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Published: 04 August 2010 04 August 2010
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Last Updated: 24 March 2013 24 March 2013
The 11. Army was formed in Albania on 9 November 1940. Formed after the Italian invasion of Greece had begun the previous month, the 11. Army was pushed back into Albania by the Greek counterattack where the campaign stalled until the Germans overran mainland Greece in April 1941. Shortly thereafter, the army headquarters transferred to Athens from where it controlled the Italian occupation forces in Greece. Redesignated General Headquarters Greece on 1 July 1941, the command continued routine occupation duties while combating the various factions of the Greek resistance. Redesignated 11. Army on 1 June 1943, the army was disarmed and imprisoned by the Germans after the surrender of Italy in September 1943. Certain units, including the
24. Infantry Division Pinerolo and the Aosta Cavalry Regiment, joined the Greek ELAS partisans fighting the Germans. Over 4,000 troops of the Italian garrison of Cefalonia, the
33. Infantry Division Acqui, were executed by the Germans from
XXII Gebirgs-Armeekorps after offering strong resistance.
Commanders
Generale di Corpo d’Armata Sebastiano Visconti Prasca (1940 – 1940)
Generale d’Armata Carlo Geloso (1940 – 1943)
Generale designato d’Armata Carlo Vecchiarelli (1943 – 1943)
Sources used
Mario Cervi - The Hollow Legions: Mussolini’s Blunder in Greece, 1940-1941
Robert M. Kennedy - Hold the Balkans! German Antiguerrilla Operations in the Balkans (1941-1944)
W. Victor Madeja - Italian Army Order of Battle: 1940-1944 – Between Fascism and Monarchy
Reference material on this unit
- None known at this time -