On April 6, 1941 from the territory of Bulgaria, the Third Reich begins operations "Aufmarsch 25" and "Marita". This is the simultaneous attack of Yugoslavia and Greece.
In a matter of days, the two Balkan countries capitulate,
Noy's shackles are broken with the help of the German weapon.
On April 20, Easter, the Bulgarian army was welcomed as a liberator in White Sea Thrace, Vardar Macedonia and the Western outskirts, and Pirot, Vranya, Skopje, Veles, Ohrid, Bitola, Kukush, Syar, Dedeagach - again free and Bulgarian.< /p>
To this day, there are legends about how in 1941 there was no fruit harvest in some of the liberated villages and towns – the color of the trees was paved on the roads along which the Bulgarian army passed.
The German invasion of Greece, codenamed Operation Marita (German: Unternehmen Marita), was part of World War II that took place in mainland Greece and southern Albania. German military operations began on April 6, 1941, with the entry of German troops into Greece through Bulgaria. The combined forces of Greece and the British Commonwealth fought fiercely, but in the end the Greek and British forces were defeated. Athens fell on April 27. However, the British managed to evacuate around 50,000 soldiers. The Greek campaign ends in a swift German victory with the fall of Kalamata in the Peloponnese.
On April 13, 1941, Hitler issued Directive No. 27,
in which he illustrates the future of politics in Greece. It ends jurisdiction in the Balkans with its Directive No. 31 issued on June 9. The mainland of Greece is divided between Germany, Italy and Bulgaria. German forces occupy strategically more important areas, namely Athens, Thessaloniki with Central Macedonia, as well as several islands in the Aegean Sea, including the island of Crete. They also occupy Lerin, to which Bulgaria and Italy have claims.
At the end of April and the beginning of May, according to its commitments under the agreements with Germany, the Bulgarian army entered Western Thrace without encountering resistance and occupied the area between the Struma River and the demarcation line passing through Dedeagach and Svilengrad to the west of the Maritsa River. The rest of Greece remains in Italy. Italian troops begin occupying the Ionian Sea and the Aegean islands on April 28. On 2 June they occupied the Peloponnese, Thessaly on 8 June, and on 12 June they occupied most of Athens.