greektzon
10-28-2008, 08:47 PM
http://www.hellenicnews.com/readnews.html?newsid=9192&lang=US
“I am sad because I am getting old and I will not live much longer to express my gratitude to the Hellenic people whose resistance determined the outcome
of the 2nd World War.”
The above comments were made by Joseph Stalin during a radio message on January 31, 1943, which was broadcasted in Russia and eventually to the rest of the world.
Other world leaders like Churchill, Roosevelt and even Hitler himself praised the Greeks for their bravery and sacrifices which had a major effect on the downfall of the Nazi regime during WW II. Quotes by the other three most powerful leaders of the world in the 1940�s are indicated below.
“All free peoples are deeply impressed by the courage and steadfastness of the
Greek nation…which is defending itself so valiantly.”
U.S. Pres. Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
“Until now we would say that the Greeks fight like heroes. From now on we will say that heroes fight like Greeks.” – British Prime Min. Winston Churchill.
“If the Italians hadn�t attacked Greece and needed our help, the war would have taken a different course.” – Adolph Hitler, March, 1944.
It is noteworthy that while Roosevelt and Churchill praised the Greeks for their bravery, Stalin and Hitler went further and stated that the efforts and sacrifices of these modern Hellenes did indeed have a great effect on the outcome of World War II.
When I came across these quotations about the resistance of the Greeks, I began to ponder on the following questions:
1. How was it possible for Greece with a population of about 7.5 million people could impart such a mortal wound to the mighty German war machine that eventually destroy it?
2. Were there other forces or circumstances that combined with the heroics of these modern Hellenes that eventually defeated the Germans in the Spring of 1945, even though Greece surrendered on May 1, 1941?
3. If the heroic deeds of the Greeks did indeed have a major effect in winning the war in Europe, why is this fact not commonly known and recognized by more of us in the free world?
After pondering the above questions for some time, I decided to look more closely into this topic and began to review a number of articles and books pertaining to the battles that took place in Greece, Albania and Russia.
My preliminary search into this matter not only verified the heroics of the Greeks, but also revealed a series of amazing events that eventually came together on the first week of December 1941 and dealt the first major defeat to the mighty Nazi war machine, 20 miles outside of Moscow.
The extraordinary timing as well as the damaging affect of these events, makes one wonder if this happened by chance or by some kind of Devine Intervention.
THE GREAT RESISTANCE BY THE GREEKS
When war was initiated against Greece by Mussolini on October 28, 1940, I was there attending elementary school, and I do remember some of the events that touched our village of Louka, which is located in central Peloponnesos.
Even though I was eight years old, I recollect the day that my four uncles had to leave the village as they were ordered to report for duty. It was a very sad day for me to say goodbye to my four uncles, who I looked to as a father figure as my own father was here in the United States since 1933. A few days later another order came from the Greek Government to surrender all the horses and mules to be used in the war effort to transport supplies and armaments to our soldiers fighting up in the mountains of northern Greece and Albania.
I remember clearly the desperation, the helplessness and the chaos that persisted during those winter months of 1940-41 as all of the draft-age males as well as horses and mules were gone to war. All that remained to carry on the various farming tasks in the village were old men, women, children and donkeys.
Yet we survived somehow, and the Greek soldiers fought very valiantly overcoming unbelievable hardships in the mountain terrains of Albania, in all kinds of bad weather.
At the same time I kept hearing from the village elders that our troops kept advancing deeper into Albania and had taken over Tepeleni, Tirana, Koritza and other Albanian Cities.
This resistance of the Greeks was reported worldwide, giving Churchill and other world leaders ammunition needed to motivate other countries to resist the Nazi Regime, just like the Greeks had done.
This heroic resistance also demonstrated that the Axis was not invincible and could indeed be defeated.
After about seven months of fighting the Italians and chasing them deep into Albania, Hitler decided to come to the aid of Bonito Mussolini and attacked Greece.
The German military machine was too much for the poorly armed Hellenes and mainland Greek forces surrendered on May 7, 1941.
The island of Crete was the next target for the Germans as Hitler gave orders to take this island at all costs, since it was the controlling point of the whole Mediterranean.
