Axis Control of Yugoslavia and the Triple Occupation of Greece

MG Gunner of the Waffen-SS 1941

SS-Kradschützen of the Leibstandarte SS 1941

It was during the Greek campaign where the Waffen-SS first was to display a chivalry that stood out against the general atmosphere of World War II. The Waffen-SS occupied a position of honor in the victory parade through Athens. The role of the SS-Division Leibstandarte-SS at the end of the Greek campaign was effectively one of protecting the retreating Greek Army from the cowardly and vengeful Italian Army. The Bulgarian Army occupied most of Western Thrace and the Greek province of Eastern Macedonia, which had been already conquered by Germany. Bulgarian troops also occupied much of eastern Serbia, where the so-called Vardar Banovina was divided between Bulgaria and the Italians. During the summer and fall of 1941, in reprisal for guerrilla attacks, the Austrian Wehrmacht general Franz Friedrich Böhme rigorously enforced the rule that for every German killed, 100 Serbs or Jews would be shot. Throughout the remainder of the war, active Yugoslav, Greek, and Albanian resistance movements forced Germany and its allies to garrison hundreds of thousands of soldiers permanently in the three countries, denying them to the other fronts. The Balkans campaign resulted in the Barbarossa campaign being delayed by five weeks, the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union. A campaign justified by Adolf Hitler on the basis that the Soviets was about to attack Germany from the rear. The importance of the delay is still debated. Left image: a Balkans veteran of the Waffen-SS pictured after the outbreak of the Barbarossa in 1941. Photo by Hitler's official photographer Heinrich Hoffmann. Credit: Karl Mensburg. The Heinrich Hoffmann Photo Archive. Fair use. Right image: Leibstandarte SS Kradschützen turns eastwards in the summer of 1941. Credit: Cassowary. Commons: Bundesarchiv.