London, February 18th, 1941
Winston Churchill seemed slightly amused as the Foreign Office mandarin tried to explain why he should give serious consideration to the Turkish ultimatum delivered by
Tevfik Rustu Aras a few hours before. Anthony Eden and
Alexander Cadogan, the permanent under-secretary of the Foreign Office also in the office were saying nothing.
"So to get things straight, Mr Aras, I understand in the last war he was mostly involved with disposing of the bodies of massacred Armenians, has given us 48 hours to accept surrendering Constantinople, Asiatic Greece, Thrace and Cyprus on pain of war. You suggest that I give serious consideration to the proposal, with the possible exception of Cyprus, where the Colonial Office is likely to object."
"Yes sir. We are not giving up any British territory, it is the considered opinion of many in the foreign office that we were too harsh with the Turks in the last war, besides we cannot hold it in the first place. Agreeing to the Turkish demands, costs us little, keeps them out of the war and creates the basis for an improved relationship in the future. The Greeks are likely to object of course but if we agree they'll follow suit, they can't do otherwise."
"Right. I have only a single question for you. What would Mr Venizelos had said?"
The FO man nearly visibly winced. The late Greek statesman had been wildly popular with the British public since the 1910s, even more so than he had been back in his own country. And the "greatest Greek statesman since the days of Pericles" as his British fans called him had been anything but shy about wielding his influence to the benefit of his country often making life difficult for the FO. "Sir? I'm afraid I don't follow you" he only said.
"Let me enlighten you then. The late M. Venizelos observed that in all her wars England he should have said Britain, of course always wins one battle the last. And back during th last war when it was proposed to him that Greece should abandon Serbia he said that Greece was too small to do such dishonesty. Neither shall do the British Empire such dishonesty at the very time Greece stands and fights on our side."
Rupel pass, February 18th, 1941
Two battalions of the 72nd Infanterie Division had managed to close on the forts only to be stopped by ruinous casualties. When night came a Greek counterattack had cleared them out with often at bayonet point. But the commanders of the XXX Armeekorps and the Bulgarian 1st army were persistent people. Their men would attack again at first dawn no matter the casualties.
Constantinople, February 19th, 1941
The train was filled to the brim with soldiers of the 85th brigade going west. It's commander looked his counterpart of the Greek XXIII Infantry division with something akin to pity. "You understand my good fellow that you stand no chance to hold. You wouldn't even if you didn't have to detach forces to Gallipoli and the Marmara coast and your men were not green recruits. Not to mention you are weakening your own defences north. You should not have refused the orders of the High Commisioner declaring Constantinople an open city." He shrugged. "Either way best of luck. For what its worth."
By midday the British high commissioner would be off the city along with the last British soldiers. Not an hour would pass before the Greek high commissioner and patriarch
Chrysanthus II would raise the Greek flag and proclaim the union of the queen of cities with Greece...
Philadepheia (Alasehir), February 20th, 1941
The Turks had been scrupulous about observing the 48 hours of their ultimatum to the allies. The moment it expired 488 guns from massive K39 210mm siege guns to 75mm mountain guns opened up at the Greek border fortifications, as the 12 divisions of the 1st Turkish army under
Fahrettin Altay charged forward. The Greeks had managed to complete 11 forts in the Hermus river valley between the Temnus (Simav) and Tmolus (Boz) mountain ranges , it was obvious to both sides that this was the main avenue of approach to Smyrna but Fahrettin had slighlty over 285,000 men and 100 LT35 tanks facing 125,000 Greeks. Further to the north 9 more divisions of the 2nd Army were attacking towards Panormos (Bandirma) and Palaiokastron (Balikesir) with another 4 in the Marmara region assigned to attack Thrace and Constantinople. The Turkish underground army in Constantinople was already rising up...
