History
GREECE
28th October 1940 (the Second World War)
By Vasilis
time constituted the first victory of the
Allies against the Axis.
The German attack in April 1941, in
support of the Italians, resulted in the
occupation of Greece and the transition of
the country into a state of Occupation, a
period marked by many trials for the
Greek people, who experienced the Nazi
‘New Order’ in their turn. From the very
beginning the Greek people responded to
foreign Fascist occupation with stern
resistance, that soon took the form of a
huge popular uprising uniting the majority
of Greeks in the common struggle.
Resistance organizations fought on the
mountains and in the cities of Greece and
struck blows against the occupying
powers by participating in wider Allies’
missions, while in Africa and later in
Europe Greek military forces supported
the struggle of the Allies abroad.
The involvement of Greece in the Second
World War began on 28 October 1940
when Italy declared war on Greece.
Mussolini proceeded to include Greece in
his expansionist plans for the eastern
Mediterranean while at the same time
hoping to demonstrate his capacity for
victory to his ally Hitler. From this date
the Greek-Italian war began in the
mountains of Albania, which turned into a
major focal point of national unanimity,
determination and anti-Fascist spirit and
ended in a series of impressive and
unexpected successes that at the same
Greece was liberated in October 1944,
but the euphoria of Liberation was
immediately succeeded by the impasse of
domestic political conflicts. As well as
liberation from the conquerors, the Greek
resistance struggle was aimed at social
and political reforms that would apply
after the departure of the invader from
the country, expressing the demand of
the Greek people for a better future and
the restoration of democratic legality,
especially following the experience of the
dictatorial Regime of Metaxas. Such aims
– expressed on the one hand by the main
resistance organization EAM/ELAS, and on
the other by other resistance
oragnizations and the exiled royalist