Most wars aren’t as ‘unprovoked’ as they are made out. The Germans, despite decades of screeching biased historians saying otherwise, did in fact have a reason to go into Poland. The same is true of the invasion of the Soviet Union two years later. One war that bucks this trend, however, is the Italian Invasion of Greece. Why on earth did Mussolini decide to invade Greece whilst already so entangled in North Africa? I’ll answer this question and more in this video, the Complete History of the Italian Invasion of Greece.
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Chapters:
Intro: 0:00
Road to War: 1:38
Disaster: 9:20
The Greek Offensive: 17:04
A Mysterious Death: 27:29
Hill 731: 33:54
German Intervention: 42:06
Sources:
Hitler’s War – David Irving
Mussolini: RJB Bosworth
Mussolini: A New Life – Nicholas Farrell
Mussolini: The Rise and Fall of Il Duce – Christopher Hibbert
Mussolini’s War – John Gooch
The Defence and Fall of Greece – John Carr
39 Comments
Japan and Italy really fucking everything up.
Ζήτω το έθνος 🇬🇷
Why in the name of god Mussolini invaded Greece is beyond me, the Italian troops in North Africa were having their asses kicked by the British Army and desperately needed help! Furthermore, mainland Italy ITSELF! would be under aerial bombardment from Malta soon if The North shore had been secured.
The civilian population of Epirus participated to the war actively. The Greek women carried the ammunition to to top of the mountains and brought back the wounded on their backs.
The weapon that gave the Greeks their supperiority was the french mortar of 75mm. It was portable and therefore the soldiers were able to fire a salvo from any point and change location in no time. Mortars let ther lob above the summit without exposing themselves to return fire. The Italians has conventional artillery on wheels, and we're forced to fire from the roads at a lower altitude. They were easy to spot and remained immobile for long periods of time. The direct trajectory of their shells made it impossible to be under cover and they had no fire solution against the Greeks on the other side of the mountain which rendered their action ineffective.
My grand mother participated to the conflict and broke her leg and was limping all her life afterwards.
Mussolini should have remembered the lesson of Crassus when he invaded Parthia. When you go to war for no good reason and march in with arrogance you're gonna regret it.
Saying Mussolini was unjustified because it was unprovoked while defending Hitler who invaded like 20 countries is unironically fucking hilarious, yea I bet operation Barbarossa was a “preventative attack” 💀💀
It is important to see that while France was defeated and Great Britain was isolated (the battle of Britain was just over) Greece was offering the first victories on Continental territories.
Hey man could you ever do a video about the interwar Soviet Union? I am fascinated by the Great Purge and specifically the Moscow Trials (thanks HOI4) but the only super in depth videos I can find on them come from a hyper partisan pro Stalin communist channel
You should have waited til 28th of October to uploaded, nevertheless a good video to watch!
A few months earlier Churchill did the exact same thing to Iceland.
What I don't understand is that the alliance put Japanese into camps but they didn't put the Italian's in ?
When Mussolini invaded Greece he said that he will be drinking coffee over the acropolis tomorrow. After a year a Greek soldier asked an Italian: where is Mussolini tell him his coffee is getting cold".
You have probably read this before, it is almost all videos that talk about the Italian invasion of Greece but it's worth saying anyway 🙂
I like how Germany had to practically carry the Italians constantly throughout the war
Α ρε ΕΛΛΑΔΑΡΑ 🇬🇷💪
word
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"If you do not exclude them, in less than 200 years our descendants will be working in the fields to furnish them substance, while they will be in the counting houses rubbing their hands. I warn you, gentlemen, if you do not exclude Jews for all time, your children will curse you in your graves.”
(Benjamin Franklin)
“Some may call it Communism, but I call it what it is: Judaism!”
(Rabbi Stephen Wise – The American Bulletin, May 5th 1935. Close friend to FDR.
(John 8: 44) “ You are From your father the Devil, and you wish to do the desires of your father. That one was a murderer when he began,and he did not stand fast in the truth, because truth is not in him. When he speaks the lie, he speaks according to his own disposition, because he is a liar and the father of the lie.”
When Greece is not invaded by the Turks or the Persians(Iran), it is attacked by its "allies" the Europeans.
