Battle of Vevi (1941)

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Battle of Vevi
Part of World War II
Members of the Australian 2/1st Anti-Tank Regiment resting, soon after their withdrawal from the Vevi area.
Date 11 April–12 April 1941 Location Vevi, Greece Result German victory
Belligerents
Australia United Kingdom New Zealand Greece	Germany
Commanders
Iven Mackay (operational); George Vasey (infantry)	Fritz Witt
Strength
About 2,000 personnel, including some artillery support	About 1,500 personnel, including artillery support and some tanks (see below)
Casualties and losses
Australian: about 25 dead N.Z.: about 12 dead; UK: unknown 480 British Commonwealth troops taken prisoner.[1]	37 dead, 95 wounded, two taken prisoner[2]

The Battle of Vevi (or Veve), in Greece, also known as the Battle of the Klidi Pass, was part of the Greek campaign of World War II. It took place on April 11-12, 1941. Allied troops fought forces from Nazi Germany.

[edit] Background

German forces invaded Greece through Bulgaria and Yugoslavia in the first week of April 1941. It was intended that British Commonwealth forces would hold the Germans in northern Greece, until Greek forces had returned from Yugoslavia and Albania, and a new defensive line between Mount Olympus and the Aliakmon River.^{[3] [4]}

On the morning of April 10, the German XL Panzer Corps advanced from Monastir to seize the Greek city of Florina, 13 km (8 mi) south of the Yugoslav border, utilising the Monastir Valley (or "Monastir Gap"). The Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler brigade advanced further south and occupied the town of Vevi on April 11. The Allies decided to attempt a delaying action at the Klidi (or Klidhi) Pass just south of Vevi.

A mixed Australian-British-New Zealand-Greek formation, known as Mackay Force, was assembled hastily. Its task, in the words of the British Commonwealth commander in Greece, General Henry Maitland Wilson, was to "....stop a Blitzkrieg down the Florina Valley."^[5] The force was named after its leader, the Australian Maj. Gen. Iven Mackay.

The Australians and New Zealanders were tired after a long and sudden journey from North Africa, and were not prepared for a European winter, which was lingering in the Greek mountains.^[6]

[edit] Forces

The Allied units occupying the Klidi Pass itself were predominantly from Brig. George Vasey's Australian 19th Infantry Brigade: the 2/4th (minus one company) and 2/8th Battalions, complemented by the British 9th Battalion, King's Royal Rifle Corps (also known as the 1st Rangers). The infantry were supported by parts of the New Zealand 27th (Machine Gun) Battalion, the Australian 2/1st Anti-Tank Regiment, the British 2nd Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery and other smaller elements of Australian and British artillery units. The other components of Mackay Force were in flanking positions some distance from the pass.

Kampfgruppe Witt, an SS battle group under Sturmbannführer Fritz Witt, was the German formation which assaulted the pass. KG Witt was composed of an infantry battalion, two "light infantry weapons" platoons, a "heavy infantry weapons" platoon, three anti-tank platoons, two engineer platoons, a light field howitzer troop and an 88mm Flak platoon.^[7]

[edit] The battle

The dispositions of forces in the Florina Valley, April 10, 1941. The blue arrows indicate German advances and the Allied lines are shown in red. Vevi and the Klidi Pass are upper centre, 19th Brigade HQ is in the centre and Mackay Force HQ is at Perdika, lower centre.

The Commonwealth forces found that the Klidi Pass was between 100 and 500 metres wide, a winding defile, with steep, rocky and treeless sides up to 1,000 metres high.^[8]

On April 11, Vasey's three infantry battalions were spread across a 16 km (ten mile) wide front:^[9] the 2/8th Battalion was on the ridge to the east of the pass, the 1st Rangers was on a north-facing spur on the western side, and the 2/4th Battalion was to the west of the Rangers. New Zealand machine gunners were distributed among the infantry. Allied artillery was concentrated in the pass itself.

