Could Greece have avoided a German invasion by making peace with Italy, after the initial Greek victories?
Greece realized that a possible German invasion was the greatest risk. Did they try to avoid that bij offering a peace agreement to Italy. Would Greece have been willing to give Italy a little bit of territory to save the face of Mussolini to avoid a German invasion?
Before the war, in August 1940, the Greek government examined the German stance concerning a possible Greco-Italian war. On August 26, 1940, von Ribbentrop told bluntly to the Greek ambassador in Berlin that “can only strongly advise the Greek ambassador, as in view of both the immediate and the distant future, to quickly set aside Italian complaints and satisfy the possible wishes of the Italians.”
It is known, as well, that while Germany did not want an immediate Italian invasion against Greece, put little pressure to Italy for this subject.
The only “peace offer” was made by Wilhelm Canaris, in December 1940, through the Greek ambassador in Madrid. According to it, Greece would hold her territorial gains in Albania and in return she would remove from her territory all British forces that arrived in Greece after the war.
Today we know that while Canaris made this proposal, Hitler alreade gave Directive 20, on December 13, 1940, an invasion of Greece through Bulgaria. So the proposal was not endorsed by German government.
In any case, Metaxas rejected Canaris’ proposal, for reasons that have to do with the fixed Greek foreign policy since the establishment of modern Greece: Greece, as a maritime country by geography and economy, is obliged to ally with the dominant naval power in the Mediterranean, which was Britain until WW2, and USA after the war.
Look, this is not to excuse anything the Nazis did AFTER invading Greece, but strategically, it doesn’t seem Hitler had much choice. I want to condemn Hitler for this and Norway, but I don’t see how it would have been strategically possible, much less responsible than to not invade. I mean there was prerogative in Poland, Checkoslavakia proper, the Netherlands and maybe Belgium. But Norway and Greece? I can’t imagine Britain or America not doing the same in those situations. Run the occupation better? certainly. But not avoiding the invasions themselves