The Leibstandarte in Greece

Farther south on the Greek border the Leibstandarte was finding the opposition had more fight in them. The Klidi Pass was high in the mountains and it was still covered in snow. In freezing conditions the SS assault troops infiltrated the Australian and British positions during the night of 11/12 April. Artillery barrages were used to cover the SS combat engineers as they cleared routes through the minefields to open the way for a major attack the following morning.

Tanks of the 9th Panzer Division were brought up to lead the way, with Leibstandarte infantry close behind. The defenders were overwhelmed in a day of intensive fighting, which saw small SS assault teams isolate and then destroy one British and Australian position after another. By late afternoon the British command ordered a full retreat, but one of the Australian battalions could not break free and was overrun with the loss of 60 prisoners. The following day the SS men pursued the British, only to run into a British armoured brigade that was posted as a rearguard. It roughly handled the SS infantry, until a pair of Leibstandarte 88mm flak guns were brought up to engage the tanks. In two days of fighting that cost it 37 dead and 98 wounded, the Leibstandarte helped break the back of British resistance in northern Greece. As the 9th Panzer Division was swung east to pursue the British to their evacuation points around Athens, the Leibstandarte was sent west to help surround and destroy Greek divisions still fighting the Italians along the Albanian border.

An easy victory

The Greek 21st Division put up stiff resistance in the Klissurra Pass, forcing the SS men to advance on foot at night over mountain tracks to outflank their positions. With covering fire from 88mm flak guns, the SS troops then stormed the Greek lines in a dawn attack. More SS flanking attacks surrounded 12,000 Greek troops who surrendered when their escape route was closed. The Leibstandarte continued the movement southwards to trap more Greek troops, and on 21 April the main Greek armies in the west of the country surrendered.

Now the Germans turned their attention to the retreating British. In a daring move, a battalion of German paratroopers was dropped on the Corinth Canal bridge that dominated the roads south out of Athens, in an attempt to trap thousands of British and New Zealand troops. The Leibstandarte was ordered to link up with the paras and it raced 290km (180 miles) east at breakneck speed. The SS brigade's reconnaissance battalion commander, Kurt Meyer, drove his men relentlessly forward, bypassing pockets of Greek and British resistance before relieving the beleaguered paras on 26 April. After the last British troops had fled Greece, the Leibstandarte took pride of place in the German victory parade in Athens

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