Hand-drawn map of Greece during the Axis occupation (1941 - 1943)
HISTORY:
Having achieved victory on the Greek mainland, the Axis forces, after having overwhelmed the disbanded Hellenic army during Operation Marita, organized by the Wehrmacht to aid their Italian ally in conjunction with the Yugoslavian campaign, entered Athens on April 28, 1941, dividing Greek territory into various spheres of occupation.
Italy received the largest, but also the least profitable, share, consisting of most of the Hellenic peninsula and numerous islands, such as the Cyclades, the Sporades, and the Ionian Islands, the latter of which were directly annexed to metropolitan Italy; Added to these were the Dodecanese, already part of Italy since 1912.
For its part, Germany retained Athens, shared with the Italians, part of Macedonia, a border area with Turkey, separate from the Bulgarian area, the monastic community of Mount Athos, under the direct protection of Adolf Hitler since 1941, and other strategic islands in the Aegean. Bulgaria, as an ally, also obtained its share, with Thrace annexed to the kingdom and the Chalkidiki peninsula under occupation until July 1943, when it passed to Germany.
In May, a vast Luftwaffe operation and a landing by the Royal Army conquered, with heavy losses, Crete, which was divided between the Italian and German forces, marking the total conquest of Greece and the flight of King George II.
The Hellenic State was established in the conquered territory, a puppet government heavily dependent on the occupiers, based on collaborationist juntas and armed bands, as in other Axis countries. However, these efforts were insufficient to quell the resistance or stem the ensuing famine; furthermore, after September 1943, the Italian zone was completely occupied by the Germans.