, who would only have to station a few divisions in Bulgaria to protect the oil fields. Everything seemed to be running smoothly for him until Mussolini decided to go on the offensive in Greece. Mussolini was poorly advised through his prime minister, Ciano, that the military campaign in Greece would be a quick success. Germany was taken completely by surprise by Italy's actions, which she totally disapproved. Hitler had to switch tracks at this time. He had to postpone his final conflict of the war, Operation Barbosa, an attack on Russia and concentrate on the Mediterranean. Italy invaded Greece through Albania without a declaration of war. Without the knowledge of guerrilla warfare, Italy found itself retreating back into Albania. Greece spoke of liberation of Albania and at this point Hitler got worried. With the difficulties Italy encountered he realized that this would offer an opportunity for Great Britain to regain a foothold on the continent. Hitler noted "whereas the Rumanian oil fields were previously entirely inaccessible to English bombers" now the RAF was "within a distance of less than 500 km" from Rumania and he considered this development "down right ominous." At this point he discussed military movements through Bulgaria to attack Greece. Hitler's offensive in Greece lasted almost two months and in the end, Germany converged all of Greek territory. Included in these two months is Hitler's attack on Yugoslavia. Due to the political upheaval in Yugoslavia, Hitler could no longer trust the new regime and for his conquest of Greece to succeed he needed to attack from both Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. This attack on ...
