Caesar in Hellas:
Operation Naxos
Italy and Greece had been at each other’s throats for years--if not millennia--before the outbreak of the Greco-Italian War in 1941. The rise in tensions in 1941 could be attributed largely to Mussolini’s fear of becoming overshadowed by German success at territorial expansion. Hitler’s success in growing Germany without firing a shot in anger convinced Mussolini that Italy would be able to accomplish the same thing, and with the amount of discord in the Allies’ ranks (even if things escalated to war) Mussolini was certain that the West would simply wring their hands and scold Italy as they had done during both the Abyssinian War and the overthrow of Albania.
For their part, the British and French publicly stated support for Athens, but Westminster refused to be drawn into anything concrete that might show solid support. Indeed, the cabinet viewed Greece as a likely drain on the British resources, which might need to be employed elsewhere. They encouraged Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas to make diplomatic overtures to Rome, in a hope that the Italians would remain neutral in any future war on the Continent. Mussolini, for his part, played up these dispatches, publicly claiming that he would always respect Greek neutrality and even offered to formalize relations by renewing the 1928 treaty and selling Greece combat aircraft. Britain interjected, informing the Metaxas government that such a formal arrangement would cause their own support to disappear. This slight thaw only lasted until February after Italy invaded Albania.
In the months since the takeover of Albania, Greece had been making significant defensive preparations for an Italian attack. Italy, for its part, had been preparing a significant number of garrison troops to pacify the Albanian territory, but only three divisions had been deployed by 1941. Large numbers of former CCNN retrained as regular infantry would form the bulk of forces deployed to Albania; it would be their first taste of combat as well as validation of whether or not they could be relied upon to carry the fight to the enemy. With the planning process already started back in April, Mussolini ordered the Italian nation to mobilize on 21 July.
The sinking of the Elli
in port. This action precipitated
the invasion of Greece.
By mid-August, the rancorous back and forth culminated in the sinking of a Greek light cruiser
Elli by the Italian submarine
Delfino on 15 August and the bombardment of Greek merchant shipping the same day by Italian aircraft; all under orders from the Supramarino.* Greece, desiring to calm the populace, claimed ignorance of the source of the torpedoes and bombs, but no one was fooled. The Italian ambassador to Greece, Emanuele Grazzi, wrote in his memoirs that the attack had caused the unification of a people “deeply riven by unbridgeable political differences and old and deep-running political hatreds.” He would continue to say that the people would harden to resist any invasion. That these events occurred the same day as the delivery of the Italian ultimatum to Greece only further inflamed popular opinion. Metaxas replied laconically, “
Alors, c’est la guerre,” (“Then it is war” in French) and the announcement carried over Athens Radio stated that “Since 0530 this morning, the enemy is attacking our vanguard on the Greek-Albanian border. Our forces are defending the fatherland.”
Pathe News reports of the initiation of hostilities.
The Greeks had not had the time to fully mobilize their forces and were caught out of position. The Italians had deployed two corps, II and VIII, with a total of eight divisions in Albania as well as their airborne division, based out of Rhodes. Later in August, several further divisions were brought from IX Corps, but they were not originally available at the start of the campaign because of the fear that the British would declare war against Italy and there not being enough of the MSVN divisions to hold the ports in mainland Italy.
The Regia Marina dispatched the oldest battlewagons of SAG Africa to patrol in the Aegean and the cruiser force of SAG Adriatic (centered on the
Trento cruisers) to cruise the Albanian coast to support operations ashore there. SAG Mediterranean, built around the four
Littorio battleships, had notionally been dispatched to support those forces ashore, but this “deployment” meant little more than waving the flag operations well away from any real threat of fighting as well as to save fuel for other ships less important to the Navy high command. SAG Libya (formed from the
Zara-class heavy and second wave
Condottieri-class light cruisers) supported the forces ashore in Crete to cut it off from the mainland. The Supramarino also dispatched several submarine groups to choke off shipping to Greece, though little was accomplished given the small size of the force and the sparsity of valid targets. Little thought had been paid in the last decade concerning actually training the cruiser or submarine forces, which also likely contributed their lack of success--a waste of precious resources.
