Question on the German occupation of the Balkans and Italy

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krimsonglass51
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Question on the German occupation of the Balkans and Italy

#1

Post by krimsonglass51 » 18 Mar 2019, 19:47

I tried asking this at the North Africa and Mediterranean board, but had no luck.

From my limited understanding of WWII in Yugoslavia, Greece, and Italy, various partisan groups fought not only the occupying forces, but with each other as well. Did the German forces occupying the regions ever explicitly refer to the in-fighting in any of those regions as a civil war (Bürgerkrieg)?

Hubi535
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Re: Question on the German occupation of the Balkans and Italy

#2

Post by Hubi535 » 06 Jul 2019, 20:02

Probably not, they considered it just internal struggles and used it to their own advantage


gracie4241
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Re: Question on the German occupation of the Balkans and Italy

#3

Post by gracie4241 » 06 Jul 2019, 22:10

I don't think the question relates to Italy as much as the Balkans.I'm assuming you're referring to Northern Italy, as the lower half was not an occupation, but a bitter fight against the allies.My understanding was that internecine partisan warfare was less an issue there .However, as a block both were resource eaters.By June 1944 the germans had nearly 50 divisions combined in Italy and the Balkans, including 11 mobile divisions(counting the 2 parachute divisions).To say the germans could have happily used them elsewhere is to state the obvious

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Poot
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Re: Question on the German occupation of the Balkans and Italy

#4

Post by Poot » 17 Jul 2019, 21:31

gracie4241 wrote:
06 Jul 2019, 22:10
By June 1944 the germans had nearly 50 divisions combined in Italy and the Balkans, including 11 mobile divisions(counting the 2 parachute divisions).
That is a much larger troop commitment than I had realized, thank you for sharing that. It makes Stalin's complaints about the Allies stalling to open a 'second front' even more baseless than they had seemed before.
He who lives by the sword, should train with it frequently.

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