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| - On 28 October, the Italian 9th Army (comprising eight divisions, including one armoured division; up to 200, 000 men; and 250 tanks, 700 guns, and 400 warplanes) under the command of General Visconti Prasca, invaded Greece from Albania, which Italy had occupied in 1939. Numerical parity was achieved by the 1 January 1941, when the Italians had 272,500 men in Albania.
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| abstract
| - On 28 October, the Italian 9th Army (comprising eight divisions, including one armoured division; up to 200, 000 men; and 250 tanks, 700 guns, and 400 warplanes) under the command of General Visconti Prasca, invaded Greece from Albania, which Italy had occupied in 1939. The Italian invasion was launched in driving rain that deprived the army of air support. The Littoral Group advanced along the coast while the Tsamouria Corps advanced slowly through the mountains towards Kalpaki.On their left the Julia Alpine Division advanced in two regimental-sized formations along the slopes of Mount Smolikas with the objective of capturing the Metsovon Pass. Meanwhile, in Macedonia the Italian 26th Corps in the form of the Parma Division took up defensive positions in order to counter a possible Greek counterattack. Swollen rivers and mud tracks resulted in slow progress with the Greek rearguards falling back onto prepared positions. Despite the rugged terrain and fierce Greek resistance, the Aosta Lancers and the Littoral Group established a bridgehead over the Kalamas River. The Tsamouria Corps made slow progress along the mountain tracks with the supporting Centauro Armoured Division tanks having to be abandoned in the advance. Nevertheless, the Julia Division in the centre began to penetrate the Greek defences but General Papagos rushed forward Evzones reinforcements that soon threatened to cut off the Julia.Bersaglieri reinforcements helped extricate the division, but only after heavy fighting and many casualties. Despite Italian the Italian Army having superior numbers of infantry, artillery, tanks and air support, the low clouds and mountainous terrain favoured the Greek detachments in limiting the Italian advance. The Italians also attacked without proper air support in the form of round-the-clock bombing formations, with only 187 combat aircraft reported employed in the first days of the invasion. Although their Air Force and Navy were far superior to the opposite Greek forces, the Italian Comando Supremo (Supreme Command) failed to capitalize on this and carry out seaborne landings and paratroop drops to draw away Greek forces from the main area of the Italian advance. By the second week of the invasion, the Greek Army in the Pindus sector had assembled 15 battalions to counter the Italian invasion. The Greeks achieved numerical superiority by 14 November, when their counteroffensive began. At the time they had 214,000 men in the Albanian front. Italian reinforcements where thrown into the defensive lines piecemeal often without supporting arms and with confusing orders. Numerical parity was achieved by the 1 January 1941, when the Italians had 272,500 men in Albania. in February, the Italian Supreme Command reinforced their defensive lines in Albania with a total of 28 divisions (comprising 4 Alpine, 1 Armoured and 23 Infantry divisions), totalling 526,000 men. On 9 March, General Ugo Cavallero launched the Spring Offensive with seven divisions in an attack aimed at penetrating between the Vijose River and Mount Tommorit. The 14 Greek divisions in Albania lost some ground until the attack was called off on 25 March in the face of heavy casualties and Greek counterattacks.
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![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)