Download or read book Diary of a Disaster written by Robin Higham and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2014-07-11 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On October 28, 1940, the Italian army under Benito Mussolini invaded Greece. The British had insisted on guaranteeing Greek and Turkish neutrality, despite the fact that Greece was never more than a limited campaign in an unlimited war as far as they were concerned. The British, however, were never quite sure that Greece was not their last foothold in Europe, and they harbored dreams of holding on to this last bastion of civilization and of protecting it with a diplomatic and military alliance—a Balkan bloc. These dreams bore little relation to military and economic realities, and so the stage was set for tragedy. In Diary of a Disaster, Robin Higham details the unfolding events from the invasion, though the Italian defeat and the subsequent German invasion, until the British evacuation at the end of April 1941. The Greek army, while tough, was small and based largely upon reserves. They were also largely equipped with obsolete French, Polish, and Czech arms for which there was now no other source than captured Italian materiel. Transportation was also lacking as Greece lacked all-weather roads over much of the country, had no all-weather airport, and only one rail line connecting Athens with Salonika and Florina in the north. Added to the woes of the Greek military, the British commander-in-chief for the Middle East, Sir Archibald Wavell, faced huge logistical challenges as well. Based in Cairo, he was responsible for a huge theatre of operation, from hostile Vichy French forces in Syria to the Boers in South Africa nearly six thousand miles away. His air force was comprised of only a handful of modern aircraft with biplanes and outdated, early monoplanes making up the bulk of his force. Radar was also unavailable to him. His navy was woefully short on destroyers and often incommunicado while at sea. While Wavell had roughly 500,000 men under his command, he was severely limited in how he could use them. The South Africans could only be deployed in East Africa and the Austrians and New Zealanders could not be employed without the consent of their home governments. In short, Churchill had instructed Wavell to offer support that he did not really have and could not afford to give to the Greeks. Higham walks readers through these events as they unfold like a modern Greek tragedy. Using the format of a diary, he recounts day-by-day the British efforts though the failure of Operation Lustre, which no one outside of London thought had any chance of stemming the Nazi tide in Greece.

Download or read book Inside Hitler s Greece written by Mark Mazower and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2001-01-01 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Archival materials and first-hand accounts create an insightful study of the impact of the Nazi occupation of Greece on the lives, psyches, and values of ordinary people.

Download or read book Famine and Death in Occupied Greece 1941 1944 written by Violetta Hionidou and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2006-07-06 with total page 18 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a pioneering study of the impact of the famine that occurred in Greece during its occupation by German, Italian and Bulgarian forces in 1941 and 1942. Violetta Hionidou examines the courses and politics of this food crisis, focusing on the demography of the famine and the effectiveness of the relief operations. Her interdisciplinary approach combines demographic, historical and anthropological methodologies to offer a comprehensive account of the famine. This important study makes a major contribution to current debates about mortality and its causes during famines.

Download or read book The Struggle for Greece 1941 1949 written by Christopher Montague Woodhouse and published by Beekman Publishers. This book was released on 1979 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Woodhouse, Commander of the Allied Military Mission to the Greek Guerrillas in German-occupied Greece in 1943 and 1944, details the events that marked the "three rounds" in the Communist struggle for power during the Greek civil war

Download or read book New Voices in the Nation written by Janet Hart and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During World War II, movements organized to resist Nazi occupation grew throughout Europe. In Greece the resistance movement also involved an unprecedented opportunity for social and political change initiated by the largest organization, the National Liberation Front or EAM. Key leaders envisioned postwar Greece as a popular democracy structured to allow a range of new voices to be heard. Believing gender equality to be one of the hallmarks of modernity, they attempted to expand the category of "national citizen" to include women as well as men. Janet Hart describes, often in the words of the Greek women involved, how lives were transformed by active participation in the resistance against the Nazis and in the anticommunist aftermath of the war. Political action proved exhilarating for women who had grown up in a prewar world of narrowly constricted gender roles. Hart has interviewed many survivors, and their testimony transcends local boundaries to capture the experience of emancipation. New Voices in the Nation explores the historical memory of social transformation, finding in personal narrative a key to new conceptions of societal change. The author places the resistance movement in an international context by examining how the struggle to promote modern political culture among ordinary people took shape on the ground in the course of the battle against conquering Axis forces. Hart uses insights gleaned from former partisans, Italian leader and political philosopher Antonio Gramsci, histories of black consciousness, and her own perceptions as an African American to explore topics of compelling current concern: the relation between gender and political action, the role ofnationalism in the raising of gender-based consciousness, and the ways in which social movements, by challenging the political status quo, may ultimately find themselves targeted as threats to state equilibrium.

