Battle of Greece
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The Battle of Greece referred to the invasion of Greece by Nazi Germany during World War II.
History
Forewarning
On 6 March 1941, the diary of Bernice Summerfield fell into the hands of Nazi Colonel Oskar Steinmann. The diary contained information about World War II to assist Summerfield during her travels through time. Although Steinmann dismissed her claims of being a time traveller, the diary's detailed accounts of German military operations against the British in Greece puzzled him. He briefly considered that it may have been an account from World War I, but accurate accounts of the earlier invasion of Romania and the Fall of Tobruk, both of which had recently taken place, suggested otherwise. (PROSE: Just War)
Invasion
A German campaign in Greece was later launched, taking place in April 1941 and seeing the involvement of the British. Summerfield's diary said of the campaign on 19 April: (PROSE: Just War)
The British had been outflanked by the Germans in the Pindus Mountains and were forced to withdraw. Four days later, on 23 April, the evacuation of Greece began.
Subsequently, mainland Greece and the Greek Islands all fell under German control, (PROSE: Deadly Reunion) becoming distant outposts of the Third Reich. (AUDIO: Persuasion)
Aftermath
Partisan movements emerged after the occupation. They constructed paths to allow for movement to be made in secret around the country, and into neighbouring Bulgaria, (PROSE: The Touch of the Nurazh) which the Germans had also entered at the start of March. (PROSE: Just War, AUDIO: Just War)
Towards the end of the war, the Germans were pushed back out of Eastern Europe by the ascendant Soviet Union. As the Axis forces retreated, communism spread into Germany, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia (PROSE: Endgame) and Czechoslovakia. (COMIC: The Broken Man) Greece threatened to follow suit shortly after the war when a communist rebellion broke out in the north of the mainland. Britain, although opting not to become directly involved because of domestic political issues, sent His Majesty's Intelligence Corps to the Peloponnese to develop updated maps of the islands. The existing British maps had become outdated following the British withdrawal in 1941 and they did not want the communists to be able to take advantage of this. (PROSE: Deadly Reunion)
