Crete fell a week later.įrom 1941 to 1944, Greece would be occupied mainly by German forces, constantly under harassment by the Greek Resistance, one of the most successful resistance movements of the war. By 27 April, Athens had fallen, and by the end of the month the entire Greek mainland was captured. The capture of Thessaloniki forced the defenders to surrender on the 10th of April and the Metaxas Line battle was over. Finally,German forces bypassed the Metaxas fortifications and crossed the Yugoslavian borders, overcame Yugoslav and Greek resistance and captured Thessaloniki on the 9th of April. German troops after three days of fight encountered fierce resistance and had little success breaching the undermanned Metaxas Line defending the Bulgarian border. Greece would ultimately fall when Germany, fearful of substantial United Kingdom intervention in the conflict, launched its own invasion from Bulgaria on 6 April, 1941. The front would largely remain unchanged, save for another failed Italian offensive in March 1941. Greek forces soon invaded Albania in December, but would later stop advancing and hold positions at key defending positions by January 1941 due to dangerously low supplies. In late November, the Greeks counterattacked, pushing the Italians back into Albania.
Italian troops invaded Greece via Albania in October of 1940, but by November unexpectedly stiff resistance from the Greek Army turned the invasion into a humiliating disaster. Metaxas is popularly reputed to reply with one word: "No." However, historical consensus states that he most likely said "Then, it's war." Mussolini, envisioning an Italian puppet in Greece, sent Metaxas an ultimatum in late 1940, which called for Italian troops to occupy unspecified strategic positions in Greece. The Kingdom of Greece under the 4th of August regime led by Ioannis Metaxas would see Italian expansionism creep to its borders in the form of Italy's annexation of Albania in 1939.
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