Download or read book The German Secret Field Police in Greece 1941 1944 written by Antonio J. Muñoz and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2018-03-08 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Geheime Feldpolizei (Secret Field Police) was the political police force of the German Army during World War II. Its members were drawn from both the regular German police, including detectives, and various Nazi security organizations. The goals of the GFP were numerous and included protecting important political and military leaders; investigating black market activities as well as acts of sabotage and espionage; locating deserters; examining anti-German activists and hunting down partisans. While performing these duties, GFP members immersed themselves in criminal activities. This book focuses on the function of the GFP in Greece compared to that of the GFP elsewhere in Europe.

Download or read book Occupation and Resistance written by John Louis Hondros and published by . This book was released on 1983 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Greece 1941 1974 written by George Kaloudis and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2023-05-22 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From 1941 to 1974, Greece experienced foreign occupation, civil war, dominance of government by the Right, and military dictatorship. Those in control and power for much of this period excluded, tormented, and killed many who resisted them or opposed them ideologically.

Download or read book The Untold History of Greek Collaboration with Nazi Germany 1941 1944 written by Markos Vallianatos and published by . This book was released on 2014-01-27 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores Greek collaboration with the Nazis during the Axis occupation of Greece in the Second World War, a topic that continues to be one of the biggest taboos in Greek society. It tells the mostly unknown story of the Greek quislings, an heterogeneous amalgam of fascists, germanophiles, anti-Semites, criminals and opportunists, but also of genuine patriots and ordinary citizens. It provides a clear picture on the Axis-held puppet governments in Athens and the court of radical Greek Nazi political organizations that supported them. It also examines specific aspects of collaboration, from the issuing of German-sponsored propaganda to the creation of paramilitary units to fight along the Wehrmacht, from the intrigues within the collaborationist government to the questionable economic profiteering of some locals. The book explains why so many Greeks chose to ally themselves with the enemy instead of choosing Resistance and reveals the most occult secrets of Greece.

Download or read book The Defence and Fall of Greece 1940 41 written by John Carr and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2013-07-02 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This military history of the WWII Battle of Greece presents a vivid and detailed account with special focus on the Greek forces defending their homeland. On October 28th, 1940, the Greek Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas refused to accept an ultimatum from Italy’s Fascist leader Benito Mussolini. Immediately upon his refusal, Italian forces began the invasion of Greece via Albania. This aggression was prompted by Mussolini's desire for a quick victory to rival Hitler's rapid conquest of France and the Low Countries. But Mussolini had underestimated the skill and determination of the defenders. Within weeks, the Italian invaders were driven back over the border and Greek forces actually advanced deep into Albania. Eventually, Hitler was forced to intervene, sending German forces into Greece via Bulgaria on April 6th. The Greeks, assisted by British forces, were overwhelmed by the Germans and their blitzkrieg tactics. After Athens fell on April 27th, the British evacuated to Crete. But the following month, German airborn troops invaded and eventually took the strategically vital island. John Carr's masterful account of these desperate campaigns draws heavily on Greek sources to emphasize the oft-neglected experience of Greeks soldiers and their contribution to the fight against fascism.

Download or read book Swastika over the Acropolis written by Craig Stockings and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2013-07-04 with total page 664 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Swastika over the Acropolis is a new, multi-national account which provides a new and compelling interpretation of the Greek campaign of 1941, and its place in the history of World War II. It overturns many previously accepted English-language assumptions about the fighting in Greece in April 1941 – including, for example, the impact usually ascribed to the Luftwaffe, German armour and the conduct of the Greek Army Further, Swastika over the Acropolis demonstrates that this last complete strategic victory by Nazi Germany in World War II is set against a British-Dominion campaign mounted as a withdrawal, not an attempt to ‘save’ Greece from invasion and occupation. At the same time, on the German side, the campaign revealed serious and systemic weaknesses in the planning and the conduct of large-scale operations that would play a significant role in the regime’s later defeats.

Download or read book Greece a Jewish History written by K. E. Fleming and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2010-04-04 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: K. E. Fleming's Greece--a Jewish History is the first comprehensive English-language history of Greek Jews, and the only history that includes material on their diaspora in Israel and the United States. The book tells the story of a people who for the most part no longer exist and whose identity is a paradox in that it wasn't fully formed until after most Greek Jews had emigrated or been deported and killed by the Nazis. For centuries, Jews lived in areas that are now part of Greece. But Greek Jews as a nationalized group existed in substantial number only for a few short decades--from the Balkan Wars (1912-13) until the Holocaust, in which more than 80 percent were killed. Greece--a Jewish History describes their diverse histories and the processes that worked to make them emerge as a Greek collective. It also follows Jews as they left Greece--as deportees to Auschwitz or émigrés to Palestine/Israel and New York's Lower East Side. In such foreign settings their Greekness was emphasized as it never was in Greece, where Orthodox Christianity traditionally defines national identity and anti-Semitism remains common.