For it’s part, the Regia Aeronautica dispatched Gruppo 100 (Air Mobility Command) to ferry 1 Airborne (1 AB) on its operation to secure Crete from the recently improved bases at Rhodes. Also flying from Rhodes was 1TBW (1 and 2 TBG). 4TFW, consisting of 7 and 8 TFGs of multi-role aircraft supported the forces in Northern Greece from Tirane. Most other assets were retained by the high command for contingency operations in case of intervention from the Allies. This included the crack I Corps, holding the five mountain divisions arrayed along the Italian-French border and the five Cavalry (light armored) divisions in North Africa.
A view of the orders of battle of Italy and Greece
in comparison with one another. Catching the
Greeks before their mobilization was complete
proved to be a stroke of luck for the Italians. Below:
The arrangement of Greek forces for battle.
The first phase of the Italian plan involved II and VIII Corps invading Greece from Albania while 1 AB conducted an airborne assault into Crete. In Albania, the seven divisions of II and VIII Corps faced five understrength divisions across the border. These first engagements began on 14 August, and all concluded within the first day or two of the war; a rapid advance took place as those divisions brushed aside virtually all efforts by those Greeks to initiate any sort of defensive operations until 20 August. The air assault specifically targeted territory away from the Greek infantry division that was holding in Irakleio, as the high command did not want to drop their premier division directly into combat, their drop was completed by 16 August. 1 AB engaged the 5th Infantry Division (5.ID-GK) briefly in Irakleio on 18 August, but their resistance melted away in the hot Cretan sun.
Phase 1 of the invasion.
Italian newsreel footage of some of the invasion.
With much of the resistance pushed aside, combat began to stagnate around the central mainland region of Macedonia. II Corps had been tasked with capturing the strategic city of Thessaloniki [Salonica], at the same time covering the left flank of VIII Corps as it marched down through Ipiros regions into Central Greece. With little input aside from the expected hand-wringing of the French and British--calls for an embargo in the League of Nations abounded, though not one member actually pushed for such a resolution--Mussolini ordered more troops be sent into the fray. IX Corps, headquartered in Sicily, began organizing a pair of landings: one from the 31st Infantry Division (31 ID) for the Amfissa region to cut off Athens from the rest of the nation and a second with the 29th Infantry Division (29 ID) to support the 1 AB with securing Crete. This second phase largely started around 22 August, but VIII Corps’ units were hung up around Morfi; this angered the II Corps’ commander, General Roatta, who believed (largely rightly) that his corps was conducting much of the fighting in Greece.
Phase 2 of Operation Naxos.
Indeed, VIII Corps under General Berti was having difficulty advancing through Arta, and he was under significant pressure to reach 31 ID, well behind enemy lines. The corps would take nearly ten days to reach 31 ID in Amfissa, but in the meantime, II Corps had already begun the assault on Salonica, cutting off Thrace from the rest of Greece. Over the course of the next week, combat swirled around central Greece, as the Italian troops pressed their opponents back to the anvil of Amfissa held by 31 ID. On Crete, 29 ID landed on 29 August, and together with 1 AB forced the surrender of 5.ID-GK within days. The leg infantry loaded up in Irakleio to land in Nafplio to secure the southern flank of Athens--a destination they wouldn’t fully secure until 10 September--one of the biggest blunders of the war as it cost the division nearly 600 killed in action for almost no strategic purpose.
The final stages of the battle for Greece.
By 16 September, the back had been broken on Greek resistance. The Metaxas government had long since fled Athens, and those left behind sued for peace. Italy annexed Greece into their Empire, and the various divisions of the Esercito’s II and VIII Corps began to take up occupying positions in the conquered nation. The French had refused to intervene, which caused the British to shrink away from doing so as well, especially as Westminster and Quai d’Orsay both saw any declaration of war upon the Italians as bringing Germany into a wider war which they were not ready for. With Greece’s capitulation, the Axis grew more ascendant in Europe.
*****
Authors’ Notes:
[*]: In OTL, when the war was over, one of the surviving Italian light cruisers was transferred to Greece. It was renamed
Elli.
I'm sorry for the break, and that I haven't ginned up the OOB for this post yet. I was working on trying to make sure that this post got put together for everyone. Also, might want to take a look at the Table of Contents! I put up a lot of stuff to try and keep people interested about where things are going in this story to try and get myself motivated. I'm having problems with my life right now--my finacee and I are breaking up and so everything seems like its falling apart. Worse still that things were looking so positive just a few months ago. Also, I might not be around much these next few weeks as the academy is into the final "operational" phase of training with regards to Patrol Techniques and Officer Survival... wish me luck!