Partisan Warfare in Greece 1941-44

by Phoebus Athanassiou, Adam Hook (Illustrator)

Overview

This fully illustrated study examines the German, Italian and Bulgarian occupation forces in Greece during 1941–44 as well as those of the two Greek Resistance organizations.

Italy's failed invasion of Greece in 1940–41 led to the German invasion of Yugoslavia in spring 1941 being extended into Greece, and, after the fall of Athens and Crete in April and May, the division of the country under German, Italian and Bulgarian occupation. The royal government and Army survivors withdrew to British-ruled Egypt, but at home resistance organizations of differing political character soon sprang up, forming guerrilla forces that exploited Greece's rugged terrain and limited communications.

The strongest resistance force was the Communist-dominated National Liberation Front (EAM) with its partisan Greek Popular Army (ELAS). Agents of the Western Allied powers had only brief success in mediating cooperation between the mutually hostile EAM/ELAS, and the National Republican Greek League (EDES) with its EOEA. Foreshadowing the Greek Civil War that would follow liberation, ELAS and EOEA clashed, in the background to their separate operations against the Axis occupiers.

Drawing upon a wide range of sources, Phoebus Athanassiou charts the development of the fighting in occupied Greece: a struggle as ferocious as that fought in neighbouring Yugoslavia, which cost both the resistance and the Axis forces some 15,000 men killed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781472867520
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	05/20/2025
Series:	Men-at-Arms , #562
Pages:	48
Product dimensions:	9.60(w) x 7.10(h) x 0.20(d)

About the Author

DR PHOEBUS ATHANASSIOU is a Greek Army (Reserve) officer who has seen service in Greece and Cyprus. A military history enthusiast and an avid modeller, he lives in Germany, where he works in the financial sector. He is the author of Osprey's Armies of the Greek-Italian War 1940–41 and Armies in Southern Russia 1918–19.

Adam Hook studied graphic design, and began his work as an illustrator in 1983. He specializes in detailed historical reconstructions, and has illustrated Osprey titles on subjects as diverse as the Aztecs, the Ancient Greeks, Roman battle tactics, 19th-century American subjects, the modern Chinese Army, and the history of fortification. His work features in exhibitions and publications throughout the world.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Greece's traditions of irregular warfare

Resistance in Greece

Chronology

ELAS: The pan-Hellenic resistance army: Command structure - Organization and recruitment - Weapons and personal equipment - ELAS naval forces

EDES: the junior resistance army: Organization and command structure - Recruitment base - Weapons and personal equipment

Guerrilla training, tactics and operations

German occupation forces in Greece: Organization and occupation record - Anti-partisan tactics and operations

Italian occupation forces

Bulgarian occupation forces

Collaborationist forces

The reckoning

Further reading

Plate commentaries

Index

Editorial Reviews

excellent account” —The Military Historical Society

From the Publisher