The most complete information guide about Athens, Greece
HISTORY OF ATHENS
The
Second World War
Greco-Italian War
In
early 1939, Italian troops occupied Albania, long under Italian
influence, thereby gaining an immediate border with Greece and
hasty preparations started for the event of an Italian attack.
As war exploded in Central Europe, Metaxas tried to keep Greece
out of the conflict, but as the conflict progressed, he felt increasingly
closer to Great Britain, encouraged by the anglophile King George
II, who provided the main support for the regime. This was ironic
for Metaxas, who had always been a Germanophile and who had built
strong ties with Hitler's Germany.
A
mounting propaganda campaign against Greece was launched in
mid-1940 in Italy, and the repeated acts of provocation, such
as over flights of Greek territory, reached their peak with
the torpedoing and sinking of the Greek light cruiser Elli
in the harbour of Tinos on 15 August 1940 (a national religious
holiday), by an Italian submarine. Despite undeniable evidence
of Italian responsibility, the Greek government announced
that the attack had been carried out by a submarine of "unknown
nationality". Although
the facade of neutrality was thus preserved, the people were
well aware of the real perpetrator.
The
ultimatum presented by the Italian ambassador in Greece, Grachi,
on 28 October 1940, at dawn (04:00), was rejected by Metaxas
with a simple “Oxi!” (Greek for ‘No!). Within
hours Italy was attacking Greece from Albania. Shortly thereafter,
Metaxas addressed the Greek people with these words: "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, over all things, fight!". In response
hundreds of thousands of volunteers, men and women, in all
parts of Greece headed to the army's offices to enlist for
the war.
Despite
having been inadequately prepared for an offensive in mountainous
Greece, the Italians initially achieved success. Before winter
had even set in however, the Italian advance was stopped and they
were forced onto the defensive. The Greeks launched a counter
attack on 14 November, which pushed the Italians back into Albania.
At first, the counter attack made good progress but eventually
ground to a halt with the front stalemated due to Italian reinforcements,
and exhaustion, lack of transport vehicles and inadequate supply
on the Greek side.
After
the failure of a second Italian offensive in March 1941 the front
was relatively quiet. Italy however was still a threat, which
forced the Greeks to commit the bulk of their forces in Albania,
leaving only a small number of forces to cover the Bulgarian frontier.
When the Germans moved into Bulgaria in preparation for the invasion,
Greece formally asked for British intervention.
Battle of Greece
On
6 April 1941, the German army invaded northern Greece and Yugoslavia.
The British and Greek forces operating in the region were unable
to present a cohesive front because of poor communication between
their respective commands. This resulted in the fact that that
eventually
two distinct lines of resistance were set up, one along the Metaxas
Line and one along the Kleidi line (running on a roughly southeast
direction from the town of Edessa to the delta of the Vardar River),
both of which were undermanned.
Initial
German attacks against the Metaxas Line by mountain troops met
with little success. The Greek Eastern Macedonia Group exploited
the terrain to their advantage and fought tenaciously although
their small numbers and limited amount of ammunition meant that,
by 7 April, several strongpoints had been overrun.
While
the defenders in most remaining strongpoints and forts were determined
to fight on, the line was quickly outflanked by German Panzer
forces invading through southern Yugoslavia and down the Vardar
Valley meeting only sporadic resistance from hastily assembled
Greek forces. On 9 April elements of the 2nd Panzer had reached
Thessaloniki and the remaining Greek forces of the TSAM were reluctantly
forced to surrender.
The
British and Commonwealth forces in Greece (known as W Force),
under the command of General Henry Maitland Wilson, had only began
to settle in their defensive line when news of the German invasion
came. This necessitated a retreat initially to the Aliakmon river
and then to the narrow pass at Thermopylae where the Germans broke
through again on 23 April all the way down until German forces
were at the Greek capital on 27 April.
The
retreat of the W Force, exposed the right flank of the Greek forces
operating against the Italians in Albania. The Greeks were very
reluctant to concede ground to the Italians and therefore refused
to redeploy forces to counter the new threat. Instead, on 15 April
the commander of the Greek forces in Albania, General Georgios
Tsolakoglou, offered his surrender to the advancing Germans. In
recognition of the valor displayed by Greek forces, the enlisted
men were allowed to return to their homes rather than being confined
to prisoner of war camps and officers were permitted to retain
their side arms.
After
some brief holding actions on the Peloponnese, the Greeks, British
and Commonwealth forces had to be evacuated to Crete and Egypt.
The evacuation of nearly 40.000 soldiers was completed on 28 April
but was heavily contested by the German Luftwaffe, which managed
to sink at least 26 troop-laden ships.
Occupation
On
23 April 1941, the King and the government fled Athens for Crete,
while the Germans were advancing against the capital. Chaos and
breakdown were characteristic for the short period between the
departure of the government and the entrance of Germans in Athens.
Many Athenians went to Crete, the Middle East, the Peloponnese
and the islands. The continuous bombardments of streets and harbors
by enemy aircrafts completed the image of disarray and fear.
