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 Yugoslavia was called Operation Punishment. Nearly two months later and with the loss of approximately ten divisions of men, Hitler decided to begin his campaign against Russia, Operation Barbarosa. Hitler felt threatened by Stalin and his interests in the Mediterranean. Stalin also had interests in Romania and this could create problems for Hitler's war effort due to his dependence on Romanian oil. Therefore Hitler decided to attack Russia to protect his's own interests in these areas along with his chances to win World War II. Germany took the offensive with the aid of Bulgaria and Finland with Italy able to provide mor...
