This week, seventy years ago, the German Führer’s personal train, Amerika, pulled into the Italian train station of Florence, on the morning of October 28, 1940, where he was scheduled to meet the Italian Duce.  It was not a week that had gone well for the German Dictator.  On October 23, der Führer and his Foreign Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, had met with the Spanish Caudillo and his brother-in-law, Spanish Foreign Minister, Ramón Serrano Súñer, in the small French resort village of Hendaye, on the Spanish border, in an unsuccessful effort to entice Spain to enter the war on the side of the Axis nations.  The meeting had lasted nine hours. Afterwards, Hitler told Mussolini that, “Rather than go through that again, I would prefer to have three or four teeth yanked out!”
    The day after meeting with the Spanish Caudillo, the German Führer  met the French leader, Marshal Henri Philip Pétain, at Montoire-sur-le-Loir, France, where he was again disappointed.  Although the old Marshal secretly agreed that, “...the French government will support, within the limits of its ability, the measures which the Axis Powers may take to...” defeat Great Britain, he would not commit France to go to war with its former ally.
    After the French Marshal’s departure from the Amerika, the Führer  got wind of Il Duce’s plans to invade Greece, and quickly arranged to meet with the Italian Dictator on Monday, October 28th in Florence.  As the German Führer alighted from the Amerika, at the Santa Maria Novella Railway Station in Florence, the Italian Duce bounded forward and gleefully exclaimed, in German, “Führer!  We are on the march! Victorious Italian troops crossed the Greco-Albanian frontier at dawn today!”
    The German Dictator was barely able to conceal his rage.  Twice the Italians had been specifically told by their German Allies not to undertake such an adventure.  Il Duce had been personally warned by the German Führer, less than three weeks previously, when they met at the Brenner Pass, and German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop had also warned them. A week after Italian forces had occupied Albania, Great Britain had issued a guarantee to the Kingdom of Greece. Hitler realized that British bombers, based in Greece, would place the Reich’s recently secured oil source at Ploiesti, Rumania at risk.
    But, after watching the German Army efficiently and almost effortlessly, rip through Polish defenses and brilliantly sidestep the Maginot Line, conquer France, Belgium and Holland, the Italian Leader could stand it no more.  The last straw was when the Kingdom of Romania had accepted German protection for the oil fields of Ploiesti.  That had come without any discussion with the Italian Dictator, who considered Romania in the Italian zone of influence ever since April of 1939 when Italian troops had made Albania a part of the Italian Empire.  
    Relations between Italy and Greece had been increasingly strained. By the summer of 1940, Il Duce had decided to act. Three days after the Germans occupied the Romanian oil fields, on October 12, 1940, the Italian Duce convened a meeting of the Italian military brass to discuss the coming invasion.  The Chief of the General Staff, Marshal Pietro Badoglio objected, arguing that at least twenty divisions would be needed. However, the local Commander in Albania, Lt. General Sebastiano Visconte Prasca argued that only three divisions plus what was available in Albania would be needed. The Staff, telling Mussolini what he wanted to hear, convinced Il Duce that the campaign would be over in two weeks. Count Prasca told Il Duce that the invasion plans were, “...as perfect as humanely possible!”
    The Italians, mistakenly, thought that the Greeks, tired of the dictatorial rule of General Ioannis Metaxas - nicknamed “Little Johnny” due to his diminutive stature - would take the opportunity to revolt. They also thought that they would be welcomed by the Albanians who resided in the Greek portion of Epirus. They felt that since Albania was now a part of the Italian Empire, the Albanians on both sides of the border would support this opportunity to unite all of Epirus. Two infantry divisions - Siena and Ferrara - and an armored division - Centauro - were combined into the Ciamuria Corps under the command of General Carlo Rossi. “Ciamuria” was the Albanian name for the area. However, Albanians on both sides of the border failed to properly appreciate what the Italians were trying to do for them.
    On the evening of October 27, 1940, the Italian Ambassador in Athens, Emmanuele Grazzi, delivered an ultimatum to the Greek Arkhigos (leader), which demanded free passage for Italian troops to occupy unspecified “strategic points” inside Greece. General Metaxas replied, “Then it’s war.”  
