The Balkans Campaign 1941 – the Battle of Greece

Knight's Cross holder Fritz Witt as SS-Sturmbannführer in Greece

Pz Commander Hermann Balck of 2.Pz.Division during Marita

The German plan of attack was influenced by their army's experiences during the Battle of France. Their strategy was to create a diversion through the campaign in Albania, thus stripping the Hellenic Army of manpower for the defence of their Yugoslavian and Bulgarian borders. The Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS out-flanked the Greek Metaxas Line fortifications and, despite the assistance provided by a British expeditionary corps, set out to capture the southern Greek cities. The SS-Division Leibstandarte SS, commanded by Josef Sepp Dietrich, captured Vevi on April 10 1941 and SS-Sturmbannführer Fritz Witt was tasked with clearing the Klidi Pass just south of Vevi, which was strongly defended by Australian, British and New Zealand troops. Witt's brother, a member of the same unit, was killed during the fighting. The Wehrmacht followed behind the Leibstandarte SS and attacked to the west, to widen the front of the German breakthrough. The Battle of Greece ended with the German entry into Athens and the capture of the Peloponnese on April 27 1941. Left image: SS-Sturmbannführer Fritz Witt in Greece in 1941. Photo taken by the prominent war correspondent SS-Kriegsberichter Gunter d'Alquen. Fritz Witt became a member of SS-Stabswache Berlin in March 1933, a bodyguard unit protecting Adolf Hitler. This unit was the nucleus of the later SS-Division Leibstandarte SS. FU. Right image: the Danzig-born Oberst Hermann Balck in the cupola of his Panzer III Panzerbefehlswagen of the Panzer-Regiment 3 near Panteleimonas in Greece on April 16 1941. Note the captured New Zealander seated at the rear of the tank. Credit: Royston Leonard. Commons: Bundesarchiv.