On
27 April, the Germans entered an almost empty Athens since the
Athenians remained stubbornly shut up in their houses. The hoisting
of the Nazi swastika on the Acropolis marked the beginning of
the German occupation. A quisling government was appointed with
Georgios Tsolagoklou, the General who had signed the surrender,
as first prime-minister.
With
the fall of Crete at the end of May, the occupation of all the
country by the Germans was completed. Greece came under a tripartite
occupation since it was divided among the Germans and their allies,
Italians and Bulgarians. The Bulgarians had a zone between Strymon
and the Nestos river, later extended to Alexandroupolis and the
islands Thassos and Samothrace. The Germans kept 2/3 of Evros,
central and eastern Macedonia, some Aegean islands, Attica and
Crete. The rest of Greece was in Italian hands.
In the zone of Bulgarian occupation, the situation was bad because
of the persecution of the Greek population (murders, persecutions
of clericals and teachers, deportation of minors to Bulgaria for
hard
labour, heavy taxation). Among the worst instances of Bulgarian
atrocity were the incidents of Drama, the mass execution of 3.000
patriots by Bulgarians at Doxato and other villages on 28 and
29 September 1941 to suppress the spontaneous revolt against and
overthrow of the Bulgarian occupation.
The
reaction of the Macedonians and Thracians to the oppression, met
with atrocities that alarmed even the German administration. In
Epirus, gangs of Albanians, armed by Italians, were terrorizing
the countryside while the Italians proceeded to the establishment
of an independent "principality" of the Vlachs on Pindos
mountains.
In
the German zone the situation was equally desperate. The drainage
of goods, resources and reserves of the country that doomed economy
to an absolute decline and subsequently lead the population to
starvation, the destruction of every kind of infrastructure, the
elimination of every trace of freedom, the terrorism of the conquerors,
imprisonments, executions and deportations, were part of the Greek
version of the Nazi new order. More Greeks died of famine and
other suffering than in any other occupied country in Europe.
Resistance
Athenians
did not tolerate the Nazi occupation without resistance. When
the Germans occupied Athens, they ordered Konstantinos Koukidis,
the Evzone who guarded the Greek flag, to take it down. The Evzone
obeyed, calmly took the flag down, wrapped himself in it and jumped
from the Acropolis to his dead. Apostolis Santas and Manolis Glezos
were two eighteen year-old Greeks know by Greeks as well as Europeans.
On the night of 30 May 1941 they tore down the Nazi flag flying
from the Acropolis. It inspired the Greeks and resistance to Nazi
oppression rose in all of Greece.
As
in other parts of Greece, from very early on, resistance groups
were formed in Athens. Despite its communist leadership, the central
resistance group, EAM/ELAS, attracted people from the entire political
spectrum.
In
the Greek countryside, ELAS undertook a guerrilla war against
the Germans and Italians, with sabotage and the hindrance of transports.
From summer 1942, the guerrilla groups of EDES and later EKKA
were active on the Greek mountains. ELAS and EDES combined their
activity in November 1942 and blew up the Gorgopotamos bridge
on the Athens-Thessaloniki railway line. This hindered the supply
of the German forces of Rommel severely.
At the same time with the military action of the guerrillas in
the countryside, but also before it, in Athens and other cities,
strikes and mass demonstrations were organized. The spontaneous
student demonstrations and strikes developed into a huge protest
movement. The strike of 5 March 1943, where the reaction of the
Greek people against the recruitment of Greek workers for the
Reich was demonstrated, was legendary. A little before, the funeral
of the poet Kostis Palamas was the pretext for an overwhelming
mass demonstration against the German Occupation.
The
measure of resistance was paid considerable homage to by German
officials. Hitler's Chief of Staff, Field Marshall Wilhelm Keitel
stated "The unbelievably strong resistance of the Greeks
delayed by two or more vital months the German attack against
Russia; if we did not have this long delay, the outcome of the
war would have been different in the eastern front and in the
war in general."
A
speech made at the Reichstag in 1941 said of the campaign: “It
must be said, for the sake of historical truth, that amongst all
our opponents, only the Greeks fought with such endless courage
and defiance of death.” The diary of Joseph Goebbels on
9 April 1941: “I forbid the Press to underestimate the Greeks,
to defame them... The Fuhrer admires the bravery of Greeks.”.
Liberation
The
fast advance of the Soviet army towards the Balkans, threatening
to cut off the German forces in Greece, forced the Germans to
withdraw very soon from Greece. Their withdraw began from the
Peloponnese and the islands, while on 12 October 1944 Athens and
Piraeus were liberated, amidst a huge popular frenzy.
Greek
flags and bell-ringing overflowed the capital, while crowds of
people flooded the streets and the
squares, celebrating with enthusiasm. The British troops were
enthusiastically received in the capital while celebrations culminated
with the arrival of Papandreou and the government of national
unity on 18 October 1944.
However, behind the atmosphere of celebration and consent of the
first days of Liberation, the problems and contrasts, which in
no time would break out culminating to the tragedy of the civil
war, were looming.