    The next morning 85,000 Italian soldiers, in the Italian Eleventh Army, crossed the border between Albania and Greece in a driving rainstorm, depriving them of air support. In addition to General Rossi’s Ciamuria Corps, the Eleventh Army also contained the Julia Mountain Division, commanded by General Mario Girotti,  the Littorale Combat Group, commanded by General Carlo Rivolta, and the Corizza Corps, composed of the Parma and Piemonte Infantry Divisions led by General Gabriele Nasci. The Arezzo and Venezia Infantry Divisions were stationed on the Yugoslav border. Because of the Pindus Mountains which divided the area into two theaters, Corizza was assigned to the Macedonian sector, while Ciamuria attacked through Epirus.
    With Mussolini’s insistence on a quick strike, the Italians had been unable to assemble the logistical support necessary for the operation. In fact, this force had been thrown together in four days, and because of Il Duce’s insistence that the invasion be launched immediately, Italian troops were tasked with invading a mountainous country, during the rainy season, with the onset of winter, without proper clothing or equipment. The timing of the invasion - during bad weather - served to nullify the one huge advantage the Italians had over the Greeks - air power. Like the Germans in the Soviet Union, they failed to equip their troops for the winter weather, since they figured that the campaign would be over in two weeks, or less. It was one of the coldest winters of the century.
    Initially, the Greeks only had 15,000 soldiers to meet the invaders, because the vast majority of the Greek Army was on the border with Bulgaria, with whom relations were also strained. The Eighth Division, commanded by Maj. Gen. Charalambos Katsimotros faced the Ciamuria in Epirus, while Lt. Gen. Ioannis Pitsikas commanded the Greeks facing Corizza on the Macedonian front.
    The Greek Arkhigos - “Little Johnny” - addressed the nation on the radio: “The time has come for Greece to fight for her independence. Greeks, now we must prove ourselves worthy of our forefathers and the freedom they bestowed upon us. Greeks, now fight for your fatherland, for your wives, for your children and the sacred traditions. Now, above all, fight!” Hundreds of thousands headed to enlistment offices. Greek morale was high, with many seeking revenge for the unprovoked sinking of the light cruiser Elli by the Italian submarine Delfino near the Greek island of Tinos two months earlier.
    Three days later Commando Supremo announced that, “Our units continue to advance into Epirus and have reached the River Kalamas at several points.  Unfavorable weather conditions and action by the retreating enemy are not slowing down the advances of our troops.” On November 1st the Italians captured Konitsa, a town of less than two thousand near the border and encountered the main line of Greek defense. That same day Commando Supremo gave priority to the Albanian theater over the African theater, thereby robbing Marshal Graziani’s forces of the supplies they needed to continue their offensive against the British in Egypt.  
    Within a few days, the Greek Commander-in-Chief, Alexandros Papagos, was beginning to shift some of the units from the Bulgarian border to meet the Italian threat.
    On November 6, Italian forces were reorganized into two armies - the Ninth, containing Piemonte, Arezzo, Parma, Venezia, Julia, Bari and Tridentia Alpini divisions, in Western Macedonia, with the rest in the Eleventh Army, which was to receive four more divisions - in a month. By November 8th Italian units were beginning to retreat. On November 9th Mussolini replaced General Prasca with General Ubaldo Soddu, a former Vice-Minister of War.  A worse selection probably could not have been made. General Soddu was short and fat, with no combat experience. Rather then tend to his military duties, he preferred to compose music. When things started going bad, he advocated making peace as the only way to avoid a disaster.
    Five days later Greek General Alexandros Papagos launched a counterattack. The Greeks had determined that the Kingdom of Bulgaria was not going to aid the Italians, and therefore, had been able to shift units from the Bulgarian front to meet the Italian attack, and by the time of the counterattack, had established a superiority of two hundred-fifty thousand to one hundred-fifty thousand Italians. The Italians had embarked on this adventure without obtaining the military support of Bulgaria, which considered that it was entitled to Thessalonika and access to the Aegean Sea, and might have been enticed to join the Italians, as it later was by Germany.
    Within three days the Greeks had reached the Albanian border and captured the city of Korçë in Albania.  Today Korçë is the seventh largest city in Albania with a population of almost sixty thousand.  
