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Emanuele Grazie (Italian ambassador) sent an ultimatum from Benito Mussolini to Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas.It was demanded that Metaxas allowed the Italian army in Albania to have complete free access to enter and occupy strategic sites in Greece whenever they wanted (basically stating that Greece accepts complete control of Italy).
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Metaxas replied to this message by writing "Alors, c'est la guerre" which meant "Then, it is war". This was translated into "Oxi" (meaning "no" in greek) by the citizens of Athens.
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5:30 A.M. - The Italian army unleashed over the Greek-Albanian border into the mountainous Pindos region of Northern Greece. War broke and it was heated.
-World War 2 was already raging at this point in time
-Greeks had a type of spontaneous and collective reaction; they would chant in the street and sing patriotic songs and chanting "OXI" (meaning, "NO!") -
Italy and Greece throughout 6 months continued to fight. The Italian army entered Greece through the Pindos Mountains. They met fierce and unexpected resistance. When the Italians moved southward towards the city of Ioannina, the Greek army took the heights, attacking the Italians from above.
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The Greek army were less equipped than the Italian army (also, there were less people in the Greek army).
The weather was so bad that it was hard to even send weapons to the Greek army. It also affected the Italian army negatively because death occured due to the harsh weather conditions. -
Metaxas dies suddenly from an inflammation of the pharynx that led to a toxic infection. This was completely unexpected.
Alexandros Koryzis, the Governor of the Bank of Greece, got put into office. -
Mussolini supervised a brutal attack that was made to drive the Greeks from Southern Albania. Even though he tried really hard, he failed miserably and he was humiliated and furious by how things were ending up for him and his troops.
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Alexandros Koryzis committed suicide by shooting himself rather than face the German entry into Athens. The German troops bombarded and entered the city, drove to the Acropolis and tore down the Greek flag and replaced it with a Swastika.
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Though Greece didn't have the power to do it, they moved the axis power towards Albania which was incredible.
It was so surprising that Hitler was upset with Mussolini for allowing Greece to win and dominate.
In the end, the Germans were forced to delay the invasion of Russia in order to defeat and overcome the Greeks when the Italians failed in their efforts. This delay proved fatal for the Germans, extending their campaign against the USSR into the brutal winter. -
"When the entire world had lost all hope, the Greek people dared to question the invincibility of the German monster raising against it the proud spirit of freedom" --Franklin Roosevelt
"Hence we will not say that Greeks fight like heroes, but that heroes fight like Greeks." --Winston Churchill
"The Greek people delayed the German divisions during the time they could bring us to our knees." - Georgy Zhukov, Soviet Field Marshall -
