740.0011 European War 1939/9173: Telegram
The Ambassador in Italy (Phillips) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 19—3:34 p.m.]
384. My 344, March 10. Although exact information on the extent of operations last week by Italian forces in Albania is not available I hear from a reliable source that the counter-offensive was on a fairly [Page 665] large scale and was completely unsuccessful. Losses in wounded and missing are admitted by an Italian source to have been 18,000 while Balkan sources say they were not less than 20,000. The morale and physical condition of Italian troops which were already poor are said to have worsened. Mussolini who was apparently so confident of victory that plans were made for his triumphal return to Rome on March 23, a Fascisti anniversary, and who spent the greater part of the week in Albania, has already returned to Italy.
My informant says that German troops in Bulgaria are now expected shortly to move into Greece. Germany will take the position, however, that it is not attacking Greece but merely driving the British from that country in continuation of its policy of freeing the Balkans from British domination. It is hoped by making a show of attacking only British positions, encampments, et cetera, to bring about the political disintegration of Greece and thus end Greek resistance to the Italians as well as the Germans.
Inform War and Navy.