Conditions at the top of the pass were "bitterly cold", with rain turning into snowstorms, hindering the ability of the Allied infantry to sleep.^[10]

The Waffen SS began a series of probing attacks on the afternoon of April 11. They also approached along the main road, as an Australian artillery officer wrote:

In all his insolence [the German commander sent] trucks down the main road ... to within 3000 yards of our infantry, and proceeded to debus [i.e. disembark]. At first I could not believe it was an enemy, all had been so still and quiet. Then came some sense. My orders flew over the wire and the first rounds screamed through the air... A few furious moments and back went the Hun [i.e. Germans], but five trucks stayed in the road as silent witness that my Troop could shoot.^[11]

More prolonged skirmishes were directed at the positions of the 2/8th Battalion. These became more aggressive as night closed in. In the words of the Australian War Memorial: "[d]espite being strung out and exhausted from a long march to the position and bitterly cold weather, the 2/8th managed to fend them off."^[12]

On the morning of April 12, snow lay over 30 cm (one foot) deep on the hillsides.^[13] By dawn, many of the Australians and New Zealanders stationed in the heights were suffering from frostbite and were unable to operate their weapons effectively.^[14] However, orders had now been issued for an orderly withdrawal to the Aliakmon line, to begin that evening.

The main German assaults were launched at 8.30 am. They struck strongly in the 2/8th's sector, near where it adjoined the 1st Rangers.^[15] SS forward elements, utilising intense machine gun and mortar fire, overran one Australian platoon.^[16] The 1st Rangers — believing that the 2/8th was retreating — withdrew in the centre. This opened the pass itself to the Germans, created a gap between the 2/4th and 2/8th Battalions, severed communications between Vasey and the 2/8th and left Australian anti-tank guns without infantry protection.^[17] The two 2/8th companies on the western flank were then forced to retreat up the slopes. ^[18] However, in the words of Australian official historian Gavin Long:

At 2 p.m ... Lieut-Colonel [John] Mitchell of the 2/8th ... ordered a counter-attack which regained some vital ground on top of the ridge... After six hours of intermittent fighting in the pass and on the slopes to the east, the 2/8th still held the heights though their left had been mauled; the Rangers, however, were rallying astride the road about two miles to the rear, but five of the six supporting guns of the 2/1st Anti-Tank Regiment had been left without protection and abandoned. Thus the ridge held by the 2/8th formed a deep salient.^[19]

According to Long, Vasey was informed of the Rangers' withdrawal by officers from other units, but refused to believe it.^[20]

By 4 pm, the Greek Dodecanese Regiment, to the east of the Australian positions, had completed a withdrawal planned by the Allied high command. This left the 2/8th exposed on two flanks, and it was soon coming under machine gun fire from the east. According to an official Australian account, Vasey "...realised his men were not going to be able to stage an orderly withdrawal. At 5.00 pm he telephoned the commanding officer of the 2/4th Battalion ... with the code phrase indicating that a pull-out was now vital — "the roof is leaking."^[21] At 5.30 pm, German tanks arrived in force along the whole 2/8th sector, effectively sealing the Allies' defeat at Vevi. The battalion was forced into a chaotic retreat, with component units being separated and officers ordering the abandonment even of light weapons, to speed their withdrawal.

Losses among the Australian infantry would have been much worse it were not for the 2/1st Anti-Tank Regiment and the Royal Horse Artillery standing their ground in the centre, until the Germans were only 400 metres away.^[22]

[edit] Aftermath

The 2/8th Battalion was effectively destroyed as a fighting force for the rest of the Greek campaign. According to some accounts, at its fallback position of Rodona, the battalion could muster only 250 men, of whom only 50 had weapons.^[23] Although the 2/4th Battalion had been spared the brunt of the German assault at Vevi, it had 70 personnel taken prisoner at a German roadblock during its retreat to Sotir.^[24]

The Germans claimed 480 "English" prisoners at Vevi for the loss of 37 dead, 95 wounded and two taken prisoner.^[25] For Witt, the victory was overshadowed by the death of his brother in the battle.

Although it was defeated and suffered heavy losses, Mackay Force's actions at Vevi gained two days for the retreat and regrouping of Allied forces to the south.^[26]

[edit] See also

• Operation Marita (German plan for the invasion of Greece.)

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] External links

• Gavin Long, 1953, Australia in the War of 1939–1945, Volume II – Greece, Crete and Syria (1st ed.), Canberra: Australian War Memorial

• Australian Department of Veteran's Affairs, 2001, "The roof is leaking Vevi and Sotir 9–14 April 1941"

• Australian War Memorial, no date, "Battle of Vevi (Veve) 09 April 1941 - 12 April 1941"

• Australian Department of Veteran's Affairs, no date, "Archive No. 2336" "Name: William Robertson" (transcript of an interview with a veteran of Vevi)