertained to be suitable to draft in the Waffen SS. Of those suitable to be drafted, 6.491 Albanian were chosen and inducted into the Skanderbeg Division. To this Albanian core were added veteran German troops primarily Reichdeutsche from Austria and Volkdeutcshe officers, NCOs, and enlisted men, transferred from the 7th SS Mountain Division "Prinz Eugen" which was stationed in Bosnia-Hercegovina. The Kosovo Albanian 21st Waffen Gebirgs Division der SS "Skanderbeg" consisted in total of 8.500 - 9.000 men of all ranks. The 6.491 Shqiptar recruits were assembled at depots in Kosovo where the formation and the training of the division began.

The official designation for the division was 21 Waffen Gebirgs Division der SS "Skanderbeg" (Albanische Nr 1). The SS Main Office designed a distinctive arm patch for the division, consisting of a black double-headed eagle on a red background, the national symbol of Albania. The word "Skanderbeg", embroidered in white, appeared above the eagle and was warn on the left sleeve. The right collar patch consisted of a helmet with a goat's head on top, the helmet supposedly worn by George Kastrioti Skanderbeg, after whom the division was named. The Shqiptars recruits in the division wore a white skullcap, the national attire of the Shqiptar Ghegs. The SS main office also issued gray skullcaps with the Totenkopf (death's head) insignia sewn on the front below the Hoheitszeichen (the national symbol of Nazi Germany, consisting of a white eagle over a Nazi swastika).

Division was named after George Kastrioti, or Gjergj Kastriota, also as Kastriotis (1405-1468), national hero of Albania, who fought for the Ottoman Turks. As a child, Kastrioti was given as a hostage to Sultan Murat II to be brought as a Muslim at Adrianople (Edrine). Kastrioti became an officer in the Ottoman Turkish army and led the Turkish forces in many victories over Christian troops. Murat II was impressed with his valor and bravery in his battle for Islam and gave him the name Iskander Bey in Turkish, from "Iskander", Aleksander the Great, or prince Aleksander, and "bey", master. The name was shortened to Skanderbeg, beg being the local variant of bey. Later Kastrioti renounced Islam and converted to Christianity and attacked his former Ottoman Turkish masters. He captured the Albanian capital Kroja from the Turkish governor and proclaimed a revolt against the Turks in 1442. Sultan Mohammed II sent Turkish armies to defeat the renegade Kastrioti, but he was able to defeat Turkish forces, which besieged Kroja but could not capture it. Kastrioti died in 1468. Kroja surrendered in 1479 and the Turks occupied Albania.

The Albanians in the Skanderbeg Division were mostly Muslims, of the Bektashi and Sunni sects of Islam. The division contained several hundred Albanian Catholics, followers of Jon Marko Joni.

The first commander of the Skanderbeg division was SS Brigadefuehrer Generalmajor of the Waffen SS Josef Fitshum, who commanded the division from April to June 1944. After the Juli 20, assassination plot against Hitler, Fitzhum was appointed supreme commander in Albania. In June, SS Stardentenfuehrer August Schmidhuber was appointed division commander, a post would hold until August 1944. On June 21, 1944, Schmidhuber was promoted to SS Oberfuehrer and later in the war, he would be promoted to SS Brigadefuhrer. SS Oberstrumbannfuhrer Alfred Graf commanded the reorganized remnants of the Skanderbeg Division from August 1944, to may, 1945.

The Shultzstaffel or SS was created in the period 1923-1925 and was initially known as the Stosstrupp (Shock troop) "Adolf Hitler". On January 16, 1929, Hitler appointed Heinrich Himmler leader of SS, Reichsfuehrer SS. The SS was envisioned as an elite troop of the Party, a praetorian bodyguard to Hitler and the Nazi leadership. The SS was a formation "composed of the best physically, the most dependable, and the most faithful men in the Nazi movement. In 1940, combat units of the SS were formed, collectively termed the Waffen SS. Approximately 30-40 Waffen SS divisions were formed during the war, divided into three groupings, Waffen divisions made by Germans, those made up of ethnic Germans outside the Reich, and those made up of non-Germans. "Divisions der SS", Divisions of the SS.