The battle of Crete took another 11 days, at which time the heroic Cretans dealt another mortal wound to the Germans, as they annihilated their crack paratrooper division, which was dropped to take over this island. About 4,000 of the 8,000 soldiers were killed by Cretan peasants, as well as by the Greek and British soldiers that were assigned to defend the island.
Hitler was so outraged with the 50% losses, that he ordered not to use the paratrooper type of warfare again, as it was not practical.
Later on, however, the Allies used paratrooper warfare successfully as they dropped soldiers behind Nazi lines in their quest to drive the Germs all the way to Berlin.
At the same time, the Cretans, with the help of British and Australian forces, captured a German General, who was later exchanged for an allied officer.
In addition to decimating the paratrooper contingent and capturing the German general, the Cretans delayed the Germans for 11 days in Southern Greece.
As it turned out, this delay proved to be the Achilles heel of the Third Reich, as this delay helped derail the time table of Operation Barbarossa, which was Hitler�s plan of attack and conquer Russia.
Initially, Barbarossa was to start May 15, 1941, but due to the heroics of the Greeks, it had to be postponed five weeks to June 22, 1941. As it will be shown later, this 5 week delay, coupled with other developments, was indeed a major contributing factor that helped in defeating Germany on the Russian front.
Therefore, the 1st blow to the Nazis came from the Greeks.
THE GREAT DISTANCES IN THE RUSSIAN FRONT
When the German forces began their march towards Russia, per Operation Barbarossa, on June 22, 1941, their overall forces were comprised of 79 divisions or 1,450,000 men. These forces were divided into three major fronts or objectives.
The Northern Front was to attack Leningrad, the Central Front to attack Moscow and the Southern Front to attack Stalingrad.
It took about five months for the German armies to reach their objective targets as they were hampered with rains, muddy roadways and eventually snow and frost.
When all three armies were very close to their objective positions, the overall length of the German front line was close to 1000 miles long. At the same time, this front line was also about 1000 miles away from the Eastern border of Germany.
These two extreme distances contributed also to the demise of the Third Reich as needed food supplies, armaments, warm clothing and soldier replacements became very difficult to deliver to the front lines.
The 2nd damaging factor to the Nazis was the great distances of the war front.
SEVERE WEATHER CONDITIONS
The third and most devastating factor that contributed to the demise of German forces in Russia was the bad weather encountered. As it turned out, Mother Nature gave the Russians a helping hand, which became the great equalizer as it rendered the mighty armaments of the German Blitzkrieg useless.
On December 6th, when German forces were about 20 miles outside Moscow, the temperature dropped to an incredible 50 degrees below zero. At these temperatures the grease utilized in tanks, trucks and in cannons froze and these equipment were rendered inoperable.
Without the use of these modern armaments, the mighty German war machine that had marched to over 800 miles in 5 months, was stopped in its tracks and did not advance any further.
These extremely low temperatures not only rendered the equipment useless but also had a deleterious effect on the German soldiers, as thousands were sidelined with frostbite.
The 3rd factor that contributed to the demise of the Germans in the Russian front was the extremely severe weather.
REINFORCEMENTS FROM MONGOLIA/SIBERIA WITH RICHAD SORGE�S HELP
When the Germans were stopped by the subzero temperatures outside of Moscow, another misfortune was awaiting for them, with catastrophic results. This event was the arrival of Russian reinforcements from the Eastern front. These units were guarding Mongolia and Siberia from an impending Japanese attack.
As it turned out, 25 Russian Divisions, or about 450,000 men, 1700 tanks and 1500 planes were ordered in early October 1941 to leave the Eastern front and proceed to the defense of Moscow. These highly trained Russian soldiers were well trained, well rested, well clothed for subzero weather as well as armed with modern weapons.
When these 25 divisions eventually confronted the Germans, who were tired, cold and short of ammunition on December 6, 1941, many thousands of them were killed, wounded or captured, joining the thousands that were already sidelined with frostbite.
The reason these fresh troops were transferred on a timely basis from Mongolia and Siberia to Moscow is credited to the efforts of Master spy Richard Sorge, who correctly informed the Russians in early October that Japan would chose to invade islands in the Pacific such as Pearl Harbor, leaving the barren lands of Mongolia alone.
