Greece entered World War II on October 28, 1940. On this day, a massive invasion of the Italian army began on the territory of Greece. By the time of the events in question, Italy had already managed to occupy Albania, so Italian troops attacked Greece from Albanian territory. Benito Mussolini claimed the southern Balkan territories and considered the entire Adriatic coast and Greece as the legitimate possessions of the Italian Empire.
By the time hostilities began, Greece was clearly losing to Italy militarily. But this did not make the resistance of the Greek army less fierce. In the very first days of the Italian-Greek war, the Italian troops were opposed by the border units of the Greek army, which were reinforced by five infantry and one cavalry divisions. At this time, General Alexandros Leonidou Papagos (1883-1955) was the commander-in-chief of the Greek armed forces. He was already a middle-aged man of fifty-seven years of age. Papagos had almost forty years of military service behind him. He received his military education at the Military Academy of Belgium in Brussels, as well as at the cavalry school in Ypres. In 1906 he began serving in the Greek army as an officer. By the time the First Balkan War began, Papagos was an officer of the General Staff, but in 1917, after the abolition of the monarchy, Papagos, as a man of monarchical convictions, was fired from the ranks of the armed forces. Then he recovered in the service, showed himself well during the Greco-Turkish war in Asia Minor, then he was again dismissed. In 1927, Papagos was reinstated in military service again. By 1934 he rose to the rank of corps commander, and in 1935-1936. served as Minister of Defense of Greece. In 1936-1940. General Papagos was Chief of the General Staff of the Greek Armed Forces. It was he who carried out direct command of the Greek army during the Italian-Greek war of 1940-1941.
The Italian army invading Greek territory operated in Epirus and Western Macedonia. Nevertheless, by order of General Papagos, the Greeks offered the Italians the most serious resistance. The Italian command deployed the elite 3rd Alpine Giulia Division, numbering 11,000 officers and men, to seize the Pindus Ridge in order to cut off the Greek forces in Epirus from Western Macedonia. It was opposed only by a brigade of the Greek army of 2,000 soldiers and officers. The brigade was commanded by Colonel Konstantinos Davakis (1897-1943), one of the most interesting figures in the history of the Greek armed forces and, moreover, of world military science. A native of the Greek village of Kehrianika, Konstantinos Davakis in 1916, at the age of nineteen, graduated from an officer's school and began serving in the Greek army with the rank of junior lieutenant. A little later, he received a higher military education at the Athens Military Academy, and then in France, where he received training as a tank officer.
During World War I, Davakis served on the Macedonian front, where he was gassed. Dawakis's bravery contributed to his rapid advancement in military service. Already in 1918, at the age of 21 and just two years after graduation from the school, Davakis received the rank of captain. A real military officer, he distinguished himself during the Greek-Turkish war, participating in the Asia Minor campaign of the Greek army. After the battle for the heights of Alpanos, he was awarded the "Golden Distinction for Bravery." In 1922-1937. Davakis continued to serve in the armed forces, combining alternate command of military units and scientific and teaching work. He managed to serve as chief of staff of the 2nd Division and 1st Army Corps, taught at a military school, wrote a number of scientific works on military history and tactics of armored forces. In 1931, Davakis was promoted to lieutenant colonel, but in 1937, only forty years, a promising commander retired. This was facilitated by the deterioration of health due to injuries and wounds received in numerous battles.
Nevertheless, Davakis continued to engage in military science. In particular, he put forward the idea of using tanks to break through the defense line and then pursue the enemy. According to Davakis, tanks and armored vehicles had a clear advantage in operations against fortified defensive lines and helped the infantry to move forward. Modern historians consider the Greek Colonel Konstantinos Davakis to be one of the founders of the concept of using motorized infantry formations.
When in August 1940 it was already clear that fascist Italy would sooner or later launch an attack on Greece, a partial military mobilization was carried out in the country. Forty-three-year-old Davakis was also called from the reserve (pictured). Recalling his front-line services, the command appointed the colonel to the post of commander of the 51st Infantry Regiment. Then, for the defense of the Pindus ridge, the Pindskaya brigade was formed, consisting of several infantry, cavalry and artillery units and subunits.
