Greco-Italian War - Consequences and Thereafter

Consequences and Thereafter

Despite the ultimate triumph of the Axis powers in the Greek campaign, the Greek resistance to the Italian invasion, according to several historians, greatly affected the course of the Second World War. More specifically, it has been argued that the need for a German intervention in the Balkans delayed Operation Barbarossa, and caused losses, especially in aircraft and paratroopers during the airborne invasion of Crete, which affected its outcome. Adolf Hitler, in conversation with Leni Riefenstahl, would bitterly say that "if the Italians hadn't attacked Greece and needed our help, the war would have taken a different course. We could have anticipated the Russian cold by weeks and conquered Leningrad and Moscow. There would have been no Stalingrad". Furthermore, the need to occupy the country, suppress the partisans and defend it against Allied actions, tied down several German and Italian divisions during the course of the war.

As an explanation of Germany's calamitous defeat in the Soviet Union this had little to commend it. Some popular historians such as Antony Beevor claim that it was not Greek resistance that delayed the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, but instead the slow construction of airfields in Eastern Europe. It nevertheless had the most serious consequences for the Axis war effort in north Africa.

Italy's position prior to launching a north African offensive would indeed have been far stronger had Tunis and above all Malta been taken after she had entered the war. The Germans saw the importance of the sector and offered troops and equipment but Mussolini refused. Bet ween October 1940 and May 1941, five times as many menn, one and a third times as much matérial, three and a half times as many merchant ships and more than twice as many escort vessels were deployed on the Greek operations as in north Africa. The consequences of this diversion of resources, once the British offensive began in December, soon became all too evident.

At the same time, however, the Greek resistance ultimately necessitated an Allied intervention. The decision to send British forces into Greece was primarily motivated by political considerations, and is considered in hindsight, in the words of General Alan Brooke, "a definite strategic blunder", as it diverted forces from the Middle East, at a very critical stage, to Greece. These forces in the event proved insufficient to halt the German invasion of Greece, but could have played a decisive role in the North African Campaign, bringing it to a victorious conclusion much sooner.

With the fall of Crete in May 1941, all of Greece was under the complete control of the Axis. For the next 3 years it would endure a harsh joint occupation by Germany, Italy and Bulgaria. In the occupied country, an effective Resistance network was established, which achieved the liberation of much of the mountainous mainland by 1944. At the same time, Greek troops and ships were continuing the fight along with the British in North Africa and, eventually, in Italy itself. With the German withdrawal from the Balkans in October–November 1944, Greece, with the exception of some isolated German garrisons in the islands, was liberated. Soon however, the country would be engulfed by a new conflict, the Greek Civil War.

For Mussolini, the failure of the Italian forces to subdue Greece without German assistance proved damaging to his prestige both internationally and at home. Instead of asserting Italian independence as he had hoped, Mussolini instead found himself more indebted to Hitler than he had ever been. For the duration of the war Mussolini would never again be in a position to act unilaterally in the sort of manner he attempted to do against Greece.

Also important was the moral example, set in a time when only the British Empire resisted the Axis Powers, of a small country fighting off Fascist Italy, something reflected in the exuberant praise the Greek struggle received at the time. Most prominent is the quote of Winston Churchill:

"Hence we will not say that Greeks fight like heroes, but that heroes fight like Greeks."

French general Charles de Gaulle was among those who praised the fierceness of the Greek resistance. In an official notice released to coincide with the Greek national celebration of the Day of Independence (25 March), De Gaulle expressed his admiration for the heroic Greek resistance:

In the name of the captured yet still alive French people, France wants to send her greetings to the Greek people who are fighting for their freedom. The 25 March 1941 finds Greece in the peak of their heroic struggle and in the top of their glory. Since the Battle of Salamis, Greece had not achieved the greatness and the glory which today holds.

Greece's siding with the Allies also contributed to its annexation of the Italian-occupied but Greek-populated Dodecanese islands at the conclusion of World War II, in 1947.