Part I of IV

This SERIES of articles was originally published in the Australian newspaper Neos Kosmos (Ethnic Publications Pty Ltd) in October 2019 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Liberation of Greece.

In October, the WWII invasion of Greece in 1940 and its eventual liberation in 1944 are both commemorated. Join ww2stories.org in a special four-part series as Ross J. Robertson recounts the historical circumstances that led to the country’s freedom.

Greece at War 

Few realise that the very first Allied victory of WWII was achieved by the Greek Army as it successfully repelled the 28th of October 1940 invasion attempted by Italian fascists. So good were Greek tactics that not only were the Italians forced back over the Albanian border, but they were made to give up considerable swathes of their Albanian protectorate in the process. Indeed, it was only the onset of winter which stopped the Greek counterattack from pushing the intruders further back. 

By March 1941, however, the Italians were ready to launch a new offensive. Although this also failed dismally, a new and far more sinister danger loomed. With the bulk of the Greek Army set against the Italians to the north west, it was relatively easy for Hitler to blitzkrieg his way across the Metaxas Line near the Yugoslavian and Bulgarian borders. Just three weeks after it began on the 6th of April 1941, the Nazis were able to take control of the mainland. Crete and smaller islands fell soon afterwards and the Greek population found itself suddenly subjugated without any hope of reprieve.

Axis Occupation

The country was divvied up by the conquering Axis powers. The Italians occupied the greatest area by far, including most islands, while the Bulgarians annexed much of Macedonia and Thrance. Strategically important areas like Athens, Thessaloniki and certain Aegean islands, were retained by the Germans and their iron-fisted control.

The civilian population suffered greatly under the Nazi regime. Not only did the heinous methods applied by their oppressors strike fear into Greek hearts, but they also had to face an internal implosion of loyalties, leading some to collaboration and others to fighting amongst themselves in the form of a full-blown civil war.

The occupation also devastated the Greek economy. Anything of remote economic value was systematically pillaged by the Germans. Literally robbed of raw materials, industry was brought to a standstill, as was agricultural production. To compound these problems, the country was made bankrupt by the Nazi Party’s outrageous demand that the puppet/collaborationist Greek government should foot the bill for the occupation. The resultant combination of extreme shortages, payment imbalances and profiteering caused inflation to run rife and the financial system utterly collapsed.

The Axis conquerors also plundered the Greek countryside for food. To ensure their own troops were fed, they savagely competed with one another over the spoils. This left the villagers and townsfolk who survived these merciless raids virtually unable to sustain themselves. Civilians in cities languished under even greater hardships. With no reliable food supplies, tens of thousands literally starved to death in Athens and Thessaloniki. Countrywide, an estimated 300,000 were to perish by war’s end because of malnutrition alone. 

As with elsewhere in Europe, Jews became a particular target of subjugation. There are many instances when they were heroically hidden by ordinary Greeks or given false documentation by officials to impede detection. However, the Nazis were relentless in their attempt at eradication. An estimated 80% of the jewish population were either executed or deported to the notorious extermination camps of Auschwitz and Treblinka. The Italians refused to deport Jews and this became a serious point of dissension with the Germans. The Bulgarians had no such qualms. They rounded up and deported tens of thousands to the gas chambers.

The Greek Monarchy

With the 1941 German invasion, King George II was forced into exile along with the remainder of the Greek Armed Forces. At this stage of the war, Britain was heavily dependent on oil, food and raw materials imported via the Atlantic supply line. However, Germany’s U-boats were effecting devastating losses on British shipping. As America had not yet entered the war and the Greek merchant fleet was one of the largest in the world, King George II had a definite card to play. Furthermore, on the 15th of June 1942, he successfully rallied American support when he addressed both houses of the US Congress in Washington.

Therefore, those in the echelons of power automatically assumed that George II would be reinstated if the Allies could ever defeat Hitler. The problem was that many Greeks simply did not want to see his return. A number of factors can account for this, the principal being that he was hesitant to reform the constitutional changes against freedom of speech and individual rights made by the Metaxas dictatorship of 1936. Moreover, as many of Metaxas’ supporters went on to be collaborators in the puppet Greek government set up by the Nazis, the King was seen to either condone (or at least not oppose) their betrayal. 

With the King’s legitimacy in question and his deposition by the Nazis a reality, the only viable postwar alternatives seen by many of the Greek hoi polloi were either republicanism or communism. However, those loyal or sympathetic to George II wanted the Nazis and their collaborators overthrown and the King reinstated. They certainly did not want the republicans, much less the communists, to take control in lieu of their King. 

