World War II Forums - View Single Post - What if Greece, stopped the german invasion

urqh · #8 (**permalink**) May 26th, 2003, 01:26 PM

Interesting Italian airborne drop against Greece as an aside here:

Setting

What is normally thought to be the first and only larger Italian combat drop of WWII took part on 30 April 1941. By that time, the battle for mainland Greece had already been won by the Axis. The last Commonwealth troops had been evacuated on 27 April from the ports in southern Pellopones, to which the Germans arrived three days later, on 30 April. this left the outlying islands to be conquored.

The Pellopones is a large landmass to the south of mainland Greece, mostly separated from what could be called "mainland" Greece by the Gulf of Korinth. At the mouth of the Gulf of Korinth lies the southen portion of the Ionian Islands, and it was this group, contrilling access to the Gulf, that the Italians were afraid that the Germans might seize. To prevent them from doing so, it was decided to use the fledgling Italian parachute arm.

On the Tarquinia Paratroop School, two companies of the 2nd Parachute Battalion, in all only about 80 men, were selected to make the drop. The mission was under the command of Major Zanninovich, the commander of the 2nd Parachute Battalion, and the two companies (5th and 6th) were commanded by Captains Avogadro and Macchiato.
They took off from Galatina Airport, Puglia province on 30 April 1941, at 12.30pm with the task to land on the island of Cephalonia, seize the town of Argostoli and capture its Greek police garrison. Thereby the entire island, in which Argostoli was the largest town, would come under Italian control.

The drop

The drop went well, although some paratroopers received broken legs, and the battalion radio gear ended in the sea due to the blowing of a strong wind. No resistance on the part of the Greeks was encountered, though.
Arrived on the island, the paratroopers next stopped a bus carrying civilians. It was emptied, and instead laden with paratroopers, that were taken to the town of Argostoli. There, the Greek police garrison of 250 men immediately surrendered, as the only regular Greek troops still fighting on were on Crete, far away.

During a conversation with the mayor in the evening of the same day, he told the officers of the paratroopers, that the Germans intended to occupy the island of Zante, lying some 20 kilometres to the south of Cephalonia, and it was decided to land on both Zante and the nearby island of Ithaca to "show the flag". About the latter small island, lying only a few kilometres east of Cephalonia, It might be mentioned, that it is supposed to be the home of Odysseus, the hero of the famous Greek legend named after him.

The next day, 1 May 1941, 60 of the paratroopers borded two fishing vessels, and landed on Zante, where the British consul was promptly arrested. He was supposedly keeping contact with Malta through a radio, that he owned.
Only remaining on the island for a few days, they left it again on 5 May 1941, thus ending what is generally considered to be the only conventional para drop of the Italians in WWII.