On September 27,1939, Reichsfuehrer SS Heinrich Himmler as Chief of German Police consolidated the Gestapo, Kripo, and SD under an SS Main Office of Reich Security, or the RSHA. The RSHA was the actual body entrusted with the overall administration of the final solution at the Jewish Problem, what became known as the Holocaust. The SS Economic and administrative Main Office or WVHA, run the concentration camp system. Nazi concentration camp personnel and guards, although not under the command of the Army or the Kommandoamt der Waffen SS, nevertheless, wore Waffen SS uniforms and received Waffen SS pay books. Reichfuehrer SS Heinrich Himmler oversaw a program that resulted in the extermination of millions of men, women and children. Himmler was the Architect of genocide and of the Holocaust and the Waffen SS was his "private army", the black angels".

In Jun,1944, The Skanderbeg Waffen SS Mountain Division engaged in large-scale field manoeuvres in the area between the towns of Berane and Adrijevica in Monte Negro (Crna Gora). Garrisons of Skanderbeg division were established in Kosovo towns of Pec, Jakova, Prizren, and Pristina. Further training of the division continued in August as new recruits were inducted in the division. An artillery battalion of the division, consisting of two batteries, was located in Gnjilane.

The first major action of the division occurred in August, 144 in Kosovo. In September, 1944, the Skanderbeg division occupied the Southern Serbia (Juzna Srbija) region now part of the communist created republic of Macedonia, and helped to garrison the region. The Skanderbeg division was ordered into the areas surrounding the towns Skoplje (or Skopje), Kumanovo Presevo and Bujanovac. Sanderbeg operated in Stara Serbija (old and Ancient Serbia) region, in the towns of Pec, Gnjilane,Djakovica, Tetovo Gostivar, and Kosovska Mitrovica, then part of Kosovo Metohija and Southern Serbia.

In November, 1944, when the German armies in the Balkan were retreating from Yugoslavia and the Balkans, the Skanderbeg division remnants were reorganized into Regimentegruppe 21 SS Gebirgs "Skanderbeg" and was transferred to Skoplje, according to one account of the movements of the Battle group. This SS Kampfgruppe "Skanderbeg", along with the Prinz Eugen Division, defended the Vardar valley. The battle group "Skanderbeg" and Prinz Eugen held the Vardar area because it was the sole corridor of escape for the retreating German armies in Alexander Loehr's Army Group E, which was retreating from Greece and Aegean Islands.

The Skanderbeg Battle Group along with the Prinz Eugen Division retreated to the to the Brcko region of Bosnia-Herzegovina by mid-January 1945. At this time the remaining Skanderbeg personnel were incorporated into the 14th SS Volunteer Mountain Infantry Regiment of the 7th SS division Prinz Eugen. The remnants of the Skanderbeg Division fought in this formation until the end of the war, retreating to Austria in May, 1945.

The Skanderbeg division engaged in a policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Serbian Orthodox Christian populations of the regions under occupation by the division in Kosovo Metohija, Montenegro, and southern Serbia. Balkan Historian Robert Lee Wolff, in the "Balkans in Our time", described the genocide committed against Kosovo Serbs by the Shqiptar 21st Waffen Gebirgs Division der SS Skenderbeg as follows:

In the regions annexed by the Albanians, their so-called Skanderbeg division, made up of members of the Albanian minority in Yugoslavia, massacred Serbs with impunity.

Historian L.H. Stavrianos, in "The Balkan Since 1453", described the genocide committed against Orthodox Serbs by the Shqiptar Skanderbeg Division in these terms: Yugoslav Albanians, organized in their fascist Skanderbeg Division, conducted an indiscriminate massacre of Serbians.

The Skanderbeg Division played a role in the Holocaust, the genocide if European Jewry, by rounding up scores of Kosovo Jews in a group roughly 500 persons deemed enemies of the Third Reich when the division occupied Prizren in Kosovo Metohija. The division sought to create ethnically pure Kosovo, ethnically cleansed of Orthodox Serbs, Jews and Gypsies the untermenschen (subhuman), who were targeted for extermination.

The Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal declared the Shutzstaffel or SS criminal organization and every individual member of SS was found to be a war criminal guilty of "planning and carrying out crimes against humanity". The Shqiptar Kosovars in the 21st Waffen Gebirgs Division "Skanderbeg" committed war crimes and genocide against the Orthodox Serbian population of Kosovo. The Shqiptar planned and carried out crimes against humanity in Kosovo. Orthodox Serbians of Kosovo were the victims of ethnic cleansing and genocide. This genocide would contribute in the Shqiptar goal and policy to create an ethnically pure, Shqiptar Kosovo, in an attempt to create a greater Shqiperia or greater Albania. Following World war II, the Yugoslav Communist dictatorship allowed the policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Orthodox Serbs to continue, and indeed, gave greater impetus and legitimacy to the policy.

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During World War II, the Axis powers dismembered and occupied Yugoslavia and created a greater Albania by annexing the Serbian region of Kosovo-Metohija by Nazi Germany, Germany formed a Shqiptar "Kosovar" Waffen SS Division, the 21st Waffen Gebirgs Division der SS "Skanderbeg" which engaged in a policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Orthodox Serbian population of Kosovo. The result was that the Shqiptars, with the help of Germany, were able to virtually exterminate the Serbian and Jews populations of Kosovo, thereby creating an ethnically pure, Nazi German-sponsored Greater Albania or Greater Shqiperia.

21st Waffen SS Mountain Division "Skanderberg" (1st Albanian): Formed on 5/1/44 in northern Albania from Islamic Albanians.

The division had:

1/,2/,3/50th SS Mountain Jäger Regiment (1st Albanian)

1/,2/,3/51st SS Mountain Jäger Regiment (2nd Albanian)

21st SS Reconnaissance Battalion (4 cos)

21st SS Freiwilligen Panzerjäger Battalion (3 cos)

1/,2/,3/,4/21st SS Mountain Artillery Regiment (from 1st Albanian Artillery Regiment)

21st SS Freiwilligen Pioneer Battalion (3 cos)

21st SS Feldersatz Battalion 21st SS Freiwilligen Signals Battalion (3 cos)

21st SS Mountain Supply Troop The division was disbanded at the end of 1944.

LINK

GREECE CAMPAIGN (28 OCTOBER 1940–MARCH 1941)

In April 1939, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini ordered the Italian army to invade Albania to secure control of the Adriatic Sea. On taking over Albania, Italy began a major engineering project there to improve roads to the Greek border. This was accompanied by assurances from Rome to Athens that Italy would not attack Greece. Simultaneously, on 13 April, Britain and France extended guarantees to both Greece and Romania to preserve their integrity.

In spite of assurances to the Greek government, Italy was indeed planning an invasion. Code-named CASE G, the plan for an attack on Greece received major impetus from foreign minister (and Mussolini’s son-in-law) Galeazzo Ciano, who was much involved in Albanian affairs and sponsored this operation to expand his influence over Greece as well. Mussolini also resented Adolf Hitler’s decision to send German troops to Romania to protect the Ploesti oil fields, a move destroying Italian influence in Romania. Mussolini was determined to redress the Balkan balance.

On 15 October 1940, Mussolini met in Rome with his military leaders, including chief of General Staff Marshal Pietro Badoglio and deputy chief of the army staff General Mario Roatta, to discuss the attack on Greece. Also present was General Sebastiano Visconti-Prasca, commander of the Eleventh Army in Albania and author of the invasion plan, a much shrunk CASEG. Although questions were raised during the meeting, none of those present seriously opposed the decision to begin the invasion in a few days. At this time, Mussolini wrote to Hitler seeking advice and informing him of his intentions; but by delaying sending this letter, Mussolini hoped to surprise his ally, just as Hitler had surprised him with his timing of the invasion of France. Hitler, who had accurate information about Italian intentions, made no effort to restrain his ally.

