…Britain was relatively conservative in the months following the Battle of Britian, expanding patrols over the Channel and Bay of Biscay and reinforcing secondary theaters, but not committing to major actions. In part this was because of a worry that the Germans might attempt to restart the battle, in part because the British wanted to handle their ongoing commitments before starting new ones and in part because they were aware that it was not yet the opportune time to act.
This left the Germans to act first with the deployment of the multi beam Lorenz system on January 12th. Using a main beam and multiple cross beams to provide a multiple reference points before the target it was easier to use than the twin beam model and more accurate thanks to the higher frequency. Better security practice, not turning on the beam until just before the bombers were due to launch, meant that the British did not come up with a preliminary jamming system until the 26th, and that was ineffective due to tight filtering of incoming signals.
Despite this the multi beam Lorenz system was less effective than hoped due to poor targeting. The Luftwaffe had changed target priorities for the system and had it used to target railway marshalling yards to disrupt the British transportation system as Von Richthofen wanted with the twin beam system. Had this occurred during the Battle of Britian it would probably have been effective, but with fewer bombers, no daylight attacks and with less disruption to coastal shipping in the channel, the British transport system had enough slack that Factory attacks would have been more effective at reducing production. The British eventually managed to jam the system after salvaging a mostly intact bomber that made a soft landing in the Blackwater estuary and examining the receiving and filtering systems, with the last effective attack being on February 18th.
The British grew somewhat more aggressive in March with the introduction of the Bandit II that outperformed any existing German day fighters, if not by that much, increasing offensive fighter sweeps and attacks on German air bases in France. German daytime harassment attacks, already low, dropped still further and Britian grew more secure.
In April the Luftwaffe hoped that the introduction of a single beam navigation and bomb aiming system, the C Gerät, using a modulated signal and aircraft based retransmission, would allow them to once more accurately bomb at night. This, alongside the deployment of a few very high altitude Ju-76 variants, would allow a resumption of round the clock bombing.
Requirements in other theaters would mean that the single beam C Gerät would not be used to nearly its full potential against Britain as the fast twin engine bomber squadrons were drawn down…
…The Appearance of the Bandit II saw the Luftwaffe place a greater priority on their radial engine fighter program, selecting Messerschmidt’s design for production as the Me 196 to enter service in September and provide an aircraft substantially better than the Bandit II and capable of serving as the Luftwaffe’s frontline day fighter for years to come…
-Excerpt from Airpower!, Dewitt Publishing, Los Angeles, 2010
…In the first week of March there was a concerted attempt by Turkish farmers and herders near the Greco-Turkish border in Ionia to push onto the Greek side of the border, if not very far. This was responded to by the Greek Border guards, initially peacefully, but after 5 days of constant responding to violations four Turkish shepherds were shot after an argument got out of hand.
In retaliation on March 7th just before dawn Turkish irregulars attacked a dozen Greek border posts. The Greek border guards held their ground and inflicted heavy losses on their attackers, however these attacks were merely a diversion. Another dozen parties of irregulars slipped through while the Greek reaction forces were occupied and attacked a dozen border villages, killing, looting and raping before withdrawing in the night. When the Greeks attempted to respond the next day, they were met by what passed for Turkish regulars who refused to allow them to launch a pursuit into Turkish territory and resist vigorously when they attempted to do so on their own. 23 Greek border guards and 143 civilians were dead and 34 more civilians, mostly young women, were missing after the March 7th attack. Greek, and international, public opinion was frothing at the mouth for revenge.
Exactly who planned these provocations and attacks is unknown. It may have been Demir, either directly, or in a “will no one rid me of this turbulent priest” way, or it may have been one of his subordinates acting on their own, or it simply may have been a local conspiracy. What is known is that Demir for internal reasons could not truly back down and retain power, despite immense pressure from both Germany and Italy to do so. In response to Greek demands he publicly executed a dozen officers and officials, primarily scapegoats he had already wanted dead, and made a show of disciplining the regular troops involved in the incident and hunting for the irregulars, while actually doing little.
This did not satisfy the Greeks and on the 16th of March they moved to occupy a “punitive buffer” of 5 to 25 miles around their territory. The Turks resisted, but lacked the firepower to stop the Greeks and by the 21st the Greeks had secured their buffer zone.
This should have been the end of the matter, the Greeks were satisfied and Turkey both stood no chance of defeating them and had the prospects of gains against the USSR in Otto to think about instead of sticking their hands in a meat grinder. However Demir refused Greek overtures for a ceasefire and kept up the fighting, if at a low level to avoid losses to equipment he could not replace.
This put the Germans in a quandary as even if they could negotiate a limited ceasefire on the Thracian border, the Greeks were absolutely not willing to allow the transfer of arms and munitions into Turkish territory, leaving the Germans unable to use Turkey to open a Caucasian front for Otto.
The most logical solution for them would have been to cancel the auxiliary prong of Otto in the Caucuses and to negotiate with the Greeks for passage of shipping through the straits to support Otto under Greek supervision. That course of action was advocated by the Foreign Ministry, the logistics elements of the Wehrmacht and by the Panzerwaffe, who either wanted to avoid another diplomatic quagmire or simply felt the Caucasian front was an unnecessary and useless diversion.
Rather than listen to them however Hitler chose to listen to the more established members of the Wehrmacht High Command such as Halder, Jodl and Keitel. While not enthusiastic about the Caucasian front in the planning stages, now that it had been part of the plan for months and multiple revisions they defended it as an integral part of the plan. Rather than modify the plan to remove what was in the end a peripheral thrust they proposed a rapid military campaign to enable the plan to occur as planned.
While Greece was viewed as tougher to conquer than Turkey, it was considered easier to occupy, that the occupation would disrupt logistics or Otto less, that Bulgarian, Yugoslav and Italian troops could be used, that Greece would not actively join the fighting while the Turks would and that the Greek islands would be relevant to the North African campaign. Therefore it was proposed and Hitler agreed that Greece be attacked as soon as practical.
Negotiations immediately began with Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Italy, alongside the Turks. The Bulgarians and Yugoslavs were eager to get territorial gains at Greek expense and the Turks were ecstatic. Sanna however was very skeptical and while he wanted the Ionian islands, and more if he could manage, he did not at all think that the time was right for such an endeavor given that there was already the conflict with the British and Otto to think about. At the same time however Sanna had no desire to see the British gain airbases in Greek territory and reluctantly agreed to participate in the operation in order to make sure it was a total success…
-Excerpt From The Fall of Europe, Scholastic American Press, Philadelphia, 2005
A/N going to movies later so posting now