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Chapter Twelve: Establishing the Plan
The year of 1942 had seen major gains for the Allies – the liberation of French Africa being the main gain of the year, yet the capture of the Dodecanese and the establishment of aerial superiority over the Balkans were also key Allied achievements. Yet, as the year dawned to a close and 1943 began, the leaders of the Allies began to wonder a key question – what would be the next move? There were numerous options open to Britain and her allies, yet a common idea espoused by generals and politicians alike was staging a landing somewhere in Europe, so as to ‘bring the fight to the Germans’. Of course, there were difficulties in staging landings anywhere along the Continent – Churchill was amongst the sceptics to organising a campaign in Europe, due to the potentially high casualty list such a campaign would result in. However, Churchill was eventually convinced by Brooke, who insisted that, if such a campaign were to take place in 1943, then the British Army would ensure that no life would be wasted and great care would be taken in planning and preparations. In addition to this, as Brooke’s argument went, landing in Europe would also result in many neutral nations who were previously wary of Nazi Germany following the invasion of Switzerland to finally tip over the edge and declare war on the Axis Powers.

And so, the planning began for a British and Commonwealth landing in Europe – yet this opened up a crucial question: Where to land? Of course, many Governments-in-exile who learnt of British preparations immediately made their own case for their respective nations – de Gaulle and the Free French argued vehemently for landings in France, as the most logical stepping stone towards Germany itself, while Orlando and the Free Italians argued for Sicily and then the Italian mainland, due to its vulnerable position. However, both of these options posed serious flaws for a landing – Northern France was essentially impenetrable due to a series of Nazi-built fortifications known as the ‘Atlantic Wall’, which would lead to a bloodbath for any British, Commonwealth, or Free French troops which attempted to land on the beaches. Meanwhile, Italy, while lacking any series of major coastal fortifications, had only recently been invaded by the Germans, and would therefore be host to numerous divisions still stationed there – which would make a landing incredibly difficult. There was, however, one site which offered potential for an Allied landing – Greece.

For a variety of reasons, Greece was an ideal location for a landing by British and Commonwealth troops – one was that, with Crete and the Dodecanese under Allied control, there was an easy route to land in Greece. Another was that, unlike Italy and France, there was not a significant number of German troops located in Greece – indeed, the large majority of the country was occupied by the Italian Social Republic (although, as time passed, more German divisions were performing garrison duties in Italian-occupied Greece, due to the proven instability of the Social Republic’s forces). In addition to this, since the capture of the Dodecanese, the RAF held air superiority over the Balkans, and so there would be little worry about the Luftwaffe (still in the process of re-building) potentially attacking Allied troops as the stormed the beaches. With these advantages, it was agreed by the British Joint Chiefs of Staff and Churchill’s Government that, in either mid-to-late 1943 or early 1944, landings would take place in Greece – the first strike by the Allies on the Continent.

And so, preparations began, starting in December 1943, for a British and Commonwealth landing in Greece, codenamed Operation Overlord. It was agreed that there would be seven landing sites on the Peloponnese Peninsula, which by far the most strategically sound location to land, due to its isolation from the rest of Greece, with the only land route connecting the peninsula to the rest of Greece being the narrow Isthmus of Corinth. The seven landing sites were planned to be as follows – Site A was near a remote village of Fokiano, located close to another, more populous village, called Poulithra. Site B was located near another village, Limin Ierka. Site C was close to the Cape of Maleas, although, in order to avoid the mountains which surrounded the cape, the landing would take place a few miles west of the cape, near the Agia Marina Paralia Petrified Forest – this would enable the soldiers landing to land on a flat beach, rather than a dangerous mountain, and instead advance between the mountains to reach flatter land to advance from. Site D would be the only landing not to take place on the Peloponnese, and would instead take place on the island of Kythira, an island south of the Peloponnese – this was due to the fact that, if all the landings took place on the peninsula, any Axis troops on the island would prove to be a thorn in the Allies’ side. The next landing site was Site E, which was located on beaches near the two villages of Leimonas and Elos. Site F was located near the Cape of Matapan, where, like Site C, there was the issue of mountainous terrain, which the landing troops were planned to navigate through by landing west of the cape, and advancing along the coast, thereby avoiding the mountainous areas. The final landing site was Site G, and was located near the village of Agios Nikolaos.

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Above: A map displaying the Allies’ planed landing sites. Dark blue indicates how far each landing force was planned to advance by the end of the first day of Overlord.

It was agreed that by British and Commonwealth commanders that the landings would be split between them. Site A would be undertaken by Montgomery’s XIV Corps, Site B would be undertaken by Auchinleck’s XVII Corps, Site C would be undertaken by Harry Crerar’s I Canadian Corps, Site D would be undertaken by Brian Horrock’s XVIII Corps, Site E would be undertaken by Thomas Blamey’s I Corps, Site F would be undertaken by Bernard Freyberg’s II New Zealand Corps, and Site G would be undertaken the sole corps of the Greek Government-in-exile, headed by Alexander Papagos. Combined, the landing force in Greece was planned to number roughly 350,000 soldiers in total.

Detailed plans were laid out for how the Allied forces would advance upon landing on the Greek coast – after establishing beacheads, it was agreed that the corps from Sites A, B and C would advance towards the first target of Overlord – Sparta – from the west, crossing the Parnonas mountains from the west to reach the city. Meanwhile, the corps from Sites F would approach Sparta from the south before linking up with the corps advancing from the west before reaching the city, while the corps from Sites F and G would advance towards Sparta from the east by crossing the Taygetos mountains. After all corps reached Sparta, the city would be besieged (if not already abandoned by the Germans and Italians), and, once captured, the Allied corps would split, with half going west, once again crossing the Taygetos, to capture Kalamata, and then proceeding north to capture Pyrgos. Meanwhile, the other corps would immediately advance north, with the intention of capturing Tripoli and then moving northeast to capture Corinth, thereby blocking the remaining Axis troops in Greece from accessing the Peloponnese, and leading to either the abandonment or the surrender of the remaining areas which the Allies had not yet liberated. During this period of advanced by ground forces, it was also planned for RAF planes to bomb Axis targets in the region, utilising aerial superiority, while it was also agreed that British parachute regiments would, in conjunction with the Royal Navy, land in and capture the Cyclades, in a fashion similar to the capture of the Dodecanese. This would conclude Overlord, and at that point the British and Commonwealth Governments would determine whether or not to launch a further offensive to push beyond the Peloponnese and capture Athens.

The plans for Overlord were concluded in July 1943, and thus only two actions needed to be taken by Britain before the landings would take place – first, set a date for the landings, and, second, utilise intelligence and spies inside Continental Europe to ensure that the Nazi Government was under the impression that landings would take place elsewhere. These two actions would take place during mid-1943, and shall be discussed in the next chapter.

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