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World War II

251 bytes removed, 12:12, November 16, 2005
Military insights gained from the war
==Military insights gained from the war==
#The poor performance of the Italian forces can be blamed on many things. Some sources state nationality and motivational factors, others blame the weakness of the Italian forces, especially in infantry, with only two regiments per division. However the Italians were stronger in artillery and mortars than the Greeks, had much better supply and enjoyed absolute superiority in air forces, which they failed to exploit properly. Another notable failure is the lack of any attack on the [[Ionian Islands]], which were obvious and relatively undefended targets, and could have provided Italy with strong forward naval and air bases. General [[Sebastiano Visconti Prasca]] attributes the failure of the campaign to poor organization, personal agendas, corruption and lack of cooperation among the top ranks of Italy's Armed Forces.<!-- these last two should be moved to Battle of Greece -->
#It can be claimed that the intervention of the British Imperial forces did more harm than good, giving Hitler an excuse to invade Greece and disorganising the Greek strategy. The force was not strong enough to stop the Germans. Perhaps the Allied forces could have been better used in North Africa, where their removal may have prevented the Allies from totally expelling the Axis from North Africa.
# It has been argued that the Balkan Campaign decisively delayed the German invasion of Russia. For example, during the [[Nuremberg trials]] after WWII, [[Hitler]]'s Chief of Staff [[Wilhelm Keitel|Field Marshall Keitel]] stated that "The unbelievable strong resistance of the Greeks delayed by two or more vital months the German attack against Russia; if we did not have this long delay, the outcome of the war would have been different in the eastern front and in the war in general, and others would have been accused and would be occupying this seat as defendants today". On the other hand, it may have been the Russian weather, not the contingencies of subsidiary campaigns, which determined Barbarossa’s launch date.
==Sources==

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