WI Allies make a second last stand in Corinth in 1941?

WI After/during the battle of Thermopylae in 1941 British forces concentrate in Corinth and make a stand there?
Corinth is located in a narrow strip of land which could be defended easily and is near sea so the defenders could have support from British navy too...
Is it possible for the British to have stopped German advance in Corinth?
Also a possible delay of Germans in Corinth could have given enough time to allies to better prepare Crete?
 

Art

Monthly Donor
NO WAY!!!

Read Roald Dahls Going Solo. There is a conversation he had with a mechanic as soon as he landed in Greece. The British had, at that time 15 fighters and 4 light bombers, and the Germans had 1000 aircraft available to them. Such a battle could not have been won.
 

Hyperion

Banned
Won, no.

Delay, OTOH, yes.

Instead of concentrating on stopping the Germans, at some point have one or more Greek generals or politicians realize that fighting from the mainland is hopeless in the long run, and start ordering as many troops, politicians, important civilians, any accessable gold reserves, and anything else that can be moved to be evacuated to Crete, Cyprus, or Egypt.

Best case in fighting at Corinth would be to blow some of the bridges across the Corinth canal to prevent the Germans from moving tanks and heavy equipment further south. This wouldn't prevent an airborne attack, and the Germans would eventually set up temporary bridges aquire boats to move equipment, but it might buy a few days for the Greeks and British to pack up more men and equipment and get the heck out of dodge.

To give you an idea of what the Corinth Canal looks like and the bridges there, here is a link which might be interesting.

http://en.structurae.de/projects/data/index.cfm?id=p0000411

If the bridges are blown, the only way across would be by airborne drop or boat.

Mainland Greece is doomed, but getting more men and equipment evacuated to Crete might make that area more defensible, and if all else fails, when the Greeks form a government in exile, they might be able to form a bigger army in exile as well.
 
WI British retreat fighting Germans through Peloponese? This could be delay enough... Peloponese is full of mountains and Germans couldnt make full use pf tanks and heavy equipment in such an area.. plus only airborne attacks would be possible if British navy had covered their retreat. If paratroopers were used and were slaughtered in peloponese like what happened in crete then i doubt that Germans would repeat the same in crete...
 
The Germans would have already captured Athens. Holding the peloponease would be impossible ssince the British already had lost much of their heavy equipment up north. would have been better had General Papagos pulled much of the Greek army from ALbania and manned the Metaxas line better and established a better defense in North Greece. Still the Germans would have prevailed. Crete was almost held but for mistakes made by Freyberg the island was lost.
 
Result: Major Greek/British defeat. the terrain might be suitable for defence, but lacking heavy equipment, and almost total German air superiority, would be devestating.
 
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