WI Allies invaded Greece instead of Sicily in 1943?

Don_Giorgio

I was reading about Operation Mincemeat and how Germans were fooled to believe that Allies would invade Greece instead of Italy thus moving their forces in Peloponese (Hitler even sent Rommel to assume command of the defence in Athens).

I was wondering... If invasion in Peloponese wasnt a mere decoy and it was an actual full blown attack in Germans in Greece how would this have altered History?
 

MattII

Invading an area with not-too brilliant infrastructure while being a long way from any land-based support? Might as well try taking the Frisian Islands in 1944.
 

Don_Giorgio

MattII said:
Invading an area with not-too brilliant infrastructure while being a long way from any land-based support? Might as well try taking the Frisian Islands in 1944.
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Well its a mountainous area and Germans had problems in 1941. I tend to blieve that if the Allies had secure some area in South Peloponese and/or Crete they could coordinate the attack from there.
 

The Red

Basically a worse Italy, a meatgrinder with little return to secure an area which Stalin had left to British influence anyway.
 

jamsodonnell

I can't see what strategic benefit there would be to invading Greece. While liberating any land from Nazi control is good it is not an action that will hasten the downfall of the Reich.
 

Don_Giorgio

Now i am wondering... If Italy was such an obvious target and Greece wasnt of strategic importance what were Germans thinking when they believed the decoy the Btitish sent in operation Mincemeat?
 

jamsodonnell

Don_Giorgio said:
Now i am wondering... If Italy was such an obvious target and Greece wasnt of strategic importance what were Germans thinking when they believed the decoy the Btitish sent in operation Mincemeat?
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Presumably for the same reason that forces were pinned in Norway and the Pas de Calais when the Normandy beaches were the target
 

deathscompanion1

Banned
What troops?

The Americans barely tollerated the Italian front and made it clear that any Balkan activity would be a purely commonwealth affair.
 

bsmart

How do you supply an offensive up into Greece if you don't secure the Sicilian Narrows? If the Axis continue to hold Sicily you have to fight every shipload of supplies through the narrows or take the long way around Africa. Once you control Sicily you can route through convoys along the African coast and stay well away from Axis bases opening up the Suez route for Supplies heading to the USSR through Iran. In the eastern Med you don't have that problem since the wider basin allows you to route away from axis held territory (Which would actually be Crete)

It made sense to capture Sicily and maybe Southern Italy (Maybe up to Naples/Foggia) but except for the honor of capturing Rome there was no reason to go beyond that point.

Greece gains you nothing
 

Alex1guy

bsmart said:
How do you supply an offensive up into Greece if you don't secure the Sicilian Narrows? If the Axis continue to hold Sicily you have to fight every shipload of supplies through the narrows or take the long way around Africa. Once you control Sicily you can route through convoys along the African coast and stay well away from Axis bases opening up the Suez route for Supplies heading to the USSR through Iran. In the eastern Med you don't have that problem since the wider basin allows you to route away from axis held territory (Which would actually be Crete)

It made sense to capture Sicily and maybe Southern Italy (Maybe up to Naples/Foggia) but except for the honor of capturing Rome there was no reason to go beyond that point.

Greece gains you nothing
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This.

Greece would be hard to re-supply and offers little that Sicily doesn't.
 
Andre27

Andre27

Banned
Don_Giorgio said:
Now i am wondering... If Italy was such an obvious target and Greece wasnt of strategic importance what were Germans thinking when they believed the decoy the Btitish sent in operation Mincemeat?
Click to expand...

Greece was an option because of the British involvement early in the war, because a push upward through Greece could potentially threaten the supply line for German troops in South Russia in addition to taking Romania out of the equation.

The Italian front was a more direct route to Germany and could direct forces away from the planned landings in Normandy and the South of France.
 

Carl Schwamberger

Don_Giorgio said:
Now i am wondering... If Italy was such an obvious target and Greece wasnt of strategic importance what were Germans thinking when they believed the decoy the Btitish sent in operation Mincemeat?
Click to expand...

The Germans (Hitler) were a little confused about these things. Herr H saw the oil refineries of Rumania as exposed to any Allied airbases in Greece or Crete, a Allied invasion of Greece would be a prelude to cutting off Germany from nuetral Turkey & whatever resources that may have come to Germany from there. Remember Hitler was the guy who thought the islands of Jersey & Guernsey were important stratigic shields to the european continent.
 

Just Leo

Churchill was the guy who thought the Dodecanese Islands were vital. The Aegean battles weren't an auspicious occasion, although they spawned a good book, and a movie about some guns.
 
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