What if the Corfu incident escalated?

[West234]

What if during the Corfu incident Mussolini was for some reason crazy enough to actually invade Greece? At the time Mussolini’s government was brand new and his army was definitely not prepared for an actual war. I think that Albania who was at the time nearly a Italian puppet would have sided with them and Yugoslavia might have sided with Greece like they threatened to do. There was also some talk at the time that Turkey might invade western Thrace although to me this seems to have mostly just been talk. So how what would actually have happened and how would the British and French have reacted to such a move?
Corfu incident

 

[SirHalifax]

To say Italy gets an ass-whooping is an understatement.

What if during the Corfu incident Mussolini was for some reason crazy enough to actually invade Greece? At the time Mussolini’s government was brand new and his army was definitely not prepared for an actual war. I think that Albania who was at the time nearly a Italian puppet would have sided with them and Yugoslavia might have sided with Greece like they threatened to do. There was also some talk at the time that Turkey might invade western Thrace although to me this seems to have mostly just been talk. So how what would actually have happened and how would the British and French have reacted to such a move?
Corfu incident

Ethiopia might join in on the fun.

 

[p0lish_runn3r]

To say Italy gets an ass-whooping is an understatement.

Ethiopia might join in on the fun.

Idk about ethiopia joining, but yeah italy basically gets reduced to its post ww2 borders and albania gets even smaller. interesting to think what would happen if mussolini gets thrown out of power so early and the kind of precedent that sets for facism in the 30’s

 

[Simreeve]

Oh, you mean that "Corfu incident"... When I saw this thread's title what sprang to mind was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corfu...t mines were,to Malta for further examination.

 

[SirHalifax]

Idk about ethiopia joining, but yeah italy basically gets reduced to its post ww2 borders and albania gets even smaller. interesting to think what would happen if mussolini gets thrown out of power so early and the kind of precedent that sets for facism in the 30’s

Ehh, probably enough to prevent Hitler from taking power, but I’d imagine a different, more moderate nationalist leader taking power in Germany.

 

[Father Maryland]

What was the relative balance of power between Greece and Italy at this point? At sea it seeme a definite Italian victory because Italy actually had a full fleet including modern BB, cruisers, destroyers, subs, and TP boats while the greeks I don't think even had subs and a dleet consisting of the akready obsolete armored cruiser and a couple lighter vessels.

Was rhe Greek army that much better?

 

[Mars aeternum]

At the time of the incident, Italy was far better in terms of naval power. Greece only had some pre-WW1 battleships, a couple of small subs and a number of torpedo boats.

The Greek army could field at least 120.000 men. Although they were battle-hardened, they were still exhausted and poorly equipped after a decade of continuous warfare.

The economy was quite bad too..

The incident happened on a most convenient time for Italy.

So, if the situation was to escalate, without foreign help for Greece, Italy could occupy Corfu and some other Ionian islands.

 

[lukedalton]

If Benny feel more cocky and more stable in power, as he was in power by less than an year and his hold was hardly absolute, he will have pressed for annex the island and maybe something more and there is little that Greece can do about it to stop it.
Frankly i doubt that both France and UK will directly intervene except from diplomatic and economic sanctions as everyone was too tired for another round between the big guys