- Yes
- No
Greece entered the 2nd World War when its imperialistic neighbour Italy invaded the Greek Epirus region from its colony Albania on 28 October 1940, nowadays annually celebrated by the Greeks as Óxi Day.
Why ,Óxi‘‘ ? translated it means No , which was allegedly the reply from the then Greek Prime minister Ioannis Metaxas to the Italian ultimatum which asked for the occupation of some Greek unspecified territory, while his confirmed reply was in French , Alors c‘est la guerre.‘‘ signifying It‘s war then.
Greece‘s armour at the beginning of the Greco Italian War was pretty much inexistent composed of 2 Vickers 6-ton tanks and 2 additional Vickers Carden-Loyd tankettes for training. During the war, the capture of a handful Italian CV-35 tankettes bolstered the Greek‘s mechanized force immensely.
On this Greek-operated tankette recaptured by the Italians in Pogradec area spring 1941 the inscription ,ΕΚΔΙΚΗΤΗΣ ΤΗΣ ΈΛΛΗΣ‘‘ signifying Avenger of Elli is applied on the gun mantlet remembering the sinking of the Greek Elli cruiser causing 9 deaths by the Italian ,Delfino’‘ submarine on 15 August 1940 , 2 months before the war. The Greek government tried to hide this fact by announcing that the nationality of the attacker could not be identified in order to not provoke a war, which didn‘t come off as convincing for the Greek people. Only then when war broke out, the Greek government officially admitted the truth.
After the war, Italy gifted Greece in 1950 its Eugenio di Savoia light cruiser as a compensation renamed as Elli.
Sources:
https://greekreporter.com/2024/08/15/italians-torpedo-greek-cruiser-elli-war/
https://proskynitis.blogspot.com/2020/10/blog-post_166.html?m=1