Before dawn on 28 October 1940, the Italian ambassador in Athens presented an ultimatum to Greek prime minister and dictator General Ioannis Metaxas, accusing Greece of allowing British ships to use Italy’s territorial waters and demanding free passage of Italian troops on Greek soil. Athens rejected the ultimatum, and at 5:30 A.M. that same day, Italy began its invasion.

For the invasion, the Italians had deployed in Albania six infantry divisions (two regiments each, reinforced with a lightly armed Blackshirt Legion, with a total of 12,500 to 14,500 men in each division). These were the Siena, Ferrara, Piemonte, Parma, Venezia, and Arezzo Divisions. In addition, the Italians had the Centauro Armored Division and the Julia Alpine Division. In all, the army deployed some 150,000 men—giving them only a slight numerical superiority over the Greek army before mobilization, instead of the 2:1 advantage that Visconti-Prasca claimed.

The weather was poor, with torrential fall rains. The main body of the Italian troops, consisting of the Ferrara, Centauro, and Siena Divisions, advanced near the Adriatic coast where the terrain was more favorable, trying to push across the Kalamas River and reach Janina. The Julia Division attacked toward Metsovon Pass to penetrate between Epirus and Macedonia. To the extreme Italian left, the Parma and Piemonte Divisions were on the defensive at Korcë.

In defense along the Albanian border, the Greeks had deployed four infantry divisions of three regiments each. These resisted the invaders while King George II of Greece appealed to Britain for assistance. His request won friendly reception from British Prime Minister Winston L. S. Churchill. Although Metaxas, not wanting to offend Hitler, requested only weapons and equipment, Churchill favored sending an expeditionary force. In any case, London immediately dispatched five Royal Air Force (RAF) squadrons and an interservice mission.

On 31 October, British forces arrived on the islands of Crete and Lemnos, placing British bombers within range of the Romanian Ploesti oil fields. In response, on 4 November, Hitler ordered his Army High Command to begin preparations for a German attack on Greece.

The same day that the Italian invasion began, on 28 October, Mussolini met with Hitler in Florence and proudly informed him of the event. Mussolini’s triumph was short-lived, however, as the Greek army, commanded by General Alexandros Papagos, offered stiff resistance. Indeed, by the end of the month, the Italian offensive had ground to a halt. The Greeks mobilized reserves for a total force of 18 divisions, with French-supplied artillery superior to that of the Italians. They were, however, inferior in air assets. By 1 November, the Greeks had launched a series of counterattacks that stopped the Italians on the Kalamas River. The Italians made no progress on the Epirus Front, whereas the Julia Division arrived at the Metsovon Pass only to be counterattacked and cut off as the Greeks advanced toward to the Korcë basin, there overrunning the Parma and Piemonte Divisions. The Italian High Command ordered the Venezia and Arezzo Infantry Divisions, deployed on the Yugoslavian border, to reinforce the front. On their arrival, though, they were obliged to retreat in chaos before a spirited Greek advance that aimed to cut the road from Korcë to Perati and envelop the invaders turned defenders. The only possible option for the Italians was to withdraw their entire line into Albania. This took place on 8 November, a bleak time for the Italian army in the campaign. The following day, Italian commander General Visconti-Prasca was replaced by deputy chief of the Italian High Command General Ubaldo Soddu, who then formed the Italian forces into the Albanian Army Group.

Although Mussolini boasted on 19 November that he would “break Greece’s back,” a day later he received a sharply critical letter from Hitler. It criticized Mussolini’s move, which had opened a new front that allowed the British to operate in the Balkans. The Germans were already preparing Operation BARBAROSSA, an invasion of the Soviet Union, and for security reasons did not wish to disclose their plans to the Italians.

As a consequence of the Italian failure, Marshal Badoglio came under fire, and on 26 November he and other military leaders were forced to resign. On 4 December, general of the army Ugo Cavallero replaced him. Cavallero demanded more power for the chief of General Staff and directly helped to facilitate the crisis on the Albanian Front. Cavallero would shortly take over command of the Albanian Army Group from Soddu, who retired in disgrace.

