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In-Depth Information
even to passages of Thucydides, was imposed. But it was at least a Greek dictatorship,
and while Metaxás was sympathetic to fascist organizational methods and economics,
he utterly opposed German or Italian domination.
World War II and civil war: 1939-1950
When World War II broke out, the most immediate threat to Greece was
Italy
, which
had invaded Albania in April. Even so, Metaxás hoped Greece could remain neutral,
and when the Italians torpedoed the Greek cruiser
Elli
in Tinos harbour on August 15,
1940, they failed to provoke a response.
Mussolini
, however, was determined to have a
war with Greece, and after accusing the Greeks of violating the Albanian frontier, he
delivered an ultimatum on October 28, 1940, to which Metaxás famously if
apocryphally answered “
ohi
”
(no). Galvanized by the crisis, the Greeks not only drove
the invading Italians out of Greece but managed to gain control over the long-coveted
and predominantly Greek-populated area of northern Epirus in southern Albania.
(“Ohi Day” is still celebrated as a national holiday.)
Mussolini's failure, however, only provoked Hitler into sending his own troops into
Greece, while the British rushed an expeditionary force across the Mediterranean from
Egypt. Within days of the
German invasion
, on April 6, 1941, the German army was
pouring into central Greece. Outmanoeuvred by the enemy's highly mechanized forces
and at the mercy of the Luftwaffe, resistance was soon broken. When the Germans
occupied Crete in May, King George and his ministers fled to Egypt and set up a
government-in-exile. Metaxás himself had died before the German invasion.
Occupation and resistance
The joint Italian-German-Bulgarian
occupation of Greece
was among the most bitter
experiences of the European war. Nearly half a million Greek civilians starved to death
over the winter of 1941-42, as all food was requisitioned to feed the occupying armies.
In addition, entire villages throughout the mainland, but especially on Crete, were
burned at the least hint of resistance and nearly 130,000 civilians were slaughtered up
to autumn 1944. In their northern sector, which included Thássos and Samothráki, the
Bulgarians demolished ancient sites and churches to support any future bid to annex
“Slavic” Macedonia.
No sooner had the Axis powers occupied Greece than a spontaneous resistance
movement sprang up in the mountains. The National Popular Liberation Army, known
by its initials
ELAS
, founded in September 1941, quickly grew to become the most
effective resistance organization, working in tandem with
EAM
, the National Liberation
Front. Communists formed the leadership of both organizations, but opposition to the
occupation and disenchantment with the prewar political order ensured they won the
support of many non-communists. By 1943 ELAS/EAM controlled most areas of the
country, working with the British SOE, Special Operations Executive, against the
occupiers.
But the Allies were already eyeing the shape of postwar Europe, and British prime
minister
Winston Churchill
was determined that Greece should not fall into the
communist sphere. Ignoring advice from British agents in Greece that ELAS/EAM
were the only effective resistance group, and that the king and his government-in-exile
1936-41
1940
1941
1944-49
Fascist-style
dictatorship of
Ioánnis Metaxás.
Italian invasion
of Greece is
successfully
repelled.
German invasion rapidly
overruns the country; mass
starvation in the Greek
cities in the winter.
German withdrawal is promptly
followed by the outbreak of
bitter Civil War.
