Of all European countries to be invaded by the Axis during World War II, Greece was to resist the longest (except for the UK, which, save for the Channel Islands, was never invaded). Between October 1940 (Italy’s invasion of Greece) and May 1941 (Germany’s capture of the island of Crete, following a costly airborne operation), the small Kingdom of Greece fought and, against all odds, prevailed against superior forces, at the cost of the lives of tens of thousands of its citizens. Having succumbed to the superiority of the combined Axis forces of Italy and Germany, Greece was partitioned into three occupation zones (German, Italian and Bulgarian), signalling the start of a painful 1,264 day-long period of occupation, which left the country in ruins, costing the lives of over 7% of its pre-war population, one of the highest fatality rates in Europe, and leading to near-extinction its once vibrant and well-integrated Jewish population.

Greece’s unprovoked occupation was not to go unopposed: by late 1944, Greece boasted one of Europe’s largest national resistance movements, with a well-armed resistance army of over 100,000 women and men, seconded by an even larger civilian, grass-roots resistance movement. The emblematic sabotage operation against the Gorgopotamos River railway bridge, in late 1942 (one of the most spectacular sabotage actions anywhere in occupied Europe) was to cut off the flow of supplies to Rommel’s Afrika Korps for nearly six weeks, helping to tip the scales of the war in North Africa in the Allies’ favour. Moreover, the intensification of guerrilla warfare in Greece, as of early 1943, was to necessitate the dispatch to and tiedown in Greece of up to three full German Army divisions, which, if available for service in Italy, could have either decelerated the pace of the Allies’ march to Rome or rendered it more costly in terms of Allied personnel and matériel.

This new MAA series title discusses a fascinating but relatively unexplored area of recent European military history: that of the Greek Resistance against the Axis Powers, during World War II, and of the women and men involved in it, at great personal risk. The focus of this richly illustrated work is on the two main guerrilla armies – those of the left-leaning ELAS, and of the pro-monarchist EDES – their organization, uniforms, and operational activities. The work also provides insights into the formation, tactics, and popular support base of the ELAS and EDES resistance armies. This new MAA volume also provides an account of the opposing Axis forces responsible for Greece’s occupation, as well as of the advisors that the Allies dispatched to the mountains of Greece, to help organize, train and direct some of the activities of the Greek National Resistance movement.

Overshadowed by the subsequent Civil War (1944–49), between the British and American-backed Royalists and the Communist-dominated ELAS guerrilla army – the most powerful organized resistance force in Greece – Greek National Resistance was to fade into relative oblivion, until its tardy recognition in the 1980s. One of the aims of this work is to restore to the Greek National Resistance movement the prominence it rightly deserves, as a proud chapter of defiance and selfless sacrifice in recent Greek and European history, at a time when submission, subservience and surrender to foreign coercion were commonplace, while at the same time helping to close a gap in the relevant literature on the uniforms, weapons and equipment of the women and men who served under the banners of Greece’s main guerrilla forces for the sake of the liberty of Greece and the European Continent alike.

You can read more in Partisan Warfare in Greece 1941–44