Speaking of the Balkans, it is estimated that many Chinese are relatively unfamiliar, but for Europeans, this place is definitely a crazy place, because the contradictions and conflicts in this place are constant, and ethnic contradictions, state contradictions and religious contradictions are everywhere, attacking each other endlessly.
It is equivalent to saying that even a little friction in this broken place may lead to a war of human life, and thus get the title of "Balkan powder keg". Otto von Bismarck, the iron-blooded chancellor of the Second German Empire, was so jealous of the place that he claimed that sooner or later the Balkans would provoke a major European war.
Bismarck then summed up a statement that a Serbian nationalist terrorist who worked for the Serbian secret organization "Black Hand" shot Archduke Ferdinand and his wife in the Austro-Hungarian Empire with a pistol, successfully provoking the First World War that killed a generation of Europeans.
It can be said that the Balkans are notoriously difficult to engage, and it is easy to blow up some big things for you if you are not balanced. Therefore, during the Second World War, Hitler, who swept through Western Europe, was also very jealous of the Balkans, afraid that he would accidentally turn this place into a war quagmire.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="8" > Hitler's Balkan strategy</h1>
It was not surprising that Hitler would do so, for after the German army had spent a month away the British Expeditionary Force and the foot-and-footed France, the Netherlands, and Belgium, he felt that he had no more opponents in Western Europe, and that the old British manatees hiding in the British Isles were unlikely to threaten Germany.
Under such circumstances, Hitler began to think about how to beat up his former "ally", the Soviet Union. The moustache Hitler was killing Stalin, who did not believe that the other side was preparing to attack Germany, and he had to strike first.
But if you want to attack the Soviet Union, then it will be a larger war, logistics and other aspects must be considered. Then, how to stabilize their own flank is a big problem.
In the north, Hitler was not worried, Sweden did not have the courage to stab Germany, Poland had long been destroyed by Germany, there could be no problem (Poland would not perish, but it disappeared on the map), the only problem was the complicated Balkan region, which was Hitler's confidant. After all, Yugoslavia and Greece in the Balkans both had relatively close relations with the British, and it was difficult to guarantee that these two would not suddenly fall to the British.
In this regard, Hitler's approach was the "Jelly Bean Offensive", doing everything possible to win over Greece and Yugoslavia, and hoping to create a "small Axis" organization in the Balkans, so as to organize all the countries in the Balkans and avoid attacks between these countries, so as not to give the old British manatee a chance to intervene.
And Hitler's "jelly bean offensive" was indeed effective, and Greece made a lot of money in bilateral trade with Germany, which naturally became closer and closer to Germany. Yugoslavia also made a lot of money in trade with Germany, even buying advanced weapons from Germany, such as BF-109 fighter jets, and the two countries became increasingly close.
It can be said that if Hitler's operation continues, then Greece will sooner or later become a member of the Axis powers, after all, the benefits they receive from the Germans are real. Although Yugoslavia was very close to Britain, they had to face Germany's expansion into the Balkans, and they gained a lot of benefits from Germany, and sooner or later the two would become Hitler's allies.
However, while Hitler was happily engaged in his own little Axis, he ignored his ally, the Italian leader Mussolini, a bald fat man who was pondering a fire to blow up the Balkan powder keg.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="18" > second, The dismantled Mussolini</h1>
Italy and Greece were at odds over control of Albania and the Dodecanese Islands, and italy was determined to fight Greece from the Ito-Turkish War to the Greco-Turkish War.
In 1923, Mussolini used the murder of Italian general Enrico Telini on the Albanian border with Greece as an excuse to start a war against Greece.
However, at that time, Italy was under pressure from the Anglo-French-dominated League of Nations and had to abandon its plan to invade Greece. After the outbreak of World War II, British ships often anchored in Greek ports for supplies, which naturally made Italy, which claimed to be the leader of the Mediterranean, very dissatisfied.
On the other hand, Italy's attack on Greece was actually for Mussolini's face, mainly because Mussolini had been too faceless. Mussolini once sent an army to attack France at the end of the French campaign, trying to get the Italian army to take the opportunity to pick a peach, but he never expected that a dozen Italian divisions would be beaten by four French divisions.
Wait until the end of the French campaign to see, oh roar, the French army still occupies a piece of Italian land, dare Italy become a "defeated country". Because the performance of the Italian army was so humiliating, italy hardly got any benefits in the negotiations after the surrender of France, which was equivalent to a white army.
