Adriatic Campaign of World War II

Adriatic Campaign
Part of Mediterranean and Middle East Theatre of the Second World War
Adriatic Sea in 1941, during the Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia
Date 7 April 1939 – 15 May 1945 Location Adriatic Sea: Yugoslavia, Italy, Greece, Albania Result Allied victory
Belligerents
Allies:  United Kingdom Yugoslav Partisans (from 1941)  Kingdom of Greece  Free France Albanian partisans  Italy (from 8 September 1943)  Australia  New Zealand  South Africa Poland  Kingdom of Yugoslavia (until 1941)  India  Canada	Axis:  Nazi Germany  Italy (until 8 September 1943)  Salò Republic (23 September 1943-25 April 1945)  Bulgaria (until 1944)  Hungary (until 1944)  Independent State of Croatia Slovene collaborationists Albanian Kingdom (until 1944) Balli Kombëtar (from 1942)
Commanders and leaders
Harold Alexander Claude Auchinleck Archibald Wavell Alexander Papagos Henry Maitland Wilson Josip Broz Tito Enver Hoxha	Alexander Löhr Joachim Lietzmann Vittorio Ambrosio Pietro Badoglio Ugo Cavallero Ante Pavelić Leon Rupnik

The Adriatic Campaign of World War II was a minor naval campaign fought during World War II between the Greek, Yugoslavian and Italian navies, the Kriegsmarine, and the Mediterranean squadrons of the United Kingdom, France, and the Yugoslav Partisan naval forces. Considered a somewhat insignificant part of the naval warfare in World War II, it nonetheless saw interesting developments, given the specificity of the Dalmatian coastline.

On 7 April 1939, Mussolini's troops occupied Albania, overthrew Zog, and annexed the country to the Italian Empire. Naval operations in the Adriatic consisted mostly of transport organisation through the ports of Taranto.

The Greco-Italian War lasted from 28 October 1940 to 30 April 1941 and was part of World War II. Italian forces invaded Greece and made limited gains. At the outbreak of hostilities, the Royal Hellenic Navy was composed of the old cruiser Georgios Averof, 10 destroyers (four old Theria class, four relatively modern Dardo class and two new Greyhound class), several torpedo boats and six old submarines. Faced with the formidable Regia Marina, its role was primarily limited to patrol and convoy escort duties in the Aegean Sea. This was essential both for the completion of the Army's mobilization, but also for the overall resupply of the country, the convoy routes being threatened by Italian aircraft and submarines operating from the Dodecanese Islands.

Nevertheless, the Greek ships also carried out limited offensive operations against Italian shipping in the Strait of Otranto. The destroyers carried out three bold but fruitless night-time raids (14–15 November 1940, 15–16 December 1940 and 4–5 January 1941). The main successes came from the submarines, which managed to sink some Italian transports and a submarine (Greeks also lost a vessel in the process). On the Italian side, although the Regia Marina suffered severe losses in capital ships from the British Royal Navy during the Taranto raid, Italian cruisers and destroyers continued to operate covering the convoys between Italy and Albania. Also, on 28 November, an Italian squadron bombarded Corfu, while on 18 December and 4 March, Italian naval units shelled Greek coastal positions in Albania.

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Wikipedia