The Victory of the Greeks and the answer to fascism. If the psychopathic Hitler had not entered Greece from fascist Bulgaria, our soldiers would have taken Rome as well. And let's not forget the later Battle of Crete.. When the youth of Crete was even in Albania and here women, old men and children fought, exterminating 10 thousand Nazis in 11 days. Unfortunately, our allies "hung" us since they came to Crete without equipment and had no plan for defense, but only to leave for Egypt.
As a Russian born, I cant imagine freezing to death in Greece…how did they pull that off?
Our Epos. The Epos of Tsoliades. The epos of the women of Epiros that carried supplies to the fighting unit. The epos of the Ellnc people that felt it was his was, personal war to undo a big insult.
The Greek army was strong 1910-1940 due to strong military leaders. WW2 and the civil war with the thugs broke our country. Its still broken since
Zoomer – Glad to hear you have slowed down the pace of your dialogue. The other videos you made are outstanding, but so hard to understand. You were talking way too fast.
German intervention was about carpet bombing unconditionally Greece with aviation, a thing Italians avoided to do.
I'm not saying Italians were not able to do evil in war , but in the case of Greece that didn't happen.
It's also known that Italian soldiers feed starving Greeks a lot during the occupation. Italians were led by donkeys and unwilling to fight a people they almost considered brothers on top of everything. All in all Italians ended up occupying Greece btw and Germans were allied and like in every alliance some army intervenes to help the other. Or are you telling me Australians, Canadians, New Zealanders and Americans didn't come in support of Brits when they had the need?
Wonderful! Thank you.
I consider myself interested lifelong history amateur, but this video explained quite a lot of matters to me for the first time. I could not stop listening. Thank you for your work from this boomer here.
Nice effort, some mistakes though: at the beginning of the invasion, the Italians had around 100.000 troops, and indeed the total strength of the border armies of the Greeks were in the area of 25.000. It was the 25.000 troops of Katsimitros that within the first 10 days halted the italian offensive. In the meanwhile, the ensuing successful mobilization of the Greek reserves, led to a numerical advantage of around 230.000 against the 100.000 and led to a counteroffensive all through November and December 1940. The Italians reacted by ferrying more than 500.000 troops over Otranto straights and gradually the front was stabilized. By March 1941, the Italians had a serious numerical advantage. In all, more than 1.000.000 troops, Greeks and Italians served at the front..
Οι Ιταλοί δεν πρέπει να νιώθουν ντροπή,επειδή έχασαν τον πόλεμο με την Ελλάδα. Πρέπει όμως να ντρέπονται που γύρισαν σαν κατακτητές,μετά την κατάληψη της Ελλάδας,από τους Γερμανούς.
11:55 it was not against orders the order told him you can retreat until so and so
And the Greeks pushed the Italians back into Albania, So Germany invaded instead
Had the Italians invaded Albania before the invasion of Greece ? What's the order of events ?
The italian soldier fought bravely in the mountains but the Hellenic soldiers fought on there home soil and general Metaxas hade prepared the army well.
37:38 "They've got us surrounded, the poor bastards"
Mussolinis world turned upside down
Phenomenal research again. You're the best 👍😎💪
Tell us how was the invasion of Greece 🇬🇷 ?
Italians🇮🇹 it was so hard 🥒 worst than hard poRno
Greece lost only from Nazi Germans never from italian or bulgarian and so wr had tripple occupation of Greece
Worst occuoation was from Germany
Then Bulgarians made also crimes in macedonia for occupation land killed many greeks to take their land maybe also worst than Germans
Because bulgarian want to remaim permanently
Italians less crimes more robbed things also from my granddfather in corfu he had a shop and took many things specially i remeber one day italians enter in the shop and told this big gun of glass with beer inside is very nice and took it away 😂 also other things italians thiefs ahhaha
Mussolini had to have been a net negative for the Axis powers.
The italian army is marching and suddenly a voice is heard
"one greek is as good as 10 italians"
so the general, furious, sends his 10 best men behind the mountain
a furious battle can be heard, then silence
"one greek's better than 100 italians"
so this time the general sends 100 men
gunshots and battle cries can be heard but, then silence
"one greek can destroy 1000 italians"
now even explosions and grenades can be heard, then silence
one italian voice now breaks the silence
"ITS A TRAP ITS A TRAP" he shouts
"THERE ARE 2 GREEKS"
The salute is Doric not Roman