Comments by "Nicholas Conder" (@nicholasconder4703) on "“Send us Wheat or Coffins” | The Axis Occupation of Greece WW2" video.

  1. Apart from the Italians botched invasion of Greece in 1940, I think the other reason the Germans decided to invade and occupy Greece was because they remembered (although never admitted) how they lost WWI. The front that sealed the fate of the Central Powers in 1918 was the Salonika front. When the Allies broke out of Salonika the Bulgarian army collapsed, and Bulgaria surrendered shortly thereafter. Suddenly there was nothing to stop the Allied armies in the Balkans from marching straight to Constantinople, Vienna or even Berlin. As the scale of the catastrophe became apparent, first the Ottomans (with the British Army approaching Adrianople), then the Austro-Hungarians (on the verge of being pushed completely out of Serbia) surrendered. Germany, completely engaged and losing on the Western Front suddenly discovered it had a completely exposed southern flank with at least 4 Allied armies (French, Italian and Serbian) marching north at great speed. Indeed, by November 1918 the Allied armies were on the verge of liberating Belgrade, and Germany had nothing substantial to stop them. So, if any of the German General Staff in 1941 was not drinking the magic Kool-aid of the "stabbed in the back" myth, they would realize the danger posed by Yugoslavia and Greece from their defeat in WWI. So, I think the invasion or coercion of Greece was likely "in the cards" anyway. The British presence and Italian issues in Albania are just good casus belli, nothing more.
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