Sorge was a German citizen who sympathized with the communist ideals and worked for the Russians as a spy for several years. He was working in Tokyo as a German journalist, where he became intimate friends with the German Ambassador as well as members of the Japanese Cabinet, who confided to him that Japan would attack Pearl Harbor instead of Mongolia or Siberia. Before the war was over Sorge was discovered and was executed by the Japanese.
The 4th factor that annihilated the Nazis was dealt by master spy Richard Sorge whose information brought 25 divisions from Mongolia to Moscow.
HITLER�S PARANOIA
After Hitler took over control of the German civilian government in the mid 1930�s, he began to also take over military control of this country. Of course, this did not set too well with the professional military generals who usually referred to him as “that little corporal” as this was Hitler�s highest rank during World War I.
Needless to say, dislike, disrespect and disobedience arose between Hitler and the military hierarchy of Germany.
Under those conditions, a certain amount of mistrust manifested between them, as Hitler ignored battle conditions and requests from his field commanders.
If field commanders did not follow his orders issued from Berlin, he either would relieve them of command or transfer them elsewhere.
Hitler�s paranoia is exemplified by his refusal to allow a short retreat to protect the soldiers during the subzero temperatures on December 6, 1941. This type of action by Hitler was not only demoralizing to the troops but also caused massive frostbite casualties, as well as prompted mass surrender of German soldiers, rather than freeze to death.
So, the 5th damaging factor to the Germans was Hitler�s Paranoia and Military Mistakes.
HEROIC RESISTANCE BY THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE
Initially, Stalin refused to believe that the Germans were attacking Russia, since recently he had signed a non-aggression treaty with the Nazi regime. For several days he was in a state of denial as he could not face the monumental problems that would result if he would engage in war with Germany, the most powerful and well armed country in the world. When he eventually pulled himself together, Stalin decided to make some major changes on a personal level to go along with rearming the military needs of his country.
He decided to minimize his communistic propaganda and began to arouse the whole country to come to the aid of Mother Russia, and not necessarily for the communist party.
He made speeches on the radio and published articles in the newspapers encouraging and pleading with the Russian people to volunteer to serve their country.
Hundreds of thousands of workers, farmers and peasants came out to dig ditches, destroy bridges to delay the advancement of the Nazis into Russia. They also destroyed crops and other eatables to prevent the Germans from getting them for their use.
When Master spy Richard Sorge relayed the message that the Japanese would not attack Mongolia, Stalin assigned General Zhukov to take charge in relocating the 25 Divisions from Mongolia to Moscow. Unlike Hitler, Stalin believed in and trusted his military leaders, and when Zhukov submitted his plan of attack for defending Moscow the plan was readily approved.
So the 6th damaging factor to the Germans was the heroic response of the Russian people, along with Stalin�s effective strategies.
DID THE BATLE OF MOSCOW DETERMINE THE OUTCOME OF WWII ?
Some military experts believe that one of the most crucial battles that occurred in the European field was the battle of Moscow. First of all, Moscow is close to the middle of Russia, and is the nodal point in the Russian Railroad system, which was more important than Stalingrad or Leningrad. Secondly, if the Germans had taken Moscow, more than likely Stalin would not have surrendered nor would Hitler allow him to live.
Stalin would have resisted to the end and the war would have been prolonged, and many millions more would have died on both sides. Thirdly, of the 5,000,000 Germans that died in the war, 4,000,000 died fighting the Russians, or were taken prisoners.
Only 500,000 German soldiers died fighting British, French, Polish, etc. Over 2/3 of the Third Reich soldiers were fighting in the Eastern front or Russia. If the Germans had not been occupied in fighting the Russians, they would have been available to fight on the western front such as France, Norway, Spain, and other Western European countries.
How many more American and allied soldiers would have died during D-Day, if and when there was one?
It took the efforts of six entities or factors to stop the mighty German war machine in its tracks outside Moscow on December 6, 1941, which many experts believe this was the beginning of the end of the Nazi regime.
As indicated above, Greece was indeed one of the six elements or factors that contributed to the defeat of the Germans at Moscow, by delaying Operation Barbarossa.
It is clear to me now why both Stalin and Hitler have indicated that without Greece�s
involvement, the outcome of WW II would have been different.
The only question that remains is:
“ Why has Greece not received an equitable recognition for its contributions, other than the accolades or platitudes mentioned for the sacrifices while fighting the Italians during 1940 and 1941 “?
