Eighty years ago this week the Balkans take centre stage in Soviet/western rivalry

 

 

Churchill visited Moscow for a summit conference. There he  signed the "naughty document" with Stalin setting out the control GB and USSR would each have over Balkan countries, which was contrived to emphasise Britain's independent standing as member of the "big three." The US was excluded from this manifestly imperialistic scheme. Joint control over Hungary and Yugoslavia ultimately did not materialise as anticipated but the issue of Greece swiftly took concrete form.

With Rumania and its oil fields now lost the Germans had little reason to continue their occupation of Greece and began to withdraw their troops. The Greek resistance movements did not need any assistance but Churchill was acutely aware of the need to prevent the Communist ELAS from taking over. British ground forces in brigade strength were despatched to occupy strategic locations.

The days of the coalition government in Britain were drawing to a close. The Labour Party announced that it would withdraw after fighting had ended, but left studiously vague as to whether this meant fighting against Germany or against Japan. It was widely believed to mean the former. The Liberal Party under Sir Archibald Sinclair declared that they would fight the next general election as a fully independent party.