Operations in Greece

General discuss about military operations in Greece during WW2

 

I would be interested in finding out more about the German pull-out from Greece. Athens was free by December 1944 and 'secure' enough that Churchill felt able to visit to defuse the growing (un)civil war between the Communist and Royalist? guerilla groups but I have never read anything about the timescale of the Axis withdrawal

Tom

 

Firstly, there was no Royalist army after the release of Greece. There were the communists of course but the others were not king-friendly, just democratists much like republicans. The civil war was a battle for the governance of Greece. The communists were likely the most traitorous of all during the German occupation; they ruffianed(I don't know the exact word, hope you understand me) every one who dared oppose their beliefs and vie for power. When the Germans left Greece they left behind valuable equipment (armaments, food etc) in order to help the communist uprise, knowing that this would inflict much damge to the western influence in Greece and therefore Greek restoration.

 

Greece.

The 1st. Kings Dragoon Guards sailed from Taranto in Italy in December 1944 to Greece. (D Day Dodgers ride again!!) at the request of the Greek Government. They were in action against the Rebels' finally leaving from Athens in April 1945.Members of the Regiment were awarded a medal by the Greek Government, I post for your interest a photo of medal and scroll awarded to my late friend and comrade Cpl.Walter Haywood.
For early WW2 action in Greece I recommend the book, 'Taming the Panzers' by Patric Delaforce, the history of 3RTR.

 

Was there any fighting against German troops to liberate Greece?

I must admit my knowledge about this particular campaign is mostly non-existent...

 

There was an enormous series of operations commited by Greek resistance against German occupation. There were also many Germans who helped the Greeks to do this! Greek resistance blowed up many bridges, sabotaged many convoys, undermined many German operations during the occupation! I personaly think (listening to stories from the elder) that the most active resistance during WW2 was the Greek one!

 

Are you sure? My Turk/Greek grandfather told me that most of Greece was under occupation of the Italians, and that they were very laid back with their daily siesta's and all... The impression i got was that Greek resistance didnt really fight so much because the lazy Italians didnt really care about subjugation. He didnt' really have a problem with Italian rule. The Germans however were hard taskmasters and I get the feeling that the Greeks did not appreciate their company at all but they never had that large a presence in Greece, it was mostly Italy. He was in Rhodos.

 

Basically the bigger part of Greece was occupied by German forces! :-?
The islands truly were mostly occupied by Italians, but only the smaller ones. It is a fact that the Italians were less aggresive, but think that they didn't have the "Superior Race" fuse!

 

Interesting - I always thought that Yugoslavia (some parts thereof, actually) or the Russian partisans would get that award.

What do you mean about many Germans helping the Greeks - that seems out of character for the highly disciplined Germans ?

 

the germans helped communist greek partisans ?...this is hard to belive..

 

I dont find it that hard to beleive.
As an example, the night before the invasion of russia there were a few German deserters, even an officer or two, that crossed the border to warn them of the upcoming invasion.

 

During ww2 Greece was occupied by the armies of three different axis countries;

1) Eastern Macedon and Thrace was occupied by Bulgarian forces and proved not to lack the harshness of the Germans.Bulgars at the time were considered as a more possible opponent that the Germans as they had interests in extending into Greek territories. However, they invaded after the capitulation of Greece--they stood no chance otherwise.

2) Germans occupied some islands ,including Crete, Thessalonica, Athens, and other regions vital for them- harsh rule as expected, razing villages to the ground was done with great care.

3) Truly, the Italians controlled most of Greece until the Italian capitulation in September 1943. After that,the Germans took control of all these regions. Although many people think that the Italians were easy going soldiers and caused little problem the case was always not like this. While they were not as harsh as the Germans and Bulgars they could be very vicious indeed against the local population. The reason;
The italian army lost every battle against the Greeks, so it was very hard for us to accept as a conqueror an enemy we defeated continiously.Thus, the Greeks held them in great disrespect and mockery towards them was very common...

The Germans at that time were departing from Greece. Towards the end of the occupation they foresaw that a civil war was prone to explode here. Partisan organizations controlled by the Communist Party of Greece started to attack other partisan organizations led by non-Communists before the departure of the Germans. So, as they pulled out they conveniently left war material in order to be used by the rebels for the reasons Zeratul pointed out.

 

Actually, one of the main reasons that led to the German pullout were the advancing Soviet armies to the North.So, in order to avoid encirclement and shorten the lenght of the front, they decided to pull out. Another one, was the effective action of the Greek resistance that strangled very often the enemy supply lines leaving the axis forces bleeding white.
Apart from that, there was no land battles as the landing of British forces came very late. Most of the German forces had already left and the Greeks were at the begining of a civil war...

 

There was and still is, a school at Heraklion Crete Greece (called Kapetanakion, for your inconvinience), where a vast number of Italian prisoners were held during the war. They were all 18 - 20 year old boys who were not aware of how real fighting was. They were all very nice people indeed (many old people do remember them as such) but the Greek army put them to do the most heavy jobs, like unloading war equipment from ships, digging, building etc. Result: Many of them passed away in a most horrible way, abandoned by Greek Hospitality and medicinal facilities, away from their homes, never willing to fight a war.

We were not the most kind and well-behaved people, history has to tell, were we?

I mean, there are a lot of examples of Greek generals' generocity towards enemy POWs, but on the other hand there are examples that make us being partially Nazi-behaved!

 

The Germans did not ever helped Greek resistance against German forces! They did it to spark a time consuming for Allied and Greek forces civil war.

 

That makes more sense.

 

There are incidents of German soldiers helping Greek populations but they were not in any case providing war equipment! In example, there were certain soldiers in Crete who gathered food and ransomed it to children; elsewhere they gave candy to kids etc.
Forgot to mention that there were some German turncoats who would give information to Greek resistance by bribing or just because of their bad blood with Hitler (Nazism)

 

Partialy Nazi-Behaved?!... I don't think you can accuse this way the Greek military... I can tell ,for sure, that this case you are refering to, was a very rare phenomenon.

Also, two more things;

- Which period of the war in Greece you are refering to?

- I don't understand how the men of elite divisions that obey passionately to the Italian Fascist regime are not expected to be willing to fight... The reason that led Italian soldiers surrendering easily during ww2 was mostly the misguided opinion they had, about the combat capability of the Italian army.

 

If England started a war against Italy now, would you be eager to go and fight?

 

I think i understand your point, but i'd like you to explain it further...