Europe remembers: Greco-Italian War (1940)
Today Greece remembers. Europe remembers.
It was 28 of October 1940, when the fascist troops of Mussolini invaded Greece. Some hours before his ambassador in Athens gave an ultimatum to Ioannes Metaxas, the dictator of Greece at that time, to receive a heroic ''NO'' (ohi) which at that time reflected the general will of the people.
This was the first victory of the Allies agains the Axis since the beginning of the WWII. Furthermore, Hitler in order to backup his ally had to postpone his attack to the USSR in order to invade Yugoslavia and Greece. Adolf Hitler, in conversation with Leni Riefenstahl, would bitterly say that "if the Italians hadn't attacked Greece and needed our help, the war would have taken a different course. We could have anticipated the Russian cold by weeks and conquered Leningrad and Moscow. There would have been no Stalingrad"
Remember only that mighty France fell in one month, while Greece was fighting for six months! Here is a video from Sofia Vempo, the ''singer of the victory'' with the most famous song of the time, making fun of Duce (including English subtitles).
Especially for Great Britain, Greece was its only ally when all the rest of Europe was conquered. That's why Winston Churcill said:
"Hence we will not say that Greeks fight like heroes, but that heroes fight like Greeks."
Franklin D. Roosvelt also said : "The Greeks taught through the ages what dignity is. When all the world had lost its hope, the Greek people dared to question the invincibility of the German monster opposing the proud spirit of liberty."
Today is not only Greece celebrating. It is a day dedicated to all small nations of the world. Greece have shown to the world not to fear, and keep fighting even when you know that you will lose.
This article is dedicated to the 750,000 Greeks (10% of the population) who died during the WWII. Among them 230,000 died of hunger. Most of them where children.


