The occupation of the Greek mainland

The coup in Belgrade, on 27 March 1941, dictated a small alteration in Germany's offensive plan: her troops would now launch an attack on Yugoslavia, along with the initially planned attack through Bulgaria. The attack started on 6 April. In the front of eastern Macedonia the Greek troops held the line until the 9th, thanks to the improved defensive fortifications on the Greek-Bulgarian frontier.

However, the German troops succeeded in breaking the Yugoslav defence in the south and then concentrated their effort through Skopje on the Axios-Thermaikos front (central Macedonia). From the 9th of April, when the German forces overcame the resistance of the Greek forces in central Macedonia and occupied Salonica, the Greek and British forces in the second front in eastern Macedonia were surrounded and eventually surrendered.

From that point onwards there was no real organised resistance to the German advances in the Greek territory. On 18 April, with the occupation of almost the whole of Thessalia (central Greece), the Prime Minister Korizis committed suicide in embarrassment and despair for the collapse of the country. The new Prime Minister, Emmanuel Tsouderos, took over in an atmosphere of terminal disintegration, both on the political and the military level. The orders of the Deputy General Tsolakoglou for the surrender of the Greek troops was reversed by the official leadership of the Greek armed forces, but the transfer of the Greek and British forces from the mainland to the south and Crete had already started.

The same itinerary of flight became the escape route for the official Greek government before the German troops entered Athens on 27 April 1941. The Peloponnese (southern mainland Greece) was occupied without significant resistance until 11 May, as the last line of defence of the Greek and British troops was moved to Crete, along with the official government and the King.