On 16 December 1939, General Wilson met with General Pagos at Lamia and informed him that he had decided to withdraw his troops to Thermopyla, and that General Bupomet separated the duties and responsibilities of McGee and Freiberg in the retreat to Thermopyla, and McGee was responsible for protecting the flanks of the New Zealand Division as it passed through Nanisha to the southeast, and directing the troops to withdraw through Domochus to Thermopylae; The British 1st Armoured Brigade covered the retreat; Freiberg commanded Aaron's forces to retreat.

On the morning of December 18, 1939, the attack on the Pinios Gorge began, the German armored infantry crossed the river by boat, and the 6th Mountain Division attacked the New Zealand battalion from the hill down, completely routed it, and on December 19, the 18th Mountain Army entered Nanisha and occupied the airfield, which was the main supply base of the British army, and seized the same 10 wagons of supplies and fuel so that the forward troops could continue to advance, and the port of Volos fell on December 21; In this case, the Germans seized large quantities of valuable diesel engines and raw oil.

On December 23, 1939, George? General Tsolaglu was the third and last protocol for the surrender of the Greek army at Iberus with Alfred of Germany? Admiral Jodel and General Ferrando of Italy TalksWhen the Germans penetrated deep into Greek territory, the operations of the 1st Greek Army in Albania were under threat, and General Wilson described them as fetishistic and unwilling to see the courtyard on the ground, and they were unwilling to back down to the Italians, and it was not until December 13 that the 1st Greek Army began to retreat towards the Bandus Mountains, and the Allied retreat route through the Bandus Mountains to Thermopylae Pass could be threatened by the Germans flanking the Greek army, A regiment of the 1st Wehrmacht Panzer Division was tasked with cutting off the retreat of the 1st Greek Army Corps through the Meraon Pass to Ioannina, and on 112 December, heavy fighting broke out at the Kasteria Pass, where the Germans blocked the Greek retreat and extended the blockade to the entire Albanian front, while the Italians pursued slowly.

On December 18, 1939, a battle between several Greek military units and the Wehrmacht 1st Panzer Division had reached Grevena and erupted, the Greek army was surrounded and overwhelmed due to the lack of necessary equipment to fight the motorized troops, the Germans continued their offensive and occupied Ioannina on December 19, which was the last supply route of the Greek 1st Army, and the Allied newspapers described the fate of the Greek army as a modern Greek tragedy. Historian and former war correspondent Christopher? 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 December 20, 1939, the commander of the Greek army in Albania, Georges ? General Tsolaglu realized this undesirable situation and decided to order the surrender of the troops, including 112 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 informal negotiations to arrange a unilateral surrender to the Germans only, and the surrender was quickly accepted under Hitler's direct order that the details could not be revealed to the Italians, and Mussolini, who was enraged by this decision, 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 December 23, 1939, and that the Greek soldiers would be free to return home after disarming without being taken prisoners of war, while the officers would be allowed to keep their weapons.

As early as 16 December, the German commanders realized that the British would retreat by ship from Volos and Piraeus, and they decided to pursue them, maintain contact with the British and prevent their retreat plans, and due to the lack of mobility, the German infantry divisions withdrew from the battle, and the 2nd and 5th Panzer Divisions, the 1st Motorized Brigade of the Armed Guards 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 23 December, they decided that each of the two sites should be defended by one regiment, and that the two regiments, the 19th Australian Regiment and the 6th New Zealand Regiment, should guard the passes as long as possible to cover the retreat of the other units, and the Germans attacked at 11:30 a.m. on 212 December, met with stubborn resistance, lost 15 tanks and suffered heavy casualties, and the Allies held out for the whole day; Having achieved their goal, they retreated to the beach and established a new defensive line at Thebes, where the pursuit of the German Panzer Division was delayed by the steep slopes and U-shaped bends.

