Greco-Italian War
Between October 28, 1940 and April 23, 1941, the states of Greece and Italy were engaged in active warfare as part of the Greco-Italian War. While this was a local war, it led directly to the Balkan Campaign of World War II, and the Battle of Greece in 1941.
In the spring of 1939, fascist Prime Minister Benito Mussolini annexed the state of Albania. This was only months before the beginning of World War II in September 1939. The Greeks began actively fortifying their own boundaries, expecting a potential invasion from Italy. In August of 1940, the Italians sank a Greek ship, the Elli, and in October 1940, the Italians demanded the Greeks freely give territory to the Italians, but the Greek state refused. The Italians invaded Greece on October 28, 1940, before the ultimatum to cede land came to an end.
The Italians invaded with a force of 140,000, poorly equipped and equally poorly led. Experts had warned Mussolini that an invasion would require a massive force and very long war; however, he attempted it within only a few short weeks. The territory was heavily mountainous, and quite difficult to navigate. While Italy had attempted to gain the support of Bulgaria, Bulgaria remained neutral, enabling the Greeks to put their entire available force to fight the Italian invasion. The Greeks were highly successful, repelling the Italian invasion entirely by mid-November with a combined Greek and Albanian force totaling around 20,000 men.
The Greeks began a strong counter-offensive, working to retake Albania from the Italians. The Italian army was completely unsupplied, lacking appropriate clothing, or even ammunition for their weapons. Mussolini visited the Albanian front in March, 1941 in an attempt to boost morale. The battle finally began that March.
Greek forces had captured an Italian officer with full battle plans. The Italian force, now numbering around 50,000 was decimated, with around 12,000 dead. Mussolini’s attempt had failed and failed miserably. Hitler referred to the situation as a “pig’s mess”. In addition, the Greeks were now clearly on the side of the Allies in World War II, and had opened their airspace to the British.