“I am sad because I am getting old and I will not live much longer to express my gratitude to the Hellenic people whose resistance determined the outcome
of the 2nd World War.”
The above comments were made by Joseph Stalin during a radio message on January 31, 1943, which was broadcasted in Russia and eventually to the rest of the world.
Other world leaders like Churchill, Roosevelt and even Hitler himself praised the Greeks for their bravery and sacrifices which had a major effect on the downfall of the Nazi regime during WW II. Quotes by the other three most powerful leaders of the world in the 1940�s are indicated below.
“All free peoples are deeply impressed by the courage and steadfastness of the
Greek nation…which is defending itself so valiantly.”
U.S. Pres. Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
“Until now we would say that the Greeks fight like heroes. From now on we will say that heroes fight like Greeks.” – British Prime Min. Winston Churchill.
“If the Italians hadn�t attacked Greece and needed our help, the war would have taken a different course.” – Adolph Hitler, March, 1944.
It is noteworthy that while Roosevelt and Churchill praised the Greeks for their bravery, Stalin and Hitler went further and stated that the efforts and sacrifices of these modern Hellenes did indeed have a great effect on the outcome of World War II.
When I came across these quotations about the resistance of the Greeks, I began to ponder on the following questions:
1. How was it possible for Greece with a population of about 7.5 million people could impart such a mortal wound to the mighty German war machine that eventually destroy it?
2. Were there other forces or circumstances that combined with the heroics of these modern Hellenes that eventually defeated the Germans in the Spring of 1945, even though Greece surrendered on May 1, 1941?
3. If the heroic deeds of the Greeks did indeed have a major effect in winning the war in Europe, why is this fact not commonly known and recognized by more of us in the free world?
After pondering the above questions for some time, I decided to look more closely into this topic and began to review a number of articles and books pertaining to the battles that took place in Greece, Albania and Russia.
My preliminary search into this matter not only verified the heroics of the Greeks, but also revealed a series of amazing events that eventually came together on the first week of December 1941 and dealt the first major defeat to the mighty Nazi war machine, 20 miles outside of Moscow.
The extraordinary timing as well as the damaging affect of these events, makes one wonder if this happened by chance or by some kind of Devine Intervention.
THE GREAT RESISTANCE BY THE GREEKS
When war was initiated against Greece by Mussolini on October 28, 1940, I was there attending elementary school, and I do remember some of the events that touched our village of Louka, which is located in central Peloponnesos.
Even though I was eight years old, I recollect the day that my four uncles had to leave the village as they were ordered to report for duty. It was a very sad day for me to say goodbye to my four uncles, who I looked to as a father figure as my own father was here in the United States since 1933. A few days later another order came from the Greek Government to surrender all the horses and mules to be used in the war effort to transport supplies and armaments to our soldiers fighting up in the mountains of northern Greece and Albania.
I remember clearly the desperation, the helplessness and the chaos that persisted during those winter months of 1940-41 as all of the draft-age males as well as horses and mules were gone to war. All that remained to carry on the various farming tasks in the village were old men, women, children and donkeys.
Yet we survived somehow, and the Greek soldiers fought very valiantly overcoming unbelievable hardships in the mountain terrains of Albania, in all kinds of bad weather.
At the same time I kept hearing from the village elders that our troops kept advancing deeper into Albania and had taken over Tepeleni, Tirana, Koritza and other Albanian Cities.
This resistance of the Greeks was reported worldwide, giving Churchill and other world leaders ammunition needed to motivate other countries to resist the Nazi Regime, just like the Greeks had done.
This heroic resistance also demonstrated that the Axis was not invincible and could indeed be defeated.
After about seven months of fighting the Italians and chasing them deep into Albania, Hitler decided to come to the aid of Bonito Mussolini and attacked Greece.
The German military machine was too much for the poorly armed Hellenes and mainland Greek forces surrendered on May 7, 1941.
The island of Crete was the next target for the Germans as Hitler gave orders to take this island at all costs, since it was the controlling point of the whole Mediterranean.
The battle of Crete took another 11 days, at which time the heroic Cretans dealt another mortal wound to the Germans, as they annihilated their crack paratrooper division, which was dropped to take over this island. About 4,000 of the 8,000 soldiers were killed by Cretan peasants, as well as by the Greek and British soldiers that were assigned to defend the island.
