What happened behind The Greek Civil War (during the Cold War era)

The Greek Civil War started in 1945 and lasted through 1947. The war was fought between Greek Communists forces and the democratic, capitalist Greek Government Army. The Greek Communist movement gained power in Greece during World War II, when the Germans and Italians had occupied Greece, The Communist forces were backed by Moscow and were fighting against the German and Italian occupation forces. The British gave command that the Guerrilla should surrender their weapons and that the army should disband. During World War II, Britain sent over 40,000 troops to Greece in order to help the Communist forces push the German and Italian occupation forces out of Greece. As the occupation forces retreated from Greece, they destroyed all of the highways and railroads thus leaving the country in chaos. When the Greek democratic government was reinstated in Greece, the Greek Communist forces, now backed by Moscow and Yugoslavia, waged a war against the Greek democratic government army. This war lasted for two years when finally, Britain and the US sent forces and pushed the Communist revolutionary forces back to Yugoslavia.

The war left the country in horrible condition, the economy wasn’t doing well, miles of railroads were destroyed from raids of bombing, and the main cities such as: Solonika, Volos, and Piraeus, were left devastated from it all.

Although this war was an important moment in Greek history, there was also a very important and terrifying event that went on during the war. 28,000 children said to be fleeing the country, were abducted by Greek Communist rebels. These children were taken to Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Rumania, where they would supposedly be re-educated and make the government mad by reaching a settlement on the leading of a partition of Greece “Macedonian” republic. People to this day believe that the children were not abducted but there is enough evidence to prove that they were. The Greek Communist rebels took advantage of these poor innocent children and made them blackmail the government because they didn’t want to take any credit for it. These children were pulled away from their homes, their mothers, everything. The Greek Communist rebels told all of the children’s parents that they would be sent to good homes and be very well taken care of. They also told them that they were better off there because the children would be in the safest place and would get a really great education. There plan was to destroy the youth of Greece by brainwashing the children with tactics on how to make the government mad. They weren’t getting what the rebels told their parents they were. They were being manipulated to do things they would never be doing at home. The rebels were charged with “genocide” and people now compare what they did to these children with what Hitler did to the Jews. The rebels would also use animals against animals for their movement and that was considered animal cruelty. Overall this act was uncalled for and the rebels shouldn’t have gone through with their plan.
Here is a passage from Sofia Makri: "They hung us from pine trees. They burned our feet with coals. They beat us. When we fainted they revived us with cold water from the spring. Fourteen of us died up there but we did not tell. When the Greek army entered our village they found the dead living, for out of the earth came our children." This passage describes the fear and terror of the children living away from their families.
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The North African Campaign

The North African Campaign went on from June 1940 to May 1943. This campaign was between the Allies and Axis Powers. The war effort with the Allies was exiled by Britain and the USA, but the USA did not enter this war until 1941. The North African Campaign was also the also known as the Desert War. This war was fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts. There were three main reasons why this war was fought. The Axis Force primary objective was to control Suez Canal which was very important for controlling the Middle East. Another reason the Axis wanted control of Africa was to take control of the vast oil resources. The third reason, was that Adolf Hitler wanted world domination and Africa was his next target. The allies wanted to prevent the axis from reaching these objectives.
For Germany, The North African Campaign was a battle made up of mostly of tanks, panzershrecks, and light armed infantry. As for Britain’s troops, they were mostly made up of heavily armed infantry and a lot less tanks than the Germans. In this bloody battle, the British troops had to navigate mine fields that the Germans had built. The strongly outnumbered British troops lost many men in the minefields and endless artillery, the USA finally came into battle. When the USA came into battle, the Italians also came to help the Germans. When the Italians came in to battle, they had no say in anything whatsoever because Germans were leading and commanding the battle.
The leader of the German forces was Erwin Rommel who led his troops into the North African Campaign. His nickname was Desert Fox because he was commander of the Desert War. In the early phases of the North Africa Campaign Rommel successfully drove the British eighth army out of Libya to gain control of the territory. The leader of the British troops was Bernard Law Montgomery and the leader of the United States Army troops was General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower and Montgomery led the Allies and finally after three long years of battle, The Germans were flushed out of North Africa. When the axis retreated Africa, they were pushed all the way back to France. Then, a year later after restocking their ammunition and food supplies, the Allied troops stormed Normandy and pushed the Axis troop out of France.
The most famous battle of the North African Campaign was called the Kasserine pass. This battle Started on Feb. 14 1943 and ended on Feb. 22 1943. The Kasserine Pass is a three kilometer wide gap in the Grand Dorsal Chain in the Atlas Mountain Range. For this battle, Major General Lloyd Fredendall commanded the United States troops called the United States 2nd Corps. For the Germans, Field General Erwin Rommel commanded the German/Italian Panzer Army. The Battle started when The 10th and 21st Panzer Armies attacked Sidi-Bou-Zid. The U.S. armor was outmatched by the Panzer Armies meanwhile, the infantry of the U.S. poorly sat on the hills surrounding the battles and the opportunity to give mutual support was isolated. With barely any defensive terrain left the U.S. retreated leaving the German Forces over control of the Kasserine Pass.
For losing the battle, the German Commander Erwin Rommel was put into Jail. Later Rommel was also executed for losing the war. United States commander Eisenhower later became the President of the United States. Eisenhower served as President from 1953 to 1961.
In conclusion, The North African campaign was a very historic and significant battle, which was a great turning point in World War II. North Africa was one of the primary reasons that made D-Day (another famous turning point) possible because of the fact that the Middle Eastern oil resources fueled the ships that led the troops of D-Day into the heavily guarded beaches of Normandy.
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