At the beginning of the Second world war, in September 1939, Greece first of all tried to preserve its neutrality, but the attack of the armies of Mussolini, in October 1940, plunged it in the conflict. The Italian troops were crushed by the Greek army which forced them to be folded up precipitately on their initial positions on the Albanian face. Germany, conscious of the need for ensuring its southernmost defense before attacking in Soviet Union, ran to the help of its allied in April 1941 and launched a double offensive against Greece and Yugoslavia.
Great Britain sent a small number of troops in Greece, while the German army invades continental Greece, then embarked in May for Crete. Supported by the British, the Greek troops fought a last battle there, with the active support of the population. Greece remained until October 1944 under the triple German, Italian and Bulgarian occupation.
German occupation
During the remainder of the war, Greece laid out, in fact, of three command centres. The German occupation constituted a puppet government in Athens. The king, some personalities of the political world and the chiefs of the Greek armies exiled themselves. Resistance was organized as from 1942. In the mountains and the isolated regions of continental Greece started to be formed hearths of resistance with their own political organizations.
In spite of the success of some of its actions, serious political antagonisms burst within these resistance movements, where left/right cleavage gradually replaced division between “venizelists” and royalists. The two principal formations were the National front of release (EAM), directed by the Communists, and the Greek democratic National league (EDES), under the orders of colonel Napoleon Zervas. The EDES was located on the right of the EAM in its political ideology, but most its members were republicans opposed to monarchy.
During the war, the two movements undertook several joint actions against the occupant, but it was able to them also to quarrel. Both, nevertheless, hostile to the return of the king after the war and, consequently, were opposed to the government in exile. In April 1944, a mutiny within the Greek troops based in Egypt also testified to the same disaffection.
In May 1944, a conference bringing together the members of the government in exile, the representatives of the political parties and the resistance movements, was convened in Lebanon. It obtained the formation of a government of national unit with in the chair Georges Papandhréou. It had been agreed to organize a plebiscite in Greece before the return of the king and to carry out the unification of the armed forces of resistance and the government in exile.
After the release
In spite of the agreement made in favor of the union, the question of the fate of the units of resistance was at the origin of a major crisis. In October 1944, Papandhréou returned to Athens, accompanied by a detachment of British troops. The Greek government then tried to require the disarmament and the dismantling of the forces of the EAM. In December 1944, the civil war burst in Athens and extended to other areas from the country. The revolt was suppressed only after the intervention of the British troops arrived in reinforcement.
The treaty of Varkiza, ratified in February 1945, proclaimed the rendering of the EAM, the organization of elections and a referendum on the restoration of monarchy. The elections proceeded in March 1946, but under conditions which involved the abstention from the EAM and certain liberal forces, which was worth with the royalists to gain a clear victory. At the time of the plebiscite organized in September, under the authority of the Prime Minister Constantin Tsaldaris, more than 65 % of the voters declared themselves favorable to the return of the king. Georges II regained Athens in the month. He died in April 1947 and his/her Paul brother succeeded to him.
Dodécanèse (including Rhodos), up to that point occupied by Italy, was attached to Greece in 1947. The return of these islands in its center was the single benefit which the country drew from its engagement in the Second world war.
The civil war
After its political defeat, the left prepared with the civil war. It accepted the support of the Communist governments of Albania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. A provisional government was made up in the mountains in December 1947, under the authority of the communist chief Markos Vafiades.
The British government, which had not ceased exerting a major influence in the Greek business, had expressed its will to see the military forces supporting its action. But vis-a-vis this new crisis, weakened Great Britain estimated more to be able to keep to its commitments. It yielded its place to the United States. The “Truman doctrine”, proclaimed in March 1947, intended to protect Greece and Turkey against the threat from Communism. Greece profited from a military aid and economic massive (3.5 billion dollars were granted in 1963 under the program).
In spite of this help, the Greek government could not put a term at the civil war before 1949. In July 1948, the rupture between Tito and Stalin leads to the closing of the Yugoslav border to the Greek rebels. Deprived of their independent source of outside assistance, the latter did not have any more the means of continuing the fight.