In early December, the Italian retreat from Greece back into Albania continued, forcing Mussolini to seek assistance from Hitler. The Italian “parallel war” now came to an end, along with the illusion that Italy was a great power. With the help of German transport aircraft, the Italians flew in reinforcements and shipped equipment to Valona, but this caused great confusion; units that had hurried to the front quickly disintegrated under Greek pressure and the effects of the winter weather. Moreover, it was difficult for the Italians to transport supplies to the front lines, as all had to be shipped from Italy, and there were not enough pack mules. To make things worse, on 9 December British Commonwealth units under Lieutenant General Archibald Wavell launched a successful offensive in North Africa that overran the more numerous Italian troops. By 6 January 1941, the British had seized the Libyan border town of Bardia.

The British now faced the strategic problem of having to choose between exploitation of their North African successes and stiffening Greek resistance. On 6 January 1941, Churchill told the chiefs of staff that it would be better to delay exploiting the situation in North Africa in order help Greece seize the port of Valona and avoid military defeat. Churchill therefore informed Wavell that Tobruk would be taken, but follow-up operations would depend on the situation in Greece, which would be the priority. This was also partly because intelligence revealed that German forces were concentrating for a possible offensive in the Balkans. Apparently, the Greeks did not need much outside assistance, as they attacked Klisura and forced the Italians to abandon it. At that point, the Greek drive died, meeting stiffening Italian resistance, which successfully defended Berat and therefore Valona, but at a high price.

On 19 January 1941, Mussolini met Hitler and asked him for assistance to check the British Commonwealth advance in North Africa. Mussolini did not, however, request any help in the Greek theater of operations. Meanwhile, for propaganda purposes, Mussolini demanded that senior Fascist Party leaders join Italian troops at the front. Thus Foreign Minister Ciano took command of a bomber group, and ideologue Bruno Bottai joined an Alpini battalion.

A British military mission arrived in Athens on 22 February to study the situation and propose shipment by sea of an expeditionary corps to Greece. The following day, the Greeks accepted the offer, whereon Britain dispatched some of its best North African forces to Greece: 60,000 men with 240 field artillery pieces, 32 medium artillery guns, 192 antiaircraft guns, and 142 tanks under Lieutenant General Henry Maitland Wilson. In addition, under German pressure, Bulgaria signed the Tripartite Pact on 1 March, and German army units began to flow in force into Bulgaria to deploy for the future campaign. A few days later, the first British convoy to Greece sailed from Alexandria, and by 7 March, British troops began to disembark at Piraeus.

The Italians tried to force the situation in order to avoid the impression that they had been “saved” by the Germans. In March, General Cavallero launched 27 divisions in an offensive to reach Klisura. It failed and cost 12,000 Italian casualties. On 28 March, in an effort to check the British convoys bringing military aid to Greece, the Italian navy suffered an important naval defeat at the Battle of Matapan.

Meanwhile, on 25 March under heavy pressure, Yugoslavia adhered to the Tripartite Pact. But on the night of 26–27 March, a military coup d’état forced Prince Regent Paul into exile and General Dušan Simović formed a new government. This event prompted German military intervention. On 6 April, with Italian and Hungarian assistance, German forces invaded both Yugoslavia and Greece.

During the Italo-Greek War of October 1940–April 1941, the Greek army suffered 13,408 killed and 42,485 wounded. The Italians lost 13,775 dead, 50,874 wounded, and 25,067 missing. In addition, the campaign cost Italy reinforcements to North Africa, especially in equipment, which went instead to Albania. Thus, the British successes in North Africa in large part resulted from the Italian invasion of Greece.

References

Bitzes, John G. Greece in World War II to April 1941. Manhattan, KS: Sunflower University Press, 1982.

Cervi, Mario. The Hollow Legions: Mussolini’s Blunder in Greece, 1940–1941. Trans. Eric Mosbacher. New York: Doubleday, 1971.

Knox, MacGregor. Mussolini Unleashed, 1939–1941. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1981.

Montanari, Mario. L’Esercito Italiano nella Campagna di Grecia. 2^nd ed. Rome: Ufficio Storico, 1991.