Battle of the Corinth Canal | |||||||
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Part of the Balkans Campaign during World War II | |||||||
![]() Nazi Germany's attack on Greece | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Axis![]() |
Allies![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Strength | |||||||
Germany:
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Greece:
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Casualties and losses | |||||||
Germany: |
Allies: unknown number killed or wounded; | ||||||
Many Allied personnel, approximately 10,000, were subsequently taken prisoner, while awaiting evacuation.[citation needed] |
During the German invasion of Greece on 6 April 1941, the Allied forces were pushed back from Macedonia and Thessaly into mainland Greece while the British fleet stood by at various ports in the south of Greece to evacuate any remaining Allied troops from the advancing German ground and air units. A critical target during the German invasion, was the Corinth Canal which divided the Peloponnesus from the Greek mainland as Hitler saw it as the gateway to control the Aegean Sea and trap the evacuating Allied forces in Greece if it were captured and kept operational.[2]