A History of Modern Europe - From the Renaissance to the Present

A Global War 1067

bia, which had once been part of the Russian Empire. Bulgaria also helped

itself to Romanian territory. As a result, the Romanian fascist Iron Guard

rebelled and forced King Carol to abdicate in favor of his son Michael in

September 1940.

Now convinced it was facing a long war, Germany hurried to secure a

supply of raw materials by occupying Romania and its rich oil fields in

October 1940. A right-wing general, Ion Antonescu (1882-1946), ran the

country with the help of the Iron Guard, which served German interests

and unleashed its fury against Romania’s Jews and Communists. Both

Romania and Hungary formally joined the Axis in November 1940.

From the beginning, it appeared that Italy’s contributions to the German

war effort would be minimal at best. Mussolini aimed to take as much terri­

tory in North Africa as possible before the British surrender upon which he

counted. After having failed to launch air attacks, as Hitler had wanted, on

British bases on the Mediterranean island of Malta, Mussolini invaded

Egypt in September 1940, refusing a German offer to supply tanks because

he wanted Italy to claim victory on its own. Unable to provide troops with

air cover, Italian forces suffered a series of defeats at the hands of British

forces.

Desperate for victory somewhere, on October 28, 1940, the Duce sur­

prised Hitler—as well as his own generals—by ordering his army to invade

Greece from Albania. Having paid large bribes to Greek generals and offi­

cials not to resist, Mussolini anticipated an easy victory. But a Greek patriot

army drove the Italians back into Albania, where resistance movements

made life difficult for Mussolini’s troops. The Italian army took out its frus­

trations against the Croatian population of Dalmatia on the Adriatic coast.

In the meantime, the British navy battered the Italian fleet.

Italy’s imperial holdings in East Africa rapidly crumbled in the spring of

1941. A British and French force took Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, in
      April. Hitler sent General Erwin Rommel (1891-1944), commander of
      a tank division, to North Africa to bail out the Italian troops. Mussolini
      vowed to continue the war “until the last Italian is killed.”

The German Invasion of Russia

Hitler always intended to invade and defeat the Soviet Union, despite the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Nonaggression Pact of August 1939. After occupying
eastern Poland following the German invasion of Poland, Soviet troops
had occupied the Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania during
the summer of 1940, claiming that they had been illegitimately detached
from Russia after World War I, when they had become independent. Ger­
man interest in Finland and moves in Romania now made Soviet Foreign
Minister Vyacheslav Molotov (1890—1986) anxious. The Soviets sought re­
assurance in a new pact, one that Mussolini would sign as well. Molotov
went to Berlin. Assured personally by Hitler that Britain lay defeated,