Glad to see that someone knows their WW2 European/Med. Theater of Operations history.
The British, using torpedo planes, sank almost the whole Italian fleet at Taranto Bay, thus ending a potential threat to the US, British and French fleets (Free French) in Northern Africa.
Much of the French Vichy fleet was destroyed in No. Africa, possibly at Oran. It too was a real threat to the Allies.
If I recall history correctly, the British loss a lot of troops on one of the Greek islands, probably Crete. After that, they had almost no major military presence in the area for years.
Correct me or add more information if you want to.
Britain had four major stages of intervention in Greece -
- The initial deployment of supporting ground forces, including an Australian division and the New Zealand division, a British tank brigade, and supporting logistics units, RAF, etc., 60,000 men, pretty much the limit of what the British could support given the shaky and interdicted supply lines. These were hit by an overwhelming German offensive and had to evacuate mainland Greece, with heavy loss. There were also heavy losses of shipping to the Luftwaffe.
- The defense of Crete, mostly by the same units earlier evacuated from Greece. These were also evacuated, also with heavy loss, and even greater Naval losses.
- The attempted liberation of the Dodecanese islands upon the Italian surrender in 1943, which were attempted without adequate nearby airbases (the common theme of all the British attempts), and thus the Germans counterattacked causing further heavy loss.
- The occupation of Greece following the German withrawal in 1944, to ensure that the legitimate Greek government-in-exile got in instead of the Communists. Yet more British losses, this time to Communist Greeks.
The British all in all lost about 50,000 men trying to help Greece.