    The following month General Soddu was replaced with Ugo Cavallero, and the Italians desperately rushed reinforcements to the crumbling front. By the end of December the Greeks had occupied southern Albania which they called Northern Epirus, and captured the port of Himare. However, the Greeks were unable to go further and the Italians held.    In compliance with the guarantee that they had issued the previous year, the British offered the Greeks military support. Initially, “Little Johnny” refused, fearing that British assistance would invite the Germans to assist their Italian ally. Ultimately, he agreed, and on November 5, 1940, the British sent planes and soldiers to aid the Greeks. Now, as Hitler had feared, the Romanian oilfields and refineries at Ploiesti were within British bomber range. And now, as “Little Johnny” had feared, the Germans and the Bulgarians entered the war against the Greek kingdom. German planning began on November 4.
    On January 10, 1941, the Greeks captured the important mountain pass of Klisura.
    Knowing that the Germans were coming, the Italians, on March 9, 1941, launched an assault on the Greek position at Klisura Pass, in Albania, in an attempt to salvage some pride, before the Germans hogged all the credit for victory. Under the code name of Primavera, Commando Supremo assembled 17 divisions for the assault. For more than a week, the Italians pounded away, but were unable to make much headway. However, the Greeks had stripped their defenses along their borders with the Yugoslavian and Bulgarian kingdoms to meet the Italian threat, and were exhausted. Even a frontline visit by Il Duce could not inspire victory!
    On April 6, 1941, German forces under the command of Field Marshal Wilhelm List, attacked across the Yugoslavian and Bulgarian borders. By April 9, the Aegean port of Thessalonika had fallen to the Germans. The Battle of Greece was shaping up very much like the Battle of France. The advance to the Aegean Sea had neutralized the “Metaxases Line,” much as the drive to the English Channel the previous year had neutralized the “Maginot Line.” In addition, just as the British and French troops who had moved up through The Netherlands and Belgium to meet the enemy during the Battle of France were at risk of being cut off, so too were the Greek and British troops who had moved into Albania. Having experienced that, the British commander, Lt. General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, advised the Greeks to withdraw those forces to avoid just such a problem. However, the Greeks could not bring themselves to withdraw on the front facing the Italians. Eventually, of course, they would have no choice. By then, it was too late.
    On April 20, 1941, General Georgios Tsolakoglou surrendered the Greek forces to Joseph “Sepp” Dietrich, commander of the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler regiment. Anybody but the Italians! That same day, Bulgaria invaded the Greek province of Thrace. This was following the script of the Battle of France. Like the Italians then, the Bulgarians were swooping in for what looked like some easy pickings, after someone else had done all the hard work. And, as the Battle of France concluded with Britain’s ally making a separate peace and succumbing to occupation, while British troops beat a hasty retreat, so too did Greece, as the Royal Navy evacuated Commonwealth troops. Also, like the French campaign, the Greeks were required to surrender to the Italians.
    From April 19 until April 25, Commonwealth troops, under the command of Major-General Bernard Freyberg,  fought the German Sixth Mountain Division under the command of Colonel Ferdinand Schörner in the Second Battle of Thermopylae. At the time of his death, in 1973, Schörner, who, at the end of the war, became known as “The Hangman” as the result of his ruthless policy regarding deserters in the face of the Red Army’s onslaught, was the last living German Field Marshal.
    Greek King George II and the government left Athens for Crete on April 25. Two days later, German forces entered Athens. By April 30, evacuation of Commonwealth forces was complete. The battle for Crete would begin in a month.
     “Little Johnny” did not live to see the Axis troops parade down the streets of Athens. He died on January 29, 1941.
    For this adventure, 63,000 brave Italian soldiers died, while an equal number were wounded or suffered frostbite. Half that number of valiant Greeks became casualties defending their country. British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill observed that, “Hence we shall not say that Greeks fight like heroes, but that heroes fight like Greeks.”
    October 28, the day the Italians attacked Greece, is now a national holiday, known as “The Day of No.”  It was the day “Little Johnny” and the Greeks said “NO!” to the Italians.
NEXT MONTH: THE ROYAL NAVY CRIPPLES THE REGIA MARINA ITALIANA AT TARANTO

Mr. Wimbrow writes from Ocean City, Maryland, where he practices law representing those persons accused of criminal and traffic offenses, and those persons who have suffered a personal injury through no fault of their own.