Document Type
Honors Thesis
Publication Date
5-9-2025
Abstract
“The combatants had not felt they were participating in wider events,” once wrote the well-known military historian Sir John Keegan. Perhaps, this is why most studies of World War II, popular history and academic history alike, leave out the people of Greece. They were simply fighting for their country, not the world. They simply did not know—or did not care—about the wider war all around them. From October 28, 1940 to May 31, 1941, Greece was the only free country in continental Europe still fighting the Axis Powers. It was in Greece that the “first British soldiers [were] openly back on European territory since the fall of France.” It was Crete that, according to Adolf Hitler, “became the graveyard of the German paratrooper.” Even when Greece finally fell, according to historian Mark Mazower, “Gestapo reports suggest that the Greek population was more outspokenly anti-Nazi than, say, the Italians, French, or Czechs.” And, in 1943, when the Allied Powers were looking to launch a second front somewhere in continental Europe, all eyes were on the possibility of a landing in Greece. Despite the fact that many historians overlook these moments, it is here that Greece’s substantial impact on World War II as a whole becomes apparent.
Recommended Citation
Giannopoulos, Liana S., "The Forgotten Hero: Greece during World War II" (2025). Student Scholarship. 44.
https://digitalcommons.wofford.edu/studentpubs/44