The Italian attack on Greece, on 28 October 1940, did not come as - TopicsExpress

The Italian attack on Greece, on 28 October 1940, did not come as a surprise to Greeks. In fact, the Greek government had been informed of Italian invasion plans and a few days before the beginning of the war it was even aware of the exact date of the invasion! (The opposite happened with Hitler, who was taken completely by surprise by Mussolinis action). As one would expect, Greek newspapers announced the beginning of the war with bold headlines. The Akropolis (seen in the photo here) published a special edition at 6.00 a.m. under the title: Italy declared war on Greece. The Italian ambassador has announced to Mr. Metaxas that Italian troops would attack at six a.m. A general mobilisation decree has been signed. The ministerial council is in progress. Two days later premier Metaxas gave a press interview at the Hotel Grande Bretagne (part of which was taken over at the time as the HQ of the Greek armed forces) explaining that his government had been expecting the Italian invasion, and also why Greece would inevitably have had to enter the war on the Allies side (photo). Despite the fact that newspapers had been censored for 4 years (since Metaxas governed in a dictatorial fashion), on this occasion they were allowed to print the interview freely. The press in England received the news of the war with excitement, as may be judged from this cartoon by George Whitelaw in the Daily Herald.