Hello, and thank you for listening to the History of World War II podcast.

Episode 112.

He who defends everything, defends nothing.

As we covered in Episode 109, Churchill broke the cardinal rule concerning the concentration

of forces.

His forces had been concentrated in North Africa, and he had been winning.

They were concentrated in East Africa, and the Commonwealth forces there had all but

one.

Yet now there were too many forces in East Africa, which is overkill.

Another rule was being broken, and at the moment there were not enough forces in North

Africa, which Rommel was currently exploiting.

Also, there weren't enough forces on Crete, and certainly not enough in Greece, and the

Germans were about to exploit those weak points as well.

Backing up this military failure was a political one.

British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden won a night long meeting with the Greeks by getting

them to agree to his version of how Greece should be defended.

Unfortunately for all concerned, he was off on the number of men being sent to Greece,

and had in fact misled the Greek ministers, with his idea that Turkey would undoubtedly

step in too once they saw how bravely the Allied forces were fighting.

What's more, not that Eden was saying this, it was his intention to have the British

led forces in country just long enough to bring Turkey into the war, because once they

were committed, well they were committed, and would fight as if their lives and freedom

...