WW2 - Invasion of Greece and Yugoslavia

Balkans Campaign The entry of Greece into the war was assured by Mussolini on May 5th 1940, when Italian troops garrisoned in Albania launched an invasion through the mountains of North-western Greece. Though small and inadequately equipped, the Greek army inflicted a series of crushing defeats on the Italians driving them back through the mountains and over the border into Albania. By mid January 1941, after a series of stunning counteroffensives, the Greeks had crossed the Albanian frontier and driven the Italians from the southernmost quarter of the country. The humiliation of Italy infuriated Hitler who had long opposed Mussolini’s Balkan ambitions, and had planned to secure peace in the region through diplomacy. These plans had now become untenable. The attack on Greece had driven that country into the arms of Britain, and brought British troops back onto the continent of Europe. The security of Greece and the Balkans had become a priority for Hitler. Since the Autumn of 1940 he had been prepari