ABSTRACT
The disintegration of the 4th of August regime in the wake of the German invasion and the debilitating effects of Metaxas’ dictatorship upon the prewar parties, both republican and monarchist, created an apparent vacuum of indigenous authority in wartime Greece. As the country suffered under triple occupation (German, Italian, and Bulgarian), three contenders sought to fill this vacuum: King George II and his government-in-exile, the collaborationist administration in Athens, and forces within Greece which were prepared to resist occupation. Two of these contenders depended on foreign support for their survival: the émigré authorities on Britain and the collaborationists on the Axis, primarily Germany. Among those who chose to resist, the Communists soon gained a preponderance. If the Germans were satisfied to control at least part of the country through a regime of exploitation and terror, the British were keen to undermine Axis domination and, as the tides of war began to turn, to control Greece’s transition into the postwar era.