No one has ever accused Greek politics of being simple. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill said; “No matter how forlorn their circumstances or how grave the peril to their country, they are always divided by many parties, with many leaders who fight among themselves with desperate vigour.” Because each political ideology – monarchism, republicanism, communism and collaborationist fascism – was the mortal enemy of the other, there could be no reconciliation. Indeed, the four-way political divide would soon debilitate the country which had actually given the world the suffix “-ism” in the first place. 

Greek Resistance 

Capitalising on their intimate knowledge of local terrain and secretly supported by local civilians, Greek resistance groups formed and launched successful guerrilla attacks against the Axis occupiers, most especially the Italians who tended to be lax in their efforts at control. Operation Harling, on the 25th of November 1942, is the most notable example. In a joint sabotage operation, Greek resistance and a dozen British specialists managed to destroy the Gorgopotamos Viaduct in central Greece, despite the heavy Italian guard. The intention was to cut off the route from Thessaloniki to Athens and, therefore, the German supply line that went all the way to Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s troops in North Africa. Although the mission itself was highly successful, Rommel’s defeat at El Alamein during the same month reduced the intended effect.  

By 1943, sizeable areas of the mountainous Epirus region in central Greece had been liberated. Fearing the consequences of further Italian ineffectiveness, Hitler sent in more troops, including those especially trained in mountain warfare. Even as the resistance was hunted down, the Germans also launched an indiscriminate and merciless reprisal campaign against civilians. Whole villages and towns were torched, their populations either lined up and executed or made destitute refugees in their own country. 

Left: Napoleon Zervas (1891–1957) was a former Hellenic Army officer and leader of the Republican EDES (National Republican Greek League) resistance movement during World War II. Right: Aris Velouchiotis (real name Athanasios Klaras) (1905–1945) was the leader of communist ELAS (Greek People’s Liberation Army), (ELAS) and the military branch of the EAM (National Liberation Front), which was the prominent resistance organisation in occupied Greece from 1942 to 1945. Original source: Unknown

To add to these woes, the Greek resistance movement was plagued by political in-fighting and back-stabbing. Broadly speaking, the many factions had resolved themselves into two diametrically opposed sides. Although not allies, the National Republican Greek League (EDES) and the National and Social Liberation (EKKA) were both republican groups that found themselves pitted against the Greek People’s Liberation Army (ELAS), which was the militant arm of a coalition of communists called the EAM (National Liberation Front). Both EKKA and EDES were smaller organisations by far, but EDES in particular, had the backing of the British. 

Due to its geopolitical importance, Greece was of immense interest to Churchill. He feared that ELAS would assert post-war communist control and saw the future restoration of both the government in exile and the Greek monarchy of King George II as crucial to the maintenance of a strong British influence in the western Mediterranean. Despite their participation in several operations planned by the British, Churchill therefore did his utmost to subvert ELAS and its EAM political controllers. This invariably involved double-dealing, betrayal and gold sovereign pay-offs to leaders and agents. It also exacerbated the rivalry between Greek resistance groups. 

Added to this powder keg were the infamous Security Battalions. They were founded in 1943 by Ioannis Rallis’ Greek collaborationist government (the two former puppet Prime Ministers having been deposed by the Nazis) as a measure against the ELAS communists. They principally comprised Evzones (the Royal Guard) who had renounced the monarchy in favour of fascism. Armed and fully sanctioned by the Germans, they engaged in notoriously cruel ‘clean-up’ operations against ELAS and the civilians who supported them. Thus began a war of attrition which resulted in atrocities committed by both sides. This culminated in the massacre of over 1,000 Security Battalion prisoners and civilians by ELAS at Meligalas shortly after the German withdrawal from the Peloponnese in September 1944. 

While communist ELAS ran important operations against the Axis oppressors, by 1943 it had become increasingly ruthless in its opposition against rival Greek resistance groups, even to the point of assassinating the EKKA leader. On the 12th of October 1943, in what was to become a prelude to civil war, it openly engaged EDES forces, thereby forcing them out of Thessaly and confining them to the Epirus mountains. In response, EDES allegedly negotiated a ceasefire with the Germans so that they could focus their efforts against their fellow countrymen in ELAS. Greek resistance fighters had become their own worst enemies.

More to follow…

In spite of these internal calamities, an early liberation for Greece would become a distinct possibility by the autumn of 1943. However, as we will see in the next part of this special anniversary series, Churchill’s plans went awry and the opportunity was missed.