the greco italian war 1940

The Greco-Italian War, sometimes called the Italo-

Greek War, was a conflict between Italy and Greece, which lasted from 28 October 1940 to 23 April 1941.

By the middle of 1940, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini had grown jealous of Adolf Hitler's conquests and wanted to prove to his Axis partner that he could lead Italy to similar military successes.

Italy had occupied Albania in the spring of

1939 and several British strongholds in

Africa, such as the Italian conquest of

British Somaliland in the summer of 1940,

but could not boast of victories on the same

scale as Nazi Germany.

At the same time, Mussolini wanted to

reassert Italy's interests in the Balkans, feeling threatened by

Germany and secure bases from which

British outposts in the eastern

Mediterranean could be attacked.

On 28 October 1940, after Greek dictator Ioannis Metaxas rejected an Italian

ultimatum demanding the occupation of Greek territory, Italian forces invaded

Greece. The Greek army counterattacked and forced the Italians to retreat.

By mid-December, the Greeks occupied

nearly a quarter of Albania, tying down

530,000 Italian troops. In March

1941, a major Italian counterattack failed,

humiliating Italian military pretensions.

On 6 April 1941, coming to the aid of Italy, Nazi Germany invaded Greece through

Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. On 12 April, the Greek army began retreating from

Albania to avoid being cut off by the rapid German advance. On 20 April, the Greek

army of Epirus surrendered to the Germans and on 23 April 1941, the

armistice was repeated, including the Italians, effectively ending the Greco-

Italian war.

The Greek victory over the initial Italian offensive of October 1940 was

the first Allied land victory of the Second World War and helped raise

morale in occupied Europe.

Some historians, such as John Keegan, argue that it may have influenced the course of

the entire war by forcing Germany to postpone the invasion of the Soviet Union in

order to assist Italy against Greece.

The delay meant that the German forces invading the Soviet Union had not

attained their objectives for that year before the harsh Russian winter, leading to their defeat at the Battle of Moscow.