His warning, he said, was not taken seriously enough, with the result that the British began to establish bases for the formation of a new Salonika army. They began by laying out aerodromes and establishing necessary ground organizations, and finally a continuous stream of transports brought equipment for an army which, according to Mr. Churchilll's idea, was to be landed in Greece in the course of a few weeks.
"Th reverse suffered by the Italian army in North Africa owing to certain material inferiority in their tanks and anti-tank guns finally led Churchill to believe that the time was Tipe to transfer the theatre of war from Libya to Greece, convinced that he could now proceed to carry out the coup which would immediately set the Balkans aflame.
"Thus did Churchill commit one of the greatest strategic blunders of this war."
As soon as there could be no further doubt regarding Britain's intention to gain a foothold in the Balkans, Hitler said he took steps to assemble the necessary forces for the purpose of counter-attacking any possible tricks, This action was not directed against Greece, and Mussolini did not even request him to place a single 1
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.