All this really made Mussolini feel bitter, the dream of establishing a new Roman Empire seemed to be unattainable, and what was worse was that he found that Hitler had begun to expand his sphere of influence into the Balkans.
This situation made Mussolini very dissatisfied, in the eyes of Mussolini, a fat man with a heart higher than the sky, the Balkans had long been Italy's sphere of influence, and now Hitler had extended his tentacles into the Balkan Peninsula, so it was better not to give Mussolini face. What's going on? Do you Hitler still want to come and take the italian turf?
Mussolini was so angry in his heart that if he could not give Hitler a powerful look, then Hitler must not underestimate his fascist predecessor? Therefore, Mussolini decided to use a brilliant victory to prove that Mussolini was still Hitler's most gracious "big brother".
Of course, Mussolini could not have attacked Germany, that is not to give Hitler a strong blow, that is to seek his own death. Mussolini's chosen target was Greece, and he hoped to defeat and occupy Greece with a swift and rapid offensive, so as to prove that the Balkans were Italy's sphere of influence, so that Hitler would not be able to retreat.
Mussolini's offensive decision was made on October 15, 1940, and the attack on Greece was on October 28, which shows how eager Mussolini was to start a war against Greece, and even had no decent preparations.
Hitler knew that this was on October 27, and for this kind of undead behavior, Hitler felt as if ten thousand alpacas were rushing through his heart, and immediately cursed the Italians viciously, declaring: "It rains heavily in the autumn, and it snows heavily in the winter, and the Italians go to attack Greece at this time. ”
Hitler's mouth may have been open, or he may have known too much about the italians' combat effectiveness, and the Italian attack was met with a head-on blow and was defeated by the Greeks in a counterattack on November 14. Worse news came from North Africa, where the Italian army was also defeated by the British, and tens of thousands of soldiers obediently entered the British prisoner of war camp.
At this point, Mussolini, the "big brother", finally could not sit still, and finally could not hold on until March 1941, because the British also sent a W legion to Greece, intending to help the Greeks defeat Italy.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="33" > third, Hitler was bitter</h1>
At this time, Hitler was completely helpless, and the last thing he wanted to face finally happened, the Greeks fell to the British, not to mention, but also led the British expeditionary force over. Now that his Balkan strategy was halfway blown, he had to urgently halt the troops that were massing on the Soviet-German border and instead rush to the Balkans to fight the Greeks and British.
However, Germany and Greece did not border each other, and if they wanted to attack Greece, they would have to persuade Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Yugoslavia to allow the Germans to attack Greece by way.
Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria were indispensable, but there was a problem on the Yugoslav side, which was a well-known wall-rider, and Hitler had to take a carrot-and-stick approach in order to be able to settle the problems of Greece as soon as possible, forcing the regent of Yugoslavia, Prince Paul, to join his small Axis state as quickly as possible.
Unfortunately, the pro-British forces within Yugoslavia were too strong, and Hitler's move not only failed to get Yugoslavia to join, but also led to the overthrow of Prince Paul by his nephew Peter II, which meant that Yugoslavia was also going to fall to the British.
Hitler's Balkan strategy was completely ruined, and the fire of "Big Brother" Mussolini directly ignited the Balkan powder keg, and Hitler had to add a Yugoslavia to his offensive target, lest the British take the opportunity to stab Germany in the back.
For Hitler, the failure of the Balkan strategy was humiliating, because this failure was entirely due to his ally Mussolini, the war launched for personal honor and disgrace led to the collapse of the Balkan strategy, and also threatened the position and interests of the Axis camp in the Mediterranean.
The more profound significance of the failure of the Balkan strategy was that Germany had to slow down its offensive against the Soviet Union, which led to Germany wasting at least a month of time that was used to smooth out the Balkan troubles rather than to attack the Soviet Union. If Hitler had attacked the Soviet Union a month earlier, the Germans might have really captured Moscow before winter came, and the direction of the entire Soviet-German war, and even the direction of the entire World War II, would have been very different. Perhaps, in the future, Hitler will really write a sentence before committing suicide: Mussolini, you are an idiot! Hitler's pen is incredible!
Reference: Balkan Wars
Greece in World War II
History of the Second World War
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich