World War II Day by Day

German 12th Army HQ, Larissa, Greece · April 21, 1941

On this date in 1941 representa­tives of the Greek govern­ment, leader­less after Prime Minis­ter Alexan­dros Koryzis com­mitted sui­cide three days earlier, signed a docu­ment of capi­tu­la­tion at the head­quarters of the Ger­man 12th Army at Larissa in Central Greece. Fourteen Greek divisions laid down their arms.

The news that Greece had surren­dered to his Axis part­ner rather than to Italy infuri­ated Ital­ian dictator Benito Mus­so­lini. It was the Duce’s plan to domi­nate South­eastern Europe that had trig­gered the Ital­ian inva­sion of Greece from neighboring Albania almost six months earlier, on October 28, 1940, an inva­sion that took Adolf Hitler com­pletely by surprise. That Hitler had to rescue Mus­so­lini from a Greek quag­mire of his own making was galling enough. Within days of invading Greece the Duce’s army was close to being defeated by inspired Greek military leadership and British arms (later men).

In a meeting between Mus­so­lini and Hitler in Ba­va­ria on Janu­ary 19–20, 1941, Hitler apprised his junior part­ner of Oper­a­tion Marita, which assumed that Yugo­sla­via would join the Axis alli­ance (Tri­par­tite Pact), allowing the German Army to attack the Greek-British defense line from the rear that spring.

After elements of the Yugoslav military overt­hrew the govern­ment of regent Prince Paul, who had signed the Axis pact under pressure, and placed 17‑year‑old King Peter II on the throne, Hitler launched an in­va­sion of Yugo­sla­via and Greece on April 6, 1941. Yugo­slavs signed the act of surren­der in their destroyed capital, Belgrade, eleven days later. Hitler smoothed Mus­so­lini’s feathers over Greece’s sur­ren­der to Ger­many by restaging the capitu­la­tion cere­mony two days later in Thess­alo­niki, Greece’s second largest city, with an Italian repre­sen­tative pre­sent. Two days later the Brit­ish flew the Greek king and govern­ment to the island of Crete, the first step in creating a Greek government-in-exile.

On April 27 Ger­man tanks entered Athens, and by month-end the Royal Navy had evac­u­ated what it could (50,000) of the Allied expedi­tion­ary force. In their disas­trous cam­paign in Greece, the Allies lost nearly 13,000 men, including 9,000 taken pri­soner, and all of their heavy equip­ment. Mus­so­lini’s army, in six months of cam­paigning, suffered over 76,000 casual­ties and 25,000 missing. Greek losses were close to 16,000 dead and missing and 300,000 taken pri­soner. German casualties in both countries were under 5,500.

The Axis Conquest of Yugoslavia and Greece, April 1941

Left: The German invasion of Yugo­slavia began on April 6, 1941, with an over­whelming air attack on Bel­grade and attacks by Ger­man land forces initially from Bul­garia. This photo pur­ports to show Yugo­slav soldiers laying down their arms on the day of the invasion.

Right: A German Panzer IV medium tank advancing into Yugo­sla­via from Bul­garia. In February 1941 the Bul­garian Gen­eral Staff had agreed to let Ger­man troops and equip­ment use their country as a staging area for Germany’s assault on Yugoslavia.

Left: Restaging the official surren­der of Greek forces to both the Ger­man and Ital­ian com­mands after Mus­so­lini had made a per­sonal repre­sen­tation to Hitler. Thessalo­niki, Greece, April 23, 1941.

Right: Greek forces lacked the equip­ment neces­sary to fight against Ger­man mo­tor­ized divi­sions and were soon en­circled and over­whelmed. This photo may show retreating or captured Greek soldiers.

Contemporary Newsreels of the Axis Conquest of Yugoslavia and Greece, April 1941