Download or read book The Balkans 1940 41 1 written by Pier Paolo Battistelli and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-01-21 with total page 97 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first of two volumes on the Axis campaigns in the Balkans, exploring Mussolini's fateful decision to move against Greece in October 1940. The Greek President Metaxas rejected the Italian ultimatum with a famous 'Oxi' ('No'), and what followed was Italy's first debacle in World War II. In the wake of Italy's rapid annexation of Albania in April 1940, Mussolini's decision to attack Greece in October that year is widely acknowledged as a fatal mistake, leading to a domestic crisis and to the collapse of Italy's reputation as a military power (re-emphasized by the Italian defeat in North Africa in December 1940). The Italian assault on Greece came to a stalemate in less than a fortnight, and was followed a week later by a Greek counter-offensive that broke through the Italian defences before advancing into Albania, forcing the Italian forces to withdraw north before grinding to a half in January 1941 due to logistical issues. Eventually, the Italians took advantage of this brief hiatus to reorganize and prepare a counteroffensive, the failure of which marked the end of the first stage of the Axis Balkan campaign. The first of two volumes examining the Axis campaigns in the Balkans, this book offers a detailed overview of the Italian and Greek armies, their fighting power, and the terrain in which they fought. Complimented by rarely seen images and full colour illustrations, it shows how expectations of an easy Italian victory quickly turned into one of Mussolini's greatest blunders.

Download or read book The British and the Greek Resistance 1936 1944 written by André Gerolymatos and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2018-04-30 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between 1941 and 1944, the Germans and the Italians imposed a brutal occupation of Greece. This, as well as the outbreak of famine, drove many Greeks to join a variety of resistance movements in the mountains. The British government anticipated the German occupation of Europe and created the Special Operations Executive (SOE). One directorate of the SOE was responsible for partisan activity in the mountains and another directorate focused on encouraging espionage and sabotage in Greek cities. Over 3000 Greeks and British operated espionage networks that made a significant contribution to the war effort in the Mediterranean. Unfortunately the work of the spy and saboteur working in the shadows remained classified until the end of the twentieth century. The release of SOE documents in the twenty-first century provides an amazing insight into how intelligence operations were a critical part of the Allied victory of the Second World War. The aim of the book is to bring to life the stories of the ghosts of the shadow war.

Download or read book The Leibstandarte in Greece written by Branislav Radovic and published by Schiffer Publishing. This book was released on 2013-03-28 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This large-format book contains over 300 previously unpublished photographs in superb high-quality reproduction. Originally photographed in May 1941 by an SS-Kriegsberichter, the book depicts the 1st Battalion, Leibstandarte SS "Adolf Hitler" (LSSAH) during their victorious march through Greece in 1941. Among the many images are notable Waffen-SS personalities – including Peiper, Pleiss, Witt, Wünsche, Meyer, Wittmann, Himmler, and Dietrich – as well as clear, professional images of uniforms, vehicles and equipment, all fully captioned. Also included is a brief summary and map of the campaign, rank insignia illustrations, glossary of terms, plus several "then and now" images of the battalion crossing the Gulf of Patras in pursuit of retreating Allied forces.

Download or read book The German Campaigns in the Balkans spring 1941 written by and published by . This book was released on 1953 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Mussolini s Defeat at Hill 731 March 1941 written by John Carr and published by Pen and Sword Military. This book was released on 2020-12-28 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This WWII history examines the most consequential and hard-fought battle between Greek and Italian forces in Albania. On March 9th, 1941, the Italians launched their Spring Offensive, designed to stem four months of humiliating reverses. Watched by Mussolini himself, the operation’s objective was a pair of parallel valleys dominated by the Greek-held Hill 731. The Italian Eighth Corps, part of Geloso’s 11th Army, had the task of seizing the heights, spearheaded by 38 (Puglie) Division. Holding the position was the Greek 1 Division of II Corps, with 4 and 6 Division on the flanks. For seventeen days, after a massive artillery barrage, the Italians threw themselves against the Evzones on the hill—only to be repeatedly smashed with appalling losses. It was a merciless fight at close quarters, where bayonets held the place of honor but the battered Greeks held. Mussolini had wanted a spring victory to impress the Führer. Instead, the bloody debacle of Hill 731 could well have contributed to Hitler’s decision to postpone his invasion of Russia. John Carr sheds light on this consequential episode in the Mediterranean theater of operations.