TheSecondWar.pl

Balkans

Front

(59)

1939

April

07
- Italy invades AlbaniaOn Good Friday, 7 April 1939, Italian troops landed in four Albanian ports. Zog I fled to Greece and the crown was given to Victor Emmanuel III.

1940

August

15
- The sinking of the cruiser ElliOn 15 August 1940 the Italian submarine Delfino sank the Greek cruiser Elli off Tinos. Athens knew the culprit but spoke of an “unknown” submarine.

October

28
- Key eventItaly attacks GreeceAt 3 a.m. on 28 October 1940 Metaxas rejected the Italian ultimatum. At dawn Mussolini’s troops advanced from Albania into Greece.

November

December

1941

January

10
- The Greeks take the Klisura PassOn 10 January 1941 the Greek II Corps took the Klisura Pass on the Vjosa in Albania, opening the road to Berat. An Italian relief division disintegrated.

February

21
- The Germans on the DanubeIn February 1941 the German Twelfth Army waited in Romania to enter Bulgaria. The Danube bridges were due on 28 February, as Britain readied help for Greece.

March

April

May

July

13
- The uprising in MontenegroOn 13 July 1941, the day after Italy proclaimed a puppet Kingdom of Montenegro, an uprising broke out there. Within days it had engulfed most of the country.

September

28
- The Drama uprisingOn the night of 28–29 September 1941 Greeks around Drama rose against Bulgarian occupation. The Bulgarians crushed the revolt and shot thousands of civilians.

November

02
- The split between the Partisans and the ChetniksOn 2 November 1941 Mihailović’s Chetniks attacked Tito’s Partisans at Užice. The feud between Serbia’s two resistance movements became open civil war.

1942

June

07
- The first action of ELASOn 7 June 1942, in the village of Domnista in Evrytania, Aris Velouchiotis and a dozen partisans announced the start of ELAS's fight against Greece's occupiers.

September

20
- The PEAN bombing in AthensOn 20 September 1942 the resistance group PEAN blew up the Athens offices of ESPO, a collaborationist party recruiting Greeks to fight for Germany in the east.

November

25
- The Gorgopotamos viaduct blown upDuring the night of 25–26 November 1942 British SOE sappers and ELAS and EDES partisans blew up the Gorgopotamos viaduct on the Salonika–Athens railway.

1943

March

12
- The liberation of KarditsaOn 12 March 1943 the Italian garrison left Karditsa in Thessaly and ELAS partisans entered. Greeks call it the first free town in Europe.

May

15
- Case BlackOn 15 May 1943 Germany and its allies launched Case Black, the fifth offensive against Tito's Partisans in Montenegro, also aimed at the Chetniks.

July

05
- The National Bands Agreement in GreeceOn 5 July 1943 ELAS joined an agreement with the British Military Mission that placed the Greek guerrillas under a joint headquarters.

August

01
- Key eventOperation Tidal WaveOn 1 August 1943 US Liberators attacked the Ploiești refineries at very low level. Nearly a third of the aircraft were lost; the damage was soon repaired.

September

November

29
- The second session of AVNOJ at JajceOn 29 November 1943 at Jajce in Bosnia the partisan council AVNOJ declared itself Yugoslavia's supreme authority, set up Tito's government and barred the king.

December

1944

March

June

10
- The Distomo massacreOn 10 June 1944 troops of the 4th SS Polizei Panzergrenadier Division murdered 218 inhabitants of the Greek village of Distomo and burned it down.

September

October

November

December

1945

January

15
- The Athens truceOn 15 January 1945 a truce between ELAS and the British came into force, ending the Dekemvriana – the battle for Athens that the Greek left had lost.

May