Greek resistance

Greek resistance
Part of the Balkans Campaign of World War II and the Resistance against the Axis Powers

Athens University students parading on Greek National Independence Day (25 March) 1942, in defiance of the German and Italian occupation forces; the parade was eventually dispersed by Axis troops.
DateApril 1941 – October 1944
(until May 1945 in some Greek islands, including Crete)
Location
Result

Greek victory

  • Overall German withdrawal by October 1944
  • Liberation in parts of the mainland and establishment of a "Free Greece"
  • Support to the Allied victory
  • Rise of EAM-ELAS and first phase of the Greek Civil War
Belligerents
 Germany
 Italy (until Sep. 1943)
 Bulgaria (until Sep. 1944)
Greece Hellenic State
Secessionist groups:
Ohrana
Këshilla
Roman Legion (until Sep. 1943)
Greece EAM-ELAS

Greece EDES
Greece Organisation X
Greece EKKA
Greece PAO
Greece EOK
and others...
Supported by:
 United Kingdom (SOE)
Greece Greek government-in-exile
Commanders and leaders
Nazi Germany Günther Altenburg
Nazi Germany Wilhelm List
Nazi Germany Walter Kuntze
Nazi Germany Hermann Neubacher
Nazi Germany Alexander Löhr
Nazi Germany Walter Schimana
Nazi Germany Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller
Fascist Italy Pellegrino Ghigi
Fascist Italy Carlo Geloso
Fascist Italy Carlo Vecchiarelli
Fascist Italy Inigo Campioni
Fascist Italy Piero Parini
Tsardom of Bulgaria (1908–1946) Ivan Markov [bg]
Tsardom of Bulgaria (1908–1946) Trifon Trifonov [bg]
Tsardom of Bulgaria (1908–1946) Asen Sirakov
Greece Georgios Tsolakoglou
Greece Konstantinos Logothetopoulos
Greece Ioannis Rallis
Greece Georgios Bakos Executed
Greece Georgios Poulos Executed
Andon Kalchev Executed
Xhemil Dino
Alcibiades Diamandi
Nicolaos Matussis
Vassilis Rapotikas 
Greece Aris Velouchiotis
Greece Stefanos Sarafis
Greece Andreas Tzimas
Greece Evripidis Bakirtzis
Greece Alexandros Svolos
Greece Georgios Siantos

Greece Napoleon Zervas
Greece Georgios Grivas
Greece Komninos Pyromaglou
Greece Dimitrios Psarros Executed
Greece Georgios Kartalis
Greece Nikolaos Plastiras
Greece Kostas Perrikos Executed
United Kingdom Eddie Myers
United Kingdom C.M. Woodhouse
United Kingdom Patrick Leigh Fermor
United Kingdom W. Stanley Moss
Greece Themis Marinos [el]
Strength
A total of 205,000+ men: Nazi Germany 100,000 Germans,Tsardom of Bulgaria (1908–1946) 40,000 Bulgarians, 40,000 others (1943)[1]
25,000 men of Security Battalions, Poulos Verband etc

Greece 45,000 men of ELAS (1944)
Greece 10,000 men of EDES (1944)
Greece 1,500 of EKKA

and more
Casualties and losses
Nazi Germany 17,536 Germans killed[2][3]
Tsardom of Bulgaria (1908–1946) 1,532 Bulgarians killed
Fascist Italy 2,739 Italians killed[4]
8,000 injured (in total)
6,463 POW
Unknown number of collaborators
36,270+ total casualties[5]
Greece 4,500 ELAS members killed[4]
Greece 200 EKKA members
In total 20,650 partisans killed[6]
10,000 injured (in total)
50,000–70,000 civilians executed[7]
c. 65,000 (including 60,000 Jews) were deported, of whom a small number survived[8]
(300,000 died during the Great Famine)

The Greek resistance (Greek: Εθνική Αντίσταση, romanizedEthnikí Antístasi "National Resistance") involved armed and unarmed groups from across the political spectrum that resisted the Axis occupation of Greece in the period 1941–1944, during World War II. The largest group was the Communist-dominated EAM-ELAS. The Greek Resistance is considered one of the strongest resistance movements in Nazi-occupied Europe,[9] with partisans, men and women known as andartes and andartisses (Greek: αντάρτες, αντάρτισσες, romanizedantártes, antártises, meaning "male and female guerillas"),[9][10][11] controlling much of the countryside prior to the German withdrawal from Greece in late 1944.

  1. ^ Sarafis
  2. ^ Kaspar Dreidoppel (2008). Der griechische Dämon. Widerstand und Bürgerkrieg im besetzten Griechenland 1941–1944. Balkanologische Veröffentlichungen des Osteuropa-Instituts an der Freien Universität Berlin. Βίσμπαντεν: Harassowitz. p. 492.
  3. ^ 16,062 according to Stefanos Sarafis
  4. ^ a b According to Sarafis
  5. ^ "'Council for Reparations from Germany, Black Book of the Occupation (in Greek and German), Athens 2006, p. 126' (PDF)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 March 2014. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
  6. ^ "'Council for Reparations from Germany, Black Book of the Occupation (in Greek and German), Athens 2006, p. 126' (PDF)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 March 2014. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
  7. ^ Knopp (2009), p. 193
  8. ^ Munoz, Antonio J. The German Secret Field Police in Greece, 1941–44. Jefferson: MacFarland & Company, Inc., 2018, p. 95.
  9. ^ a b Spyros Tsoutsoumpis, History of the Greek Resistance in the [Second World War: The People's Armies (Manchester University Press, 2016) online review
  10. ^ Mazower, Mark M. (2016). After the War Was Over: Reconstructing the Family, Nation, and State in Greece, 1943–1960. Princeton University Press. pp. 112–113. ISBN 978-1-4008-8443-8.
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).