How would YOU invade Greece as Italy?

So we all know that on 28 October 1940, Italy invaded Greece as part of World War II, and ended up getting thrashed. While we're all mocking Mussolini for this embarassment, I want to know: How would YOU have handled the invasion were you in charge of the Italian forces?
 
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Set up a phony war with the connivance of the Greeks to help achieve full employment via armaments spending and avoid entanglement in Hitler's committing "suicide by Stalin". Snap up bits of Austria in the aftermath.
 
It would require an early PoD. No overbloating the army, focus on officer training and improve relations between officers and rank-and-file, try not to waste too much equipment in the Spanish Civil War, actually learn lessons learned in said civil war, etc...

Overall, the same problems that plagued the Italians during the Greek invasion were the same ones that plagued them throughout the war. If they manage to clear those up, it would have significantly improved their chances in the war.
 
They demobilised before invading Greece and then didn't allow enough time to mobilise before invading so that's an obvious one. Just read the generals messages though some of them were idiots anyway
 
Well, first of all, have a plan to do so. I am not a military strategist so I am not going to try, but I would say that not demobilizing first and then actually prepare a plan that goes beyond "LEROOOOY JENKINS!" would probably do the trick.
 
For starters, don't start a war with actually less troops in Albania than the Greeks could deploy.

Of those additional troops, do deploy the Alpini. You have above-average mountain specialized infantry, and you send there one division??

Build up the infrastructures in Albania first. A couple of seaports with decent cargo handling capacity, a damn road up those mountains instead of muddy/snowy tracks. This takes a lead-up of years, and, especially the road, is a clear warning to the Greeks. It also isn't the sort of projects Fascist Italy was keen to spend money on.

Carry out a landing. You have complete naval and air superiority, don't keep the Regia Marina twiddling their thumbs and the flyers wasting fuel and bombs on random inaccurate raids. For this, of course, you have to make generals and admirals cooperate effectively - good luck with that. But if you succeed, you can outflank the enemy's MLR in the mountains. You don't need anything far-flung (which would probably fail anyway due to logistics and general FUBAR). But taking Kerkira by surprise, and after that Igoumenitsa, is within the realm of the possibilities.

And for God's sake, why attack in the fall?! Wait for the spring. In the meantime, you can prepare some of the above if you haven't already done that.

That's already enough from the logistical/strategic POV. Not enough in the sense of "Greece suddenly collapses", but enough for a better show.
 
Use superior naval power and take strategic islands and then blockade ports from those bases. Also use cruisers to hunt down and seize Greek flagged shipping - there is lots of it around. Wait for Greek capitulation.
 
Use superior naval power and take strategic islands and then blockade ports from those bases. Also use cruisers to hunt down and seize Greek flagged shipping - there is lots of it around. Wait for Greek capitulation.

Too grand proposals, if you remember that Italy also was already at war with Britain. Truly strategic islands mean moving into at least contested sea and airspace, not by the Greeks but by the RAF and Royal Navy. The initiative against Greek shipping, again, can take place within reasonably short distances from the Italian peninsula and the Dodecanese - only. Moving beyond that means risking the cruisers meeting the British at unfavorable odds. So it's not going to be feasible on a larger scale than what was done in OTL.

Also, just waiting without forcing the Greeks to engage most of their army leaves the Dodecanese blockaded and the Greeks with unused troops. And the British love peripheral landing operations.

Occupying Kerkira is somewhat strategic in that it starts outflanking the Greeks, but it is meaningful only if you also launch a land offensive. It also has the advantage that it is close to Italian bases and far from British ones.
 
The first thing is to work out why you want to invade at all. Folk here comment upon the merits of Britain sending forces to Greece at a critical time in North Africa but what of the Italian forces in the Greek campaign that could have been in Libya pressing on to Egypt. Or strengthening Italian East Africa to press Egypt from the south and/or cut off the Red Sea rendering the Suez Canal inert militarily.
 
The first thing is to work out why you want to invade at all. Folk here comment upon the merits of Britain sending forces to Greece at a critical time in North Africa but what of the Italian forces in the Greek campaign that could have been in Libya pressing on to Egypt.