The brigade consisted of two infantry battalions transferred from the 51st Infantry Regiment, a cavalry detachment, an artillery battery and several smaller units. The headquarters of the Pindus brigade is located in the village of Eptachorion. Colonel Konstantinos Davakis was appointed commander of the Pindus brigade. The general command of the border troops concentrated on the Greek-Albanian border was carried out by General Vasilios Vrahnos. After the Italian army launched its invasion of Greece on October 28, 1940, it was the border troops concentrated in Epirus that were the first to meet it.
A much more numerous and well-armed Italian division "Julia" was thrown against the Pindus brigade. Colonel Davakis was in charge of 35 kilometers of the front line. He expected more powerful reinforcements of the Greek army, so he switched to defensive tactics. However, two days after the Italian attack, on November 1, 1940, Colonel Davakis, at the head of the brigade forces, launched a brave counterattack on the Italian forces. The Julia Division was forced to retreat. During the next battle near the village of Drosopigi, the colonel was seriously wounded in the chest. When one of the officers ran up to him, Davakis ordered to consider himself dead and not to be distracted by his own salvation, but to engage in defense. Only when the colonel lost consciousness was he loaded onto a stretcher and transported to Eptahori, where the headquarters of the Pinda brigade was located. Two days later, Davakis regained consciousness, but felt bad. The officer had to move to the rear. Major Ioannis Karavias replaced him as brigade commander.
The victory of the Pindus Brigade over the Italian division "Julia" was one of the first examples of brilliant action against the armed forces of the Axis. So little Greece showed the whole world that the descendants of the heroic three hundred Spartans are always ready to fight those who will encroach on the country's independence. Military historians are convinced that one of the main reasons for the victory of the Davakis brigade was the tactical error of the Italian division commander. The colonel was able to instantly recognize this error and promptly respond to it. As a result of the actions of Davakis, the units of the Greek army that arrived in time were able not only to repulse the onslaught of the Italians, but also to transfer the hostilities to the territory of neighboring Albania. For fascist Italy, this was a serious blow. In December 1940, the offensive of the Greek army continued. The Greeks occupied the key cities of Epirus - Korca and Gjirokastra. At the same time, General Papagos expressed fears that sooner or later Hitlerite Germany would enter the war on the side of Italy. Therefore, he suggested in no case to retreat, but to undertake a further offensive, not giving the Italian troops a minute of peace. Lieutenant General Ioannis Pitsikas, who commanded the Epirus army of the Greek armed forces, proposed organizing an offensive on the Klisoura crossing, which was of strategic importance.
The operation to seize control of the Klisura crossing began on January 6, 1941. Its development and implementation was directed by the headquarters of the 2nd Army Corps, which sent the 1st and 11th Infantry Divisions to the Klisur crossing. Despite the fact that from the Italian side the tanks of the 131st Centaur Panzer Division went on the offensive, the Greek troops managed to destroy the Italians' tanks with artillery fire. As a result of four days of fighting, Greek troops occupied the Klisoura pass. Naturally, the Italians immediately launched a counterattack. The 7th Infantry Division "Wolves of Tuscany" and the team of climbers "Julia" were thrown into the Greek positions. They were opposed by only four Greek battalions, but the Italians were again defeated. On January 11, the "Wolves of Tuscany" division was completely defeated, after which the passage of Klisur was completely under the control of the Greek troops. The capture of the Klisoura gorge was another impressive victory for the Greek army in this war. The Greeks continued their offensive, which was stopped only on January 25 - and then because of the deteriorating weather. Nevertheless, winter in the mountains turns out to be a serious obstacle even for the most courageous warriors.