Hitler was so outraged with the 50% losses, that he ordered not to use the paratrooper type of warfare again, as it was not practical.
Later on, however, the Allies used paratrooper warfare successfully as they dropped soldiers behind Nazi lines in their quest to drive the Germs all the way to Berlin.
At the same time, the Cretans, with the help of British and Australian forces, captured a German General, who was later exchanged for an allied officer.
In addition to decimating the paratrooper contingent and capturing the German general, the Cretans delayed the Germans for 11 days in Southern Greece.
As it turned out, this delay proved to be the Achilles heel of the Third Reich, as this delay helped derail the time table of Operation Barbarossa, which was Hitler�s plan of attack and conquer Russia.
Initially, Barbarossa was to start May 15, 1941, but due to the heroics of the Greeks, it had to be postponed five weeks to June 22, 1941. As it will be shown later, this 5 week delay, coupled with other developments, was indeed a major contributing factor that helped in defeating Germany on the Russian front.
Therefore, the 1st blow to the Nazis came from the Greeks.
THE GREAT DISTANCES IN THE RUSSIAN FRONT
When the German forces began their march towards Russia, per Operation Barbarossa, on June 22, 1941, their overall forces were comprised of 79 divisions or 1,450,000 men. These forces were divided into three major fronts or objectives.
The Northern Front was to attack Leningrad, the Central Front to attack Moscow and the Southern Front to attack Stalingrad.
It took about five months for the German armies to reach their objective targets as they were hampered with rains, muddy roadways and eventually snow and frost.
When all three armies were very close to their objective positions, the overall length of the German front line was close to 1000 miles long. At the same time, this front line was also about 1000 miles away from the Eastern border of Germany.
These two extreme distances contributed also to the demise of the Third Reich as needed food supplies, armaments, warm clothing and soldier replacements became very difficult to deliver to the front lines.
The 2nd damaging factor to the Nazis was the great distances of the war front.
SEVERE WEATHER CONDITIONS
The third and most devastating factor that contributed to the demise of German forces in Russia was the bad weather encountered. As it turned out, Mother Nature gave the Russians a helping hand, which became the great equalizer as it rendered the mighty armaments of the German Blitzkrieg useless.
On December 6th, when German forces were about 20 miles outside Moscow, the temperature dropped to an incredible 50 degrees below zero. At these temperatures the grease utilized in tanks, trucks and in cannons froze and these equipment were rendered inoperable.
Without the use of these modern armaments, the mighty German war machine that had marched to over 800 miles in 5 months, was stopped in its tracks and did not advance any further.
These extremely low temperatures not only rendered the equipment useless but also had a deleterious effect on the German soldiers, as thousands were sidelined with frostbite.
The 3rd factor that contributed to the demise of the Germans in the Russian front was the extremely severe weather.
REINFORCEMENTS FROM MONGOLIA/SIBERIA WITH RICHAD SORGE�S HELP
When the Germans were stopped by the subzero temperatures outside of Moscow, another misfortune was awaiting for them, with catastrophic results. This event was the arrival of Russian reinforcements from the Eastern front. These units were guarding Mongolia and Siberia from an impending Japanese attack.
As it turned out, 25 Russian Divisions, or about 450,000 men, 1700 tanks and 1500 planes were ordered in early October 1941 to leave the Eastern front and proceed to the defense of Moscow. These highly trained Russian soldiers were well trained, well rested, well clothed for subzero weather as well as armed with modern weapons.
When these 25 divisions eventually confronted the Germans, who were tired, cold and short of ammunition on December 6, 1941, many thousands of them were killed, wounded or captured, joining the thousands that were already sidelined with frostbite.
The reason these fresh troops were transferred on a timely basis from Mongolia and Siberia to Moscow is credited to the efforts of Master spy Richard Sorge, who correctly informed the Russians in early October that Japan would chose to invade islands in the Pacific such as Pearl Harbor, leaving the barren lands of Mongolia alone.
