To Greece
The German Plan of Attack
The German Plan of Attack
While these decisions were being made, Field Marshal List had hastened to adjust his plans according to the changes along the front. On 12 April, when one force had entered Edhessa and another was forcing its way through the Klidhi Pass, he issued new orders. Eighteenth Corps would advance upon Larisa from its bridgeheads south and east of Veroia ‘with its main weight going through Katerini.’ Second Panzer Division was therefore preparing to approach Larisa through the coastal gap covered by 21 Battalion 3 and through Olympus Pass in the 5 Brigade sector. 4
Fortieth Corps on its way south from
Yugoslavia had ‘to push
9 Pz Div on through
Kozani and the Aliakmon sector’ to the key
town of
Larisa. That was to be the major effort; and by the
evening of 14 April its advanced guard
5 was beyond
Kozani, with
patrols across the
Aliakmon River and approaching
Servia. At the
same time Field Marshal List, still sensitive about his open right
flank, had taken good care to screen each gap in the western ranges.
In the
Pisodherion Pass west of
Florina,
73 Division was to force
its way through towards Kastoria, but the major diversion was to
be made farther to the south. The
SS ‘Adolf Hitler’ Division, with
5 Panzer Division ‘following up with all speed’, had to fight its
way through the Klisoura Pass towards Kastoria and to send from
there a strong battle group to Koritza in the hope that it might
destroy Headquarters Greek Corps and force the surrender of the
northern flank of the Greek Army. With his right flank secure he
would then, and only then, despatch a force southwards through
Grevena to encircle the Allied line.
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The Planned Withdrawal to Thermopylae, 14–18 April 1941