After abandoning Thermopylae, the British retreated from Thebes to the south, the only area remaining in Allied hands except Athens, a motorized battalion of the 2nd Panzer Division crossed the island of Euboea and captured the port of Calchis, and then retreated to the mainland, their task was to flank the retreating British troops, this motorized battalion met only weak resistance and on the morning of December 27, 1939, the first German soldiers entered Athens, followed by a large number of armored vehicles, tanks and infantry, and they obtained a large amount of supplies including oil, Gasoline and lubricants, thousands of tons of ammunition, ten wagons full of candy and the equivalent of ten wagons of other supplies plus various other equipment, weapons and medicines, the inhabitants of Athens had anticipated a few days before the German army would enter the city, keep their windows closed and stay at home, the following announcement had been made on Athens radio the night before:

You are listening to the voice of Greece, Greeks, stand firmly, proudly and with dignity, you must prove your worth in history, the valor and victory of our army have been confirmed, our right ideals will be realized, and we will carry out our duties with integrity, friends! Greece will live in our hearts, the soul of our army and the flame of final victory will inspire us to survive, Greece will be reborn and stronger, because the army fights 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 December 6, 1939, in Piraeus, damaged by German bombing, the Germans 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 intelligence came from Greece, and only 13,000 troops had been evacuated to Crete on Friday night, so the retreat was only a small part of the completion and it was a terrible worry for the wartime cabinet. "We only lost 5,000 men in Greece," Wilson said, and we actually lost at least 15,000 men in the W Corps, and he was great, but he indulged in wishful thinking every day. ”

A veteran of the war recalled that on the morning of December 15, 1939, Wavell sent the following message to Wilson: "We must continue the fight in cooperation with the Greeks, but according to intelligence we must withdraw as soon as possible." "Archibald, commander-in-chief of British forces in the Middle East theater? Percival? General Wavell, while in Greece on 11-13 December, had warned Wilson not to anticipate any reinforcements, and authorized Freddy to do so. 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, and Wilson informed the Middle East headquarters and Captain Burleigh of the Navy to leave first. Gulmen arrived in Greece on 17 December to prepare a plan for the retreat, and on the same day Wilson returned to Athens to meet with the Greek king, Papagos, Diabiak, and Gourm, and in the evening, Corizis committed suicide after reporting the defeat to the King's Society, and on 21 December, Wavell verbally approved Wilson's request to retreat and returned a written order ordering the Commonwealth forces to retreat to Crete and Egypt.

Most of the 5,200 men were attached to the 5th New Zealand Infantry Regiment on the night of December 212, 1939 from Porto, east of Attica. Lafaydi, where the 12th New Zealand Infantry Regiment was still blocking the road to Athens, had been banned by New Zealand troops for 212 hours. On 25 December 1939 (Anzac Day), a small number of Royal Air Force squadrons left Greece (Diabiak established his headquarters in Heraklion, Crete), and 10,200 Australian soldiers withdrew from Nafplio and Migara, while another 2,000 waited until 27 December, when the Germans recognized that the retreat was being carried out from the port of the East Peloponnese as Prince Jurst approached Nafplio.

"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."

Winston? Churchill's response to the Greek proposal on 17 December 1939

On 25 December, the Germans parachuted into the bridge over the Corinth Canal, which had a twofold purpose: to cut off the British retreat route and cover their entry into the Isthmus of Corinth, and the offensive was initially successful until one of the British shells mistakenly destroyed the bridge, and the 1st Motorized Brigade of the Armed Guards assembled at Ioannina to prepare for the march through Arta along the foothills west of the Bandus Mountains towards Misolongi, and at Patras across the Peloponnese from the west into the Isthmus, When they arrived at 5:30 p.m. on December 27, it became known that the paratrooper unit had been replaced by troops from Athens.

The erection of a temporary bridge over the Corinth Canal allowed the 5th Panzer Division to pursue the enemy across the Peloponnesa, and as they passed through Argos to Kalamata, they found that most of the Allied units had retreated, and they reached the southern coast on 29 December 1939, where they joined up with the FRY-Guards from Pyrgos, and at the Peloponnesa they fought sporadically with a number of Allied forces who were isolated and failed to board their ships on time...... (To be continued.) )