London, March 31st 1939
Two weeks before Germany had occupied what remained of Czechoslovakia despite express promises the previous year it would not do so. Britain and France had in return given Poland a guarantee of its independence should it be threatened by Germany. How much direct military help Poland could get by the treaty was questionable. But indirectly Germany would likely think twice about threatening Poland if it also meant wr with the western powers or so it was hoped at least. Negotiations for military coordination and a loan to Poland begun almost immediately but would go glacially slowly much to the Polish frustration. In the meantime Poland did what it could to prepare on its own. The first P.50 fighters were already in service, it was expected that at least 50 would be available by the end of the summer, with production peaking up pace afterwards, as would about 120 PZL.37 bombers. Both aircraft had also generated considerable international interest. Yugoslavia had already taken delivery of 20 PZL.27 and was preparing to build it locally. Greece after initially ordering the French LeO.45 only for the order to be cancelled due to constant delays in its development had just placed an order for two dozen with another 25 to be built locally while it had also bought a licence for the P.53 variant of P.50 to replace P.24 in KEA production lines. Turkish and Bulgarian bids for both aircraft had been politely refused with a bit of French prompting behind the scenes. But Poland had also gotten a perhaps surprising order from Spain where Ochoa after the nationalist victory in the civil war seemed to be quietly trying to reduce German and Italian influence within his country.
Kleisura pass, Greek-Albanian border, April 7th 1939
The second lieutenant in command of the border post looked incredulously at the small motorcade that had reached his post. At dawn the whole VIII Infantry division in Epirus had been put on high alert at the news of Italian naval landings in Durrazo and Valona and the order to call up reservists throughout Epirus had quickly followed. But he hadn;t expected within hours of the invasion to have to deal with king Zog of Albania showing up at his post, with his family, some retainers and apparently as much of the gold of the central bank of Albania as he could carry away. After all countries didn't fall in a single day did they? The Ethiopians had fought on for months and no news of Italians near the border had reached him. The lieutenant, a reservist that had just taken his degree from the Panteion university of political sciences, before being called up to do his term, had been taught that Zog had been the Italians creature. But then what he was doing here escaping his own masters, what were the Italians doing invading their own satellite in the first place? He did the right thing, called his battalion for instructions. About two hours later king Zog and his entourage were allowed into Greece. After a few days in Athens the former king would pack up and leave for Paris where he settled. Albania itself was proclaimed a protectorate of Italy. It hadn't been a particularly auspicious affair. The Albanian army even when it tried to resist had been sabotaged by its Italian trainers while the population had been at best indifferent to the Italians. With the Italians publicly backing the Albanian national aspirations against Greece and Yugoslavia, on April 12th the Albanian parliament had deposed Zog and proclaimed Victor Emanuelle III as the new king of Albania. And yet the handful of mostly gendarmerie units that had fought back against the 22,000 Italian invaders had given the Italians significant trouble. As an Italian commentator none too diplomatically put it "if only the Albanians had possessed a well-armed fire-brigade, they could have driven us into the Adriatic". But they did not...
Paris, April 28th 1939
France and Britain had reacted to the Italian takeover of Albania by extending their guarantees to Greece and Romania on April 13th but not to Yugoslavia, although in its case its alliance treaty with France still stood. Britain so far, despite relatively close ties with Greece had kept her at arms length refusing the Greek request for an outright alliance out of fear of alienating Italy and for the same reason had dissuaded France from offering an official alliance to the Balkan Entente in early 1937. Anthony Eden had resigned for the British cabinet over continued appeasement of Italy, Churchill and Lloyd George, the latter probably influenced by Venizelos, had repeatedly attacked the policy but it was only recently that Britain had taken any tangible steps in support of her friends. The occupation of Albania would prove the last straw for the western powers and Venizelos had taken advantage of it rushing to London and then Paris as soon as it looked the Italians were not going to invade Greece after occupying Albania. Two weeks of intense negotiations had secured 150 million francs in French war credits, an agreement for Greece to locally produce the Merlin III, under licence, for 50,000 pounds and an obligation to deliver part of the production to British forces in the Near East and most important of all a joint treaty of guarantee between the three countries should war break out in the Mediterranean. Greece had effectively entered a defensive alliance with France and Britain. It was a great diplomatic success for Venizelos. But it had taken its toll on him. The treaty was signed in April 26th. On April 28th the overworked Venizelos had a stroke as he was preparing for the return journey to Greece. He died the same night despite the best efforts of the French and Greek doctors that rushed to his help...
Chania, Crete, May 9th 1939
The 3rd republic had treated "monsieur Venizelos" with honours more akin to one of its own than a foreign dignitary. The French presidential guard had escorted his body as it was brought to the Greek Orthodox cathedral of St Stephen in Paris where it had been kept for a day, with thousands of people paying their respects and French veterans of the Macedonian front had volunteered themselves as pall bearers. From Gare de Lyon train station the body had been brought to Marseilles where it had been received by Averof to be brought first to Athens and finally to his native Chania, as Venizelos had wanted to be interred at
Akrotiri from where he had led the 1896 Cretan revolt against the Ottomans. There things had almost gone out of control, in addition to thousands of officials, diplomats and common people from the rest of Greece and Constantinople that had found a ship to Chania over 100,000 Cretans, nearly a quarter of the whole population of the island, had gathered to mourn their "chief" with his fellow revolutionary veterans literally grabbing the body from the hands of the Averof sailors and the presidential guard euzones to carry it. And thus the era of Venizelos came to its end...
* * *
"We must all understand well that Eleutherios Venizelos has died and that we have all died with him. Venