The Italian spring offensive is the battle of the Italo-Greek War , which lasted from March 9 to 16, 1941 . The last attempt of the Italian army to defeat the Greek army, which by the beginning of the events described had advanced deep into the territory controlled by the Italians of Albania [1] . The offensive began under the personal supervision of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and ended a week later with a complete failure [2] .
| Italian spring offensive | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Main Conflict: Italo-Greek War | |||
 Italian spring offensive | |||
| date of | March 9 - 16, 1941 | ||
| A place | South Albania | ||
| Total | Defeat of Italy. Intervention in the conflict of Germany . | ||
| Opponents | |||
| |||
| Commanders | |||
| |||
| Forces of the parties | |||
| |||
| Losses | |||
| |||
Content
Background
On October 28, 1940 , when World War II was in full swing, fascist Italy declared war on Greece. The Italian units unsuccessfully tried to leave Albania in northwestern Greece. Soon they were thrown back, and the Greek army launched a counterattack deep into the territory of Albania [3] .
In February 1941, Italians took vigorous measures to strengthen the Italian line of defense. By the end of the month, 15 Italian divisions taking part in hostilities in Albania were reinforced by another 10 divisions. To raise morale, Mussolini ordered the military units to be accompanied by the most active leaders of the fascist party, government ministers and high-ranking officials [4] .
Battle Progress
The operation was supposed to be under the direction and supervision of Mussolini himself, who arrived in the Albanian capital Tirana on March 2, 1941 [4] , while Italian radio announced that Mussolini would personally lead the attack [5] . The offensive began on March 9 [6] under the command of General Carlo Geloso, after a powerful shelling of the Greek army by Italian artillery and bombardment by aircraft [4] . The attack was carried out by 11 infantry divisions and the 131st Panzer Division Centaur [7] ( Italian: Centauro ).
The continuous attacks of the Italian infantry were directed mainly against the 1st, 2nd, 5th, 11th, 15th and 17th divisions of the Greek army. A stubborn battle took place between the Osumi and Vyos rivers, in a region dominated by the heights of Mount Trebeshina [7] . On March 14, the Italian general Hugo Cavalieri , seeing that the attacks could not penetrate the line of Greek defense, recommended Mussolini to stop the attack [8] . Fierce fighting took place around the height of "731", which the Italians attacked 18 times. The height was defended by a под / 5 battalion under the command of D. Caslas . On the other hand, the Greek army used an active defense strategy, which included both prepared and unprepared counterattacks, when the Italians approached the defense line, and the systematic skillful use of the terrain. Moreover, the decisive factors of the Italian defeat were the inability of the Italian artillery to suppress the Greek and high morale of the Greek army [4] .
Consequences
After the Italian defeat, Nazi Germany, which was preparing a war against the USSR, was forced to come to the aid of its ally [9] , since the Greek troops were only 10 miles from the strategically important Albanian port of Vlora [10] .
On April 6, 1941, German troops launched an offensive from the territory of their allied Bulgaria and, having met resistance from a few Greek units on the Greek-Bulgarian border, passed through southern Yugoslavia to Thessaloniki to the rear of the main forces of the Greek army fighting in Albania. Capitulation followed, in violation of the order [11] , of a part of the Greek generals on April 20 and the triple German-Italian-Bulgarian occupation of Greece.
After the German intervention and the subsequent occupation of Greece, the height “731” was proclaimed by the Italians as a sacred territory due to the heavy losses suffered around it [4] .
Notes
- ↑ Andrew L. Zapantis. Greek-Soviet relations, 1917-1941 . - East European Monographs, 1982. - S. 428, 584. - ISBN 9780880330046 .
- ↑ John Keegan, Sydney L. Mayer. The Rand McNally encyclopedia of World War II . - Rand McNally, 1977 .-- S. 600.
- ↑ Ian Dear, Foot Michael Richard Daniell. The Oxford companion to World War II . - Oxford University Press, 2001 .-- 600 p. - ISBN 9780198604464 .
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 MV Sakellariou. Epirus, 4000 years of Greek history and civilization . - Ekdotike Athenon, 1997. - S. 395-398. - ISBN 9789602133712 . (inaccessible link)
- ↑ Stephanos Zōtos. Greece: the struggle for freedom . - Crowell, 1967 .-- S. 39.
- ↑ Charles Greig Cruickshank. Greece, 1940-1941 . - Davis-Poynter, 1976 .-- S. 130.
- ↑ 1 2 Richard B. Manchester. Incredible Facts: The Indispensable Collection of True Life Facts and Oddities . - BBS Publishing Corporation, 1994. - S. 146. - ISBN 9780883657089 .
- ↑ Kōstas N. Chatzēpateras, Maria S. Phaphaliou, Patrick Leigh Fermor. Greece 1940–41 eyewitnessed . - Efstathiadis Group, 1995 .-- S. 146. - ISBN 9789602265338 .
- ↑ Andrew L. Zapantis. Hitler's Balkan campaign and the invasion of the USSR . - East European Monographs, 1987. - S. 54. - ISBN 9780880331258 .
- ↑ Frank Gervasi. Thunder over the Mediterranean . - McKay, 1975 .-- S. 273. - ISBN 9780679505082 .
- ↑ [100 + 1 χρόνια Ελλάδα, Ά τόμος 1900-1949, σελ.261]