Rome, September 7th, 1943
Roberto Farinacci publicly proclaimed the establishment of the Italian Social Republic and that "true Italy" was rejoining the war on the side of Germany and Japan. Mussolini being so inconsiderate as to die in an airplane crash thus becoming unavailable as a puppet had delayed German plans but had not stopped them. Farinacci might be no Mussolini but was a loyal Nazi who had been assigned to implement the Italian racial laws against Italy's Jews back in 1938. He would do to head a Nazi collaborationist government for the Germans to pretend they were not outright occupying Italy but Italy was still fighting by their side.
North of Kozani, Macedonia, September 8th, 1943
Panzergrenadiers supported by a battalion of Panzer IVs and brand new Löwe tanks, Skoda's T-25 design [1], counterattacked pushing the New Zealanders back as 10th Panzer was thrown into the fray in an attempt to stem the Allied tide.. But soon the Kiwis, would attack again reinforced by the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment driving the Germans back once more. 10th Panzer would. And as soon as the battle was over, engineers would swarm over the knocked out T-25s that had been encountered in battle for the first time. Allied technical reports would find the newly encountered machine roughly on par with the Panzer IVs and the Allies own Shermans but not as dangerous as the Panther and Tiger tanks already encountered in Greece and Italy. Why the Germans had chosen to put one more tank design, only slightly superior to the latest Panzer IV variants into production left most of the Allied analysts scratching their heads in perplexion...
Epirus, September 8th, 1943
Cheimarra was finally liberated by the Greek VI Infantry Division. To its east the VIII Infantry Division was advancing along the Aoos/Vjose valley with the IV Infantry Division being the eastermost Greek division in the front. Epirus was getting perhaps the least attention by both sides. But this didn't make the fighting in the mountains any less vicious for the forces involved.
Brindisi, September 9th, 1943
The congress of the Italian Republican party had been, at the very least acrimonious. But in the end the faction supporting participation to the
Comitato di Liberatione Nationale which included Garibaldi had prevailed. The party remained staunchly against the dynasty but war against Germany was to be taking precedence over the future of the monarchy in Italy.
Brindisi, September 13th, 1943
Italy officially declared war on Germany. With Italian troops already fighting the Germans, since the armistice this was a mere formalities but formalities themselves mattered...
Amyntaio, September 14th, 1943
Two days earlier a mixed force of Greek Sacred Band commandos and LAS and EOEA guerillas had captured the town and destroyed the railway junction in one of the biggest actions of the resistance in occupied Europe, before retreating again. Now a battalion from the 1st Gebirgs Division and two Bulgarian companies would descend on the little town. Over 500 civilians would be massacred in cold blood.
Mount Vermion, September 17th, 1943
Ares ordered LAS partisans east. With the mountains teeming with German and Bulgarian troops and Allied forces approaching from the south the guerillas remaining in Vermion was becoming both highly problematic and not particularly useful, the partisans would be of far more use in the Axis rear than right on the frontline. It was true that the mostly flat terrain to the east of the mountains, was hardly conductive to guerilla war, Gyparis in one of their few meetings had gone on how a generation before during the struggle with the Turks and the Bulgarians guerilla bands could hide in the massive swamp that was lake Giannitsa. But most inconveniently the swamp had been drained between the wars. Well if the mountains were becoming inhospitable, then perhaps Thessaloniki and the mountains around it would be more conductive to the struggle. Shortly afterwards Gyparis would also come to the same conclusion and the nationalist guerrilas follow their communist counterparts away from Vermion as well.
Korytza, September 17th, 1943
The town was liberated by the Greek IV Infantry Division. By now all of Greek Epirus was free and the Greek army had crossed the prewar border into Albania. Who should the Allies support within Albania now that its liberation seemed to be coming closer? That was a question with no easy answer. Balli Kombetar was of course out of the question since it had sided with the Germans. This left the communists of Enver Hoxca as the strongest of the anti-German groups with a claimed strength of about 20,000 partisans. The
Royalists despite the severe misgivings British, Greeks, Yugoslavs and Albanians alike has about king Zog, claimed to have about 8,000 under
Abaz Kupi in the north of Albania, while in Greece an Albanian regular army under the command of
Gani Kryeziu was being trained but was still in embryonic form and almost negligible in numbers. Communists, Royalists and Western Allies, which in effect meant the Greek army, were supposedly working together. Supposedly...
[1] On grounds of sanity, without the autoloader proposed by Skoda. German engineers might be crazy but crazy enough to stick to the autoloader?