Sorge was a German citizen who sympathized with the communist ideals and worked for the Russians as a spy for several years. He was working in Tokyo as a German journalist, where he became intimate friends with the German Ambassador as well as members of the Japanese Cabinet, who confided to him that Japan would attack Pearl Harbor instead of Mongolia or Siberia. Before the war was over Sorge was discovered and was executed by the Japanese.
The 4th factor that annihilated the Nazis was dealt by master spy Richard Sorge whose information brought 25 divisions from Mongolia to Moscow.
HITLER�S PARANOIA
After Hitler took over control of the German civilian government in the mid 1930�s, he began to also take over military control of this country. Of course, this did not set too well with the professional military generals who usually referred to him as “that little corporal” as this was Hitler�s highest rank during World War I.
Needless to say, dislike, disrespect and disobedience arose between Hitler and the military hierarchy of Germany.
Under those conditions, a certain amount of mistrust manifested between them, as Hitler ignored battle conditions and requests from his field commanders.
If field commanders did not follow his orders issued from Berlin, he either would relieve them of command or transfer them elsewhere.
Hitler�s paranoia is exemplified by his refusal to allow a short retreat to protect the soldiers during the subzero temperatures on December 6, 1941. This type of action by Hitler was not only demoralizing to the troops but also caused massive frostbite casualties, as well as prompted mass surrender of German soldiers, rather than freeze to death.
So, the 5th damaging factor to the Germans was Hitler�s Paranoia and Military Mistakes.
HEROIC RESISTANCE BY THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE
Initially, Stalin refused to believe that the Germans were attacking Russia, since recently he had signed a non-aggression treaty with the Nazi regime. For several days he was in a state of denial as he could not face the monumental problems that would result if he would engage in war with Germany, the most powerful and well armed country in the world. When he eventually pulled himself together, Stalin decided to make some major changes on a personal level to go along with rearming the military needs of his country.
He decided to minimize his communistic propaganda and began to arouse the whole country to come to the aid of Mother Russia, and not necessarily for the communist party.
He made speeches on the radio and published articles in the newspapers encouraging and pleading with the Russian people to volunteer to serve their country.
Hundreds of thousands of workers, farmers and peasants came out to dig ditches, destroy bridges to delay the advancement of the Nazis into Russia. They also destroyed crops and other eatables to prevent the Germans from getting them for their use.
When Master spy Richard Sorge relayed the message that the Japanese would not attack Mongolia, Stalin assigned General Zhukov to take charge in relocating the 25 Divisions from Mongolia to Moscow. Unlike Hitler, Stalin believed in and trusted his military leaders, and when Zhukov submitted his plan of attack for defending Moscow the plan was readily approved.
So the 6th damaging factor to the Germans was the heroic response of the Russian people, along with Stalin�s effective strategies.
DID THE BATLE OF MOSCOW DETERMINE THE OUTCOME OF WWII ?
Some military experts believe that one of the most crucial battles that occurred in the European field was the battle of Moscow. First of all, Moscow is close to the middle of Russia, and is the nodal point in the Russian Railroad system, which was more important than Stalingrad or Leningrad. Secondly, if the Germans had taken Moscow, more than likely Stalin would not have surrendered nor would Hitler allow him to live.
Stalin would have resisted to the end and the war would have been prolonged, and many millions more would have died on both sides. Thirdly, of the 5,000,000 Germans that died in the war, 4,000,000 died fighting the Russians, or were taken prisoners.
Only 500,000 German soldiers died fighting British, French, Polish, etc. Over 2/3 of the Third Reich soldiers were fighting in the Eastern front or Russia. If the Germans had not been occupied in fighting the Russians, they would have been available to fight on the western front such as France, Norway, Spain, and other Western European countries.
How many more American and allied soldiers would have died during D-Day, if and when there was one?
It took the efforts of six entities or factors to stop the mighty German war machine in its tracks outside Moscow on December 6, 1941, which many experts believe this was the beginning of the end of the Nazi regime.
As indicated above, Greece was indeed one of the six elements or factors that contributed to the defeat of the Germans at Moscow, by delaying Operation Barbarossa.
It is clear to me now why both Stalin and Hitler have indicated that without Greece�s
involvement, the outcome of WW II would have been different.
The only question that remains is:
“ Why has Greece not received an equitable recognition for its contributions, other than the accolades or platitudes mentioned for the sacrifices while fighting the Italians during 1940 and 1941 “?