Battle of Pindus
Part of theGreco-Italian War
Italian Invasion of Greece 1940
Date 28 October – 13 November 1940 (2 weeks and 2 days) Location Pindus Mountains 40°05′20″N20°55′31″E / 40.08889°N 20.92528°E /40.08889; 20.92528 Result Greek victory
Belligerents
Italy	Greece
Commanders and leaders
Mario Girotti	Konstantinos Davakis Vasileios Vrachnos Georgios Stanotas Sokratis Dimaratos
Strength
28 October: 3rd Alpine Division "Julia" elements47th Infantry Division "Bari" Julia:[1] 10,804 officers and men 20 guns mid-November:[2] 23,000 men 112 guns	28 October: 2,000 men 4 guns 13 November: 32,000 men 114 guns[3]
Casualties and losses
5,000 killed, wounded and missing[4]	Unknown

TheBattle of Pindus (Italian:Battaglia del Pindo,Albanian:Beteja e Pindit,Greek:Μάχη της ΠίνδουMáchi tis Píndou) took place in thePindus Mountains inEpirus andWest Macedonia,Greece, from 28 October – 13 November 1940. The battle was fought between theGreek and theItalian armies during the first stages of theGreco-Italian War. The elite Italian3rd Alpine Division "Julia" invaded Greece from the Pindus sector. After its initial advance, the division was surrounded by the Greek army and forced to retreat after suffering heavy losses. In the aftermath, the Greeks were able to push back the Italians, advancing deep intoAlbanian territory.

After theItalian invasion of Albania in 1939, the Greek General Staff became alerted to a potential Italian attack from Albanian territory, which eventually started on 28 October 1940. The Italian command deployed theJulia Division with the objective of capturing the strategic mountain passes of thePindus Mountains as swiftly as possible.^[5] During an Italian war council, the Italian commander inAlbania, GeneralVisconti Prasca, stated that the mountain range ofPindus would be no problem for the Italian units, and foresaw no difficulty in getting his divisions straight toAthens, like a modernHannibal.^[6] The Greeks divided the theatre of operations into the sectors ofEpirus andMacedonia linked by the Pindus Detachment.^[7] ThePindus Detachment under ColonelKonstantinos Davakis was deployed along a 35-kilometre (22 mi) line in thePindus mountain range.^[8]

The primary objective of theJulia Division was to advance towards the Pindus mountain range and to capture the strategic pass at the town ofMetsovo. This move would have a crucial effect on the outcome of the battle, since it would break the Greek supply lines and separate the Greek forces in Epirus from those in Macedonia. TheJulia managed to cover 40 kilometres (25 mi) of mountain terrain in icy rain and captured the village ofVovousa, but were unable to reach Metsovo. On 2 November, Davakis was gravely wounded during a reconnaissance mission nearFourka.^[9] However, it had become clear to the Italians that they lacked the manpower and the supplies to continue in the face of the arriving Greek reserves.^[10]

On 3 November, the Italian spearhead, after the initial advance, was surrounded from all sides. The commander of theJulia requested from the Italian headquarters relief attacks and Italian reserves were thrown into the battle. However, reinforcements from Albania were unable to reach the cut-off Italian forces and theJulia sustained heavy losses. In the meantime, Greek reinforcements were arriving in the Pindus sector, while the assistance of the local population, including men, women, and children, was invaluable.^[11] The situation became difficult for the Italians and their pocket came under pressure from Greek units that had advanced to the area.

TheJulia was eventually able to break out of the encirclement, but lost about one fifth of its force and retreated toKoritsa.^[12] The villages that had been initially captured during the Italian advance—Samarina andVovousa—were recaptured by the advancing Greek forces on November 3–4.^[13] Within less than a week, the remaining Italian troops were pushed back into roughly the same positions they occupied along the frontier before the declaration of the war.^[12]

By 13 November, the entire frontier area had been cleared of Italian units, thereby ending the Battle of Pindus in a complete Greek victory.^[14] Highly significant for Greek success was the failure of theRegia Aeronautica to attack and disrupt the mobilization and the deployment of the Greek forces as they moved to the front. Due to this failure to interdict movement, the geographical and technical obstacles faced by the Greeks in transporting men and material in the mountainous terrain to the front lines proved surmountable.^[15]

As a result of the failed invasion, the Italians lost 5,000 men.^[4] After the successful Greek defence in Pindus andElea–Kalamas sectors, the Greeks were able to push back the Italians, advancing deep into Albanian territory.^[16] It has been argued that the assistance provided by the local women during the conflicts was crucial to the outcome of the battle. The women of the surrounding villages assisted the Greek forces in several ways, while their most important contribution was the transportation of guns, food, clothes and other important supplies to the front, since vehicles could not reach the battlegrounds due to bad weather conditions and rough roads.^[17]

The war filmI trecento della Settima was a propaganda film directed byMario Baffico that depicts the Greeks as the "bad" people that attack the Italian forces who defend a strategic point. It resembles the Italians alpinists as the "300" of Leonidas, and the Greeks as the mighty and cowardly army of Xerxes.

• Conflicts in 1940
• 1940 in Greece
• Battles of the Greco-Italian War
• Battles and operations of World War II involving Greece
• Battles of World War II involving Italy
• Epirus in World War II
• October 1940 in Europe
• November 1940 in Europe
• Pindus

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