Macedonian front, February 22nd, 1941
Monastir fell to the 9th Panzer division. The German XL Panzer Corps and the Italian 2nd army, with the Centauro and Littorio armoured divisions, 3 Celere and 4 Alpini divisions had struck south into the Monastir gap against the Greek A Army corps and the Polish corps, 7 divisions in total that had soon been reinforced by the Anzacs. The allies had been pushed back but had failed to disintegrate as anticipated despite the Stukas and the panzers. Further to the east in the Vardar valley the story was similar. The XLI Panzer corps along the Bulgarian 4th army had struck at Demir Kapija while XVIII Mountain corps along the Bulgarian 5th army attacked at Strumica towards Doiran. The Greeks and Yugoslavs defending the sector and Bethouart's Free French that had rushed to their aid were losing ground and taking heavy casualties but kept fighting, 2nd Panzer had even been given a bloody nose when it had tried rushing the Greek 2nd armoured cavalry division at Doiran, the Germans were veterans but for a change so had been their opponents. Still the German advance didn't so any signs of slowing down.
Asia Minor, February 24th, 1941
Palaiokastron, became again Balikesir as the Turkish army captured it, or liberated it depending on who was doing the narrative. In the east much to the general shock Fahrettin had managed to break through the Greek border fortifications and captured Philadelpheia. Both corps of the army of Asia Minor were now slowly retreating towards the Smyrna fortified area, a mass of civilian refugees fleeing ahead of them.
Epirus front, February 25th, 1941
Korytza, fell to the Italian 7th army. Argyrokastron already fallen on the 23rd. The 128,000 Greeks of B corps were severely outnumbered, by now there were 20 Italian divisions and nearly 400,000 men on the front but had still inflicted twice as many casualties on the Italians. Perhaps relatively modest reinforcements would had sufficed to hold back the Italians. But these were nowhere to be found, or at least Pangalos was refusing to provide them which amounted to the same thing. Of course given how Florina had just fallen to the Germans and Italians, it would had been complete folly not to retreat in Epirus...
East Africa, February 25th, 1941
Mogadishu fell to the Allies.
Rupel pass, February 28th, 1941
Fort Rupel, the last of the 13 forts covering East Macedonia and Western Thrace finally fell after eleven days of fighting. Breaking the fortified line hadn't been cheap, combined German and Bulgarian casualties run to nearly 16,000 men but as the German XXX Corps turned west after the allied army in Central Macedonia and the Bulgarian 1st army west to flank the Greek fortifications in Eastern Thrace, North Greece had been cut in half.
Sardeis (Salihli), March 1st, 1941
Fahrettin's army entered the town. Advancing 70 km in 10 days wasn't bad but wasn't exceptional either. Of course there was a question whether Fahrettin was being delayed by the Greeks, his own supply problems or a desire to bring as many refugees as possible in Smyrna...
Thessaloniki, March 3rd, 1941
The 2nd Panzer division entered the city, to the sullen welcome of the Christin and Jewish inhabitants. Allied armies were in full retreat to the west of the city towards the Olympus with the two Greek cavalry divisions, the 2nd Yugoslav cavalry division and the Free French covering the retreat, as combat engineers demolished bridges over the Axios, then the Loudias, then the Aliakmon and sacrificial detachments had been left behind to gain time on more than one occasion. It would take the Germans five more days to reach Katerini and the Olympus, by then surviving allied units would be behind the passes both in the east and in Western Macedonia where the Germans and Italians in Western Macedonia would be threatening Sarandaporo and Greveva.
Kalpaki, Epirus, March 5th, 1941
The advancing Italian troops were met by heavy artillery fire and local counterattacks. The Greeks were done retreating. Any further ground would not come for free...
Thrace, March 6th, 1941
Adrianople fell to the Bulgarians. Even after the defences of Eastern Thrace had been flanked, reducing the so called Thrace line had proven both time consuming and very costly for the Bulgarian army. The only comfort of shorts was that the Turks in Constantinople had found themselves having to reduce the Greeks and the Armenians that had joined them virtually house by house, even though the only outside support was a handful of air raids, the Allied air forces had their hands full trying to keep the Luftwaffe off the backs of Allied troops on the ground and taking a pounding to achieve this against an enemy with three times as many aircraft, the defenders did not seem to show any sign of willing to surrender. This was costing time and lives and had kept the Turk from grabbing much of Thrace ahead of their ostensible allies...