The Italian command did not want to put up with the defeats from the Greek army that had entered the system. Moreover, this dealt a severe blow to the pride of Benito Mussolini himself, who imagined himself to be a great conqueror. In March 1941, the Italian army again launched a counteroffensive, trying to return the positions captured by Greek troops. This time, Benito Mussolini himself, who hastily arrived in the Albanian capital Tirana, watched the course of hostilities. But the presence of the Duce did not help the Italian troops. The Italian spring offensive, under which name this operation entered world military history, after a week of fighting ended with a new complete defeat of the Italian troops. During the Italian Spring Offensive, a new example of the heroism of the Greek soldiers was the feat of a / 5 infantry battalion defending Hill 731 in Albania. The battalion was commanded by Major Dimitrios Kaslas (1901-1966). Kaslas was a typical example of a native of the lower classes - a peasant son who worked in a bakery in his youth and graduated from evening school, he entered the military service, at 23 passed the examinations for an officer's rank and became a junior lieutenant. However, promotion was difficult and in 1940, at the start of the war, Kaslas was still a captain and only then was promoted to major for the difference in battles. Despite the fact that the Italian troops attacked the hill 18 times, they invariably suffered defeat and retreated. The battle at the 731st height entered the world history as "New Thermopylae".
The complete failure of the Italian spring offensive has confused all the maps of the Axis leadership. Adolf Hitler was forced to come to the aid of an ally. On April 6, 1941, German troops launched an offensive into Greece from the side of Bulgaria. They managed to get out through the southern Yugoslav lands to the rear of the Greek troops who fought in Albania against the Italians. On April 20, 1941, Lieutenant General Georgios Tsolakoglou, commander of the Western Macedonian Army, signed the act of surrender, although this was in direct violation of the order of the Greek commander-in-chief Papagos. After the surrender, the German-Italian-Bulgarian occupation of Greece began. But even under the occupation, the Greek patriots continued their armed struggle against the occupiers. Most of the officers and soldiers of the Greek army did not go over to the side of the collaborators.
The fates of the main participants in the Italian-Greek war developed in different ways. The most tragic was the fate of a real hero - Colonel Konstantinos Davakis. While Konstantinos Davakis was being treated in the hospital for his injury, the troops of Nazi Germany arrived to the aid of the Italian army, which was suffering more and more defeats from the Greek troops. Overwhelming enemy forces managed to occupy Greece, although the partisan resistance of the Greek patriots continued until the end of World War II. The invaders began mass purges. First of all, all potentially unreliable elements were arrested, including patriotic officers and former officers of the Greek army. Of course, Colonel Davakis was also among those arrested. In the city of Patras, the prisoners were loaded onto the steamer "Chita di Genova" and were going to be sent to Italy, where the officers were supposed to be placed in a concentration camp. But on the way to the Apennines, the steamer was torpedoed by a British submarine, after which it sank off the coast of Albania. In the area of the city of Avlona (Vlore), the corpse of Konstantinos Davakis was thrown into the sea. The dead colonel was identified by the local Greeks, who buried him nearby. After the war, the body of Konstantinos Davakis was honorably reburied in Athens - the colonel is still honored as one of the most prominent national heroes of Greece during the Second World War.
The hero of New Thermopylae, Major Dimitrios Kaslas (pictured) survived and became involved in the Greek Resistance. Initially, he served in the pro-British EDES forces, but was then captured by the communists from ELAS and went over to their side. He commanded the 52nd ELAS Infantry Regiment and took part in battles against the invaders. After the war, from 1945 to 1948, he was in exile - as a member of ELAS, but then he was amnestied and dismissed from the Greek army with the rank of lieutenant colonel - as recognition of his front-line merits. Caslas died in 1966.
General Alexandros Papagos in 1949 received the rank of stratarch - the Greek analogue of the marshal rank, and until 1951 was the commander-in-chief of the Greek army, and from 1952 to 1955. served as Prime Minister of Greece. General Ioannis Pitsikas was captured by the Nazis and sent to a concentration camp. In 1945, he was liberated from Dachau by American troops arriving in time. After his release, he retired with the rank of lieutenant general, some time later was the mayor of Athens and the minister for Northern Greece, and died in 1975 at the age of 94. Collaborator General Tsolakoglu, after the liberation of Greece from the Nazis, was sentenced to death by a Greek court. Then the sentence was changed to life imprisonment, but already in 1948 Tsolakoglu died in prison from leukemia.
