General Pagos estimated that the Germans were attacking the Meravon Pass, so he ordered his troops to rush to the area, and a battle was fought with the 1st Panzer Division of the High Command in several Greek military units, which had reached Grevena and broke out, and the Greek army was surrounded and overwhelmed by the lack of necessary equipment to fight the motorized forces.

The Germans continued their offensive and captured Ioannina on 19 July, the last supply route of the Greek 1st Army, and the Allied newspapers described the fate of the Greek army as a modern-day tragedy of ancient Greece. Barkley, when describing the tragedy of the Greek army, described it as a catharsis of the Aristotelian school, a brave but futile thing that made everyone fear.

On July 20, 1940, the commander of the Greek army in Albania, George ? General Tsolaglu realized this undesirable situation and decided to order the surrender of the troops, including 17 divisions. Kissing described the fact that Tsolaglu had brought the Italians to victory and was unable to gain any benefit, and that he and the commander of the German Armed Guards Division, Zepp? Dietrich negotiated informally to arrange for a unilateral surrender to the Germans only.

Enraged by Hitler's direct order not to reveal the details to the Italians, Mussolini ordered a counter-offensive against the Greek army but was repulsed, so Mussolini sent a personal representative to Hitler to ask Italy to join the armistice of July 23, 1940, and that the Greek soldiers be free to return home after disarmament without being taken prisoners of war, while the officers were allowed to keep their weapons.

As early as 16 July, the German commanders realized that the British would retreat by ship from Volos and Piraeus. They decided to pursue the British and halt their plans to retreat, and due to a lack of mobility, the German infantry divisions withdrew from the battle, and the 2nd and 5th Panzer Divisions, the 1st Motorized Brigade of the FAFF, and several mountain divisions pursued the enemy.

In order to allow the main British army to retreat, Wilson ordered the final foothold at the gateway to Athens, the historic Thermopylae Pass, with Freiberg in charge of defending the mountain pass along the coastline and McGee defending the Scamlos Valley, and after the battle McGee said: "I have no hope of evacuation." I think we have held out for two weeks and have been defeated by an enemy several times our number. ”

When the order arrived on the morning of July 23. It was decided that each of the two sites should be defended by a regiment, and that the two regiments, the 19th Australian Regiment and the 6th New Zealand Regiment, should guard the passes for as long as possible to cover the retreat of the other units. The Germans launched an offensive at 11:30 a.m. on 27 July. Met with stubborn resistance. With the loss of 15 tanks and heavy casualties, the Allies held out for a whole day; Having achieved their goal of delay, they retreated to the beach and established a new defensive line at Thebes. The pursuit of the German Panzer Division was delayed by the steep slope and U-shaped bends.

After abandoning Thermopylae, the British retreated from Thebes to the south, the only area remaining in Allied hands except Athens, and a motorized battalion of the 2nd Panzer Division crossed the island of Euboea and captured the port of Calchis before retreating to the mainland, flanking the retreating British troops, and the motorized battalion met only weak resistance on the morning of July 27, 1940.

The first German soldier entered Athens, followed by a large number of armored vehicles, tanks and infantry, and they obtained a large quantity of supplies including oil, gasoline and lubricants, thousands of tons of ammunition, ten wagons full of sweets and other supplies equivalent to ten wagons plus various other equipment, weapons and medicines.

"You are listening to the voice of Greece, Greeks, stand firmly, proudly and with dignity, you must prove your worth in history, that the valor and victory of our army have been confirmed, that our right ideals will be realized, and that we will carry out our duties with integrity, friends! Greece will be in our hearts, the soul of our armies and the flame of final victory will inspire us to survive.

Greece will be reborn and stronger, because the army is fighting for survival and freedom with integrity, brothers! With courage and perseverance, and bold battles, we will overcome all odds, Greeks! As long as Greece is in our hearts, we will be able to stand up with pride and dignity, we are already an upright nation and brave soldiers. ”

On July 6, 1940, in Piraeus, which was damaged by German bombing, the German army directly reached the Acropolis and raised the Nazi flag, and the Greek elite infantry units refused to hand over the Greek flag to the invaders and jumped from the Acropolis, whether this story is true or not, many Greeks believe and regard these soldiers as martyrs.

Very little information came from Greece, and only 13,000 soldiers had been evacuated to Crete on Friday night, so the retreat was only a small part of the total, which was a terrible concern for the wartime cabinet.Wilson said: "We have only lost 5,000 men in Greece", and our W Corps has actually lost at least 15,000 men, he is great, but he indulges in wishful thinking every day. ”

A veteran of the war at the time recalled that on the morning of July 15, 1940, Wavell sent the following message to Wilson:

"We must continue the fight in cooperation with the Greeks, but according to intelligence we need to retreat as soon as possible."

Archibald, commander-in-chief of British forces in the Middle East theater? Percival? General Wavell, while in Greece on July 11-13, had warned Wilson not to anticipate any reinforcements, and authorized Freddy? Morality? Major General Gingen discussed the retreat plan with the officials concerned, and in any case, the British would not have made any proposals at this stage;

All the suggestions came from the Greek government, and the next day Papagos suggested to Wilson that the W Corps should be withdrawn and left first. Gallemen arrived in Greece on 17 July to prepare a plan for the retreat, and on the same day Wilson returned to Athens to meet with the Greek king, Papagos, DiAbiac, and Gourmand and in the evening, Coritzis committed suicide after reporting the defeat to the King's Society, and Wavell verbally approved Wilson's request for a retreat and returned a written order ordering the Commonwealth forces to retreat to Crete and Egypt.

Most of the 5,200 men were part of the 5th New Zealand Infantry Regiment on the night of 27 July 1940 from Porto, east of Attica. Lafaydi, where the New Zealand 7th Infantry Regiment was still blocking the road to Athens and had been banned by New Zealand forces for 27 hours. A small number of Royal Air Force squadrons left Greece (Diabiak had established his headquarters in Heraklion, Crete), and 10,200 Australian soldiers withdrew from Nafplio and Migara, while another 2,000 waited until 27 July, when the Germans recognized that the retreat was taking place from the port of the East Peloponnese as Prince Jurst approached Nafplion.

"We must not remain in Greece against the wishes of the Greek Supreme Commander, and thus cause further damage to the country, and Wilson or Bhammud, at the request of the Greek government Papagos, should approve that the retreat should be carried out, so that there will be no Greek army on the way to Thermopylae, and you will try to waste as little as possible."

…… (To be continued......)