The Balkans in World War Two

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Christopher Catherwood

   Pages 1-10

3. The Spring and Summer of 1939: Britain’s Balkan Dilemma Begins

   • Christopher Catherwood

   Pages 11-57

4. Autumn 1939

   • Christopher Catherwood

   Pages 58-102

5. Finland, the Plan to Bomb the Caucasus Oil Fields, and Italy’s Entry into the War

   • Christopher Catherwood

   Pages 103-128

6. The Cripps Mission and Turco—Soviet Relations, June–November 1940

   • Christopher Catherwood

   Pages 129-149

7. From the Italian Invasion of Greece to the German Invasion of the Soviet Union

   • Christopher Catherwood

   Pages 150-166

8. Conclusion

   • Christopher Catherwood

   Pages 167-170

9. Back Matter

   Pages 171-207

   PDF

Between 1939 and 1941 Britain had a terrible dilemma. She was keen to see Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and Yugoslavia join the Allies against Nazi Germany. But the 1939 Molotov Ribbentrop Pact had changed everything: the Balkan countries were far more afraid of Stalin than of Hitler. Britain and France were also concerned about the Soviets giving so much oil to Germany: in 1940 Britain almost went to war with the USSR in an attack on the Caucasus. This book looks at how Britain tried to solve these dilemmas and ultimately failed to do so.

• Adolf Hitler
• Britain
• Churchill
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Invasion
• Russia
• Stalin
• Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)

• Institute of Continuing Education, and St Edmund’s College, Cambridge, UK

  Christopher Catherwood

• School of Continuing Studies and Department of History, Richmond, UK

  Christopher Catherwood

CHRISTOPHER CATHERWOOD is an historian and writer, based in Cambridge, England, and Richmond, Virginia. He teaches extramurally for Cambridge University and the University of Richmond. Married to Paulette, an American musicologist, he has written several books, including Why the Nations Rage. Christopher is a former Visiting Scholar of Cambridge University's Centre of International Studies and of the University of Virginia's Institute on Violence and Survival.

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