252: Greece Pt. 4 - Spring 1941

History of the Second World War

Wesley Livesay

Society & Culture, Documentary, History

4.5 • 626 Ratings

🗓️ 25 March 2026

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As the spring of 1941 approaches, the war in Greece enters a critical new phase. The Italians launch a major offensive in Albania, staking everything on capturing the heavily defended Hill 731, only to suffer over 12,000 casualties and gain essentially nothing after weeks of futile assaults. Meanwhile, Bulgaria's decision to join the Tripartite Pact and allow German troops to cross its territory fundamentally changes the strategic picture, opening vast stretches of border to a potential German invasion. On the Allied side, the British and Greeks struggle to agree on where to make their stand, ultimately settling on the shorter Aliákmon Line over Greek objections, while tens of thousands of Australian and New Zealand troops begin arriving in Greece to man defenses that are far from complete — setting the stage for the looming German onslaught. History of the Second World War is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠megaphone.f⁠⁠⁠⁠m Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast.
0:04.6	Now, are all the traitors present?
0:07.0	Let's get started, shall we?
0:09.1	From rags to riches.
0:10.4	I'm so sick of this.
0:11.6	Working like a dog and being treated worse.
0:13.7	Yorkshire to New York.
0:15.3	Poor climbers, you and me.
0:17.0	A life dedicated to revenge.
0:18.9	Let's make this an occasion to remember.
0:21.5	A woman of substance on Channel 4, stream now.
0:24.9	Acomai Cloud, GPUs for Agenic AI.
0:28.0	Bring AI inferencing closer to users everywhere.
0:30.5	Get started at acamai.com slash GPU. Hello everyone and welcome to History of the Second World War, episode 252, Greece part four, spring
0:50.2	1941. This week, a big thank you goes out to Serial Travis and Eric von Falkenheim for
0:57.3	supporting the podcast by becoming members. I hope von Falkenheim didn't hear about the
1:01.6	very rude words I said about him back in the Verdon series of History of the Great War.
1:07.1	Members get access to ad-free versions of all of the podcast episodes, plus special member-only episodes, released roughly once a month.
1:14.4	Head on over to History of the Second World War.com slash members to find out more.
1:19.6	By early 1941, both the Germans and the British were committed to be involved in the fighting in Greece, although for completely different reasons.
1:27.6	But in both cases, it would take time for forces to arrive and for them to begin to have
1:31.4	an impact.
	...

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