German artillery advances through Greece in April 1941. (Photo by Bauer/1941 from German archives.)
By Phil Kohn. Dedicated to the memory of his father, GM3 Walter Kohn, U.S. Navy Armed Guard, USNR, and all men and women who have answered the country’s call in time of need. Phil can be contacted at ww2remembered@yahoo.com.
As German troops approach Athens on April 18, 1941, Greek prime minister Alexandros Koryzis commits suicide; the city is placed under martial law. Still fighting, the Greek, British Australian and New Zealand soldiers that make up the rearguard for Allied forces retreating from the Yugoslavian border are harried by the Luftwaffe as they fall back from positions near Mt. Olympus toward Thermopylae. In Ontario, Canada, 80 inmates of the Angler POW Prison Camp, on the north shore of Lake Ontario, attempt an escape via a tunnel they’ve dug. Most are re-captured quickly (two are shot to death). Two others, however, make it all the way to Medicine Hat, Alberta, by train before being apprehended there by Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
On April 19, Gen. Archibald Wavell, the Allied Middle East commander — hastily arriving in Athens — meets with the British and Australian commanders on the scene to assess the situation. They decide they will likely have to evacuate their forces, but promise the Greeks that they will keep fighting as long as the Greeks do. In Iraq, troops of the 20th Indian Brigade come ashore at Basra, the country’s main port. A small contingent of British troops have already been sent by air to protect the nearby airbase at Shaibah. According to a treaty signed in 1930, the British are entitled to send troops through Iraq on their way to and from Palestine. Lacking any prospect of immediate German assistance, Rashid Ali’s new anti-British Iraqi government is unable to oppose the landings. In Ethiopia, the 1st South African Brigade, heading north from Addis Ababa, runs into Italian positions south of the town of Dessie; a battle ensues.
In Greece, Allied forces that are still viable have all passed through Thermopylae by April 20. Greek forces in the region of Epirus, on the Greek-Albanian border, however, are overwhelmed and surrender to troops of the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler Brigade.
Greece capitulates on April 21. The commander-in-chief of the Greek Army, Lt. Gen. Alexandros Papagos, recommends that the Allies leave the Greek mainland. Permission for the withdrawal is granted by London. Commonwealth troops and some elements of the Greek Army begin evacuating to the island of Crete. Off North Africa, three battleships from the Royal Navy’s Mediterranean Fleet shell Tripoli, Libya, on their return from escorting a Malta convoy. They damage an Italian torpedo boat and six freighters. Over England, the Luftwaffe begins three nights of bombing Plymouth — a blitz that leaves 30,000 people homeless.
On April 22, Italian troops in defensive positions around Dessie, Ethiopia, fall back after four days of battling the 1st South African Brigade. In Greece, German forces begin arriving at Thermopylae, but do not mount a large attack. In England, a direct hit on a communal bomb shelter during the Plymouth Blitz kills 72 people.
Greece’s King George II and his government are evacuated to Crete from Athens on April 23. In New York City, the America First Committee — a non-interventionist anti-war group — holds its first large rally. The keynote speaker is aviator Charles Lindbergh. The AFC was founded in 1940 by students at Yale Law School, among whom number future U.S. Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart, future Peace Corps director Sargent Shriver, and future U.S. president Gerald Ford. Future U.S. president John F. Kennedy donates $100 to the group.
In Greece, German forces on April 24 mount an attack on the Allied rearguard at Thermopylae, but are held off. Allied defenders pull farther back, leaving a rearguard at Thebes. In Washington, President Roosevelt orders U.S. naval vessels to report all movements of German warships west of Iceland. Information gained will be passed on to the British.
