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On October 28 , 1940 , Italy attacked Greece from bases in Albania , which it had annexed in 1939 . Benito Mussolini , Il Duce , hoped success in the invasion would make up for the disappointing Italian invasion of France of June 1940 . Mussolini had issued a three-hour Ultimatum to Greece, complaining about Greece's "non-neutral" attitude towards Italy. On the day Italian troops invaded Greece, a buoyant Mussolini declared to Adolf Hitler that "we are on the move." Soon, Britain declared its support for Greece and Turkey declared neutrality. However, to Mussolini's chagrin, the Greeks held out with valiant resistance. Italian troops began a big offensive in Greece in early November, but the Greeks swiftly defeated it and entered southern Albania. The Greek First Army spearheaded the offensive into Albania. The Greeks captured cities and ports and defeated the Italian Ninth Army , stunning Italy. In December 1940, Mussolini had to ask Hitler for help in the Greek Campaign . In January 1941 , German troops began arriving in Italy and Bulgaria in order to launch the invasion of Greece. Hitler had forced Yugoslavia and Bulgaria to join the Tripartite Pact . At the end of that month, Greek premier General Ioannis Metaxas died and was succeeded by Alexandros Korizis . Since the Greek entrance into Albania in 1940 Italian armies had repeatedly launched offensives against the Greek First Army, all of which were not very successful. In March 1941 the Italians launched yet another attack on the First Army, which made very little progress. With the Italian Army still stuck in Greece, German, Italian, and Hungarian forces invaded Greece in early April. Soon the Germans defeated the Greek Second Army and broke through the Metaxas Line , capturing Thessaloniki . On April 13 , at which time the German troops had captured most of Yugoslavia ( Axis troops had invaded Yugoslavia also after a Communist government took control in March) and were penetrating into Greece, the Italian Eleventh Army began pushing back the Greek First Army and the rest of the Greek troops still in Albania. On April 18 , Korizis committed suicide after Athens was put under martial law. Athens was captured by Axis troops on April 27 and by the end of the month all of Greece was under Axis control. The entire Hellenic Army had surrendered on April 21 to the Infanterie-Regiment (mot.) ''Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler'' under SS- Obergruppenführer Sepp Dietrich . In May, German troops invaded and captured Crete . SEE ALSO |
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