![]() Yet, the Greeks overcame these crucial disadvantages by effective concentration of force, tactical deftness, and extraordinary willin short, with stubborn determination the Greeks outmaneuvered and outfought the Italians. Conversely, the more modern and well-equipped Italian military enjoyed comparatively limitless reserves of manpower and material. ![]() The modestly armed and somewhat antiquated Greek army was greatly outnumbered and had to divide its forces along two fronts, defending against a possible invasion from Bulgaria in the northeast while facing the Italians along the Albanian border in the northwest. Indeed, when the Italians invaded Greece from positions in Albania at the close of October 1940, world opinion was justified in believing that Greece would be quickly vanquished and occupied. The now legendary airborne assault against Crete marked the culmination of the German campaign to conquer Greece and Yugoslavia in the spring of 1941, an invasion Hitler had not originally anticipated but was forced to launch because of Mussolini’s shocking failure to defeat the Greeks in the fall of 1940. ![]() May 2011 marked the seventieth anniversary of the Battle of Crete, one of the most extraordinary and significant operations of the Second World War. Reassessing Operation Merkur: The Significance of the Battle of Crete, May 1941Īssociate Professor of History, Salem State University ![]()
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