3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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
8. 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,
9.
10. 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.
11. 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.
12. 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.