What of them? Well, they would not be able to be supplied in a press on to Egypt.

That is not to say that attacking Greece was a good idea, of course. Just that it's logistics, logistics, logistics, not just on the Albanian mountains but in the desert too.
 
The first thing is to work out why you want to invade at all. Folk here comment upon the merits of Britain sending forces to Greece at a critical time in North Africa but what of the Italian forces in the Greek campaign that could have been in Libya pressing on to Egypt. Or strengthening Italian East Africa to press Egypt from the south and/or cut off the Red Sea rendering the Suez Canal inert militarily.
Well, yeah, that's because the premise is "how to do it", not why. Because there was no real reason for that - Mussolini just wanted to smack something and be victorious, there wasn't any grand strategic vision behind it.

If the whole thing is allowed to be considered rationally, then the question burns out as "what? why? no" in more or less twelve seconds.
 
Send a gift to the Greek parliament...

A Trojan horse.

Then set up a puppet government.

That actually made me laugh, just imagining a massive metal horse with a special trap door, it's got to be updated a little bit.

The Greeks Mussolini sent this, it's oddly suspicious.
 
Well, yeah, that's because the premise is "how to do it", not why. Because there was no real reason for that - Mussolini just wanted to smack something and be victorious, there wasn't any grand strategic vision behind it.

If the whole thing is allowed to be considered rationally, then the question burns out as "what? why? no" in more or less twelve seconds.
It also had a lot to do with the German move into Romania, and Benny's need to assert himself as an equal partner of Germany.
 
Too grand proposals, if you remember that Italy also was already at war with Britain. Truly strategic islands mean moving into at least contested sea and airspace, not by the Greeks but by the RAF and Royal Navy. The initiative against Greek shipping, again, can take place within reasonably short distances from the Italian peninsula and the Dodecanese - only. Moving beyond that means risking the cruisers meeting the British at unfavorable odds. So it's not going to be feasible on a larger scale than what was done in OTL.

Also, just waiting without forcing the Greeks to engage most of their army leaves the Dodecanese blockaded and the Greeks with unused troops. And the British love peripheral landing operations.

Occupying Kerkira is somewhat strategic in that it starts outflanking the Greeks, but it is meaningful only if you also launch a land offensive. It also has the advantage that it is close to Italian bases and far from British ones.
In Oct 40 GB had its hands full, besides the original Italian demand was to occupy ports to prevent the British from intervening in the Balkans. GB will tread carefully as they need to build a Greek-Yugoslav-Turk coalition to threaten Hitlers oil supplies in Romania.
 
In Oct 40 GB had its hands full,..

What.
The British had few land forces to spare, that's true, but what we're talking about is the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean. Have a look at the main operations of it, involving major assets such as battleships and carriers, that over these months (July 1940 to November 1940) challenged the Regia Marina and Aeronautica on their own turf. And sank Italian battleships in their own home.
What is being suggested here is that medium-light Italian surface assets do the reverse and challenge the Royal Navy on its own turf, out of Italian air cover. We can get an idea of what would happen to the Italian cruisers by looking at how Pola, Zara and Fiume ended in early 1941.
 
What.
The British had few land forces to spare, that's true, but what we're talking about is the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean.
It's a RN that is back filling the MN who were supposed to watch the Italians. All while the homeland is under threat of invasion.

Have a look at the main operations of it, involving major assets such as battleships and carriers, that over these months (July 1940 to November 1940) challenged the Regia Marina and Aeronautica on their own turf. And sank Italian battleships in their own home.
Sure, although you need a crystal ball for Taranto from October 1940.

What is being suggested here is that medium-light Italian surface assets do the reverse and challenge the Royal Navy on its own turf, out of Italian air cover. We can get an idea of what would happen to the Italian cruisers by looking at how Pola, Zara and Fiume ended in early 1941.
GB is not ready to co-belligerent with Greece. Japan has just done the same operation with French Indo China in September 1940.

I'd actually expect the RM to balk on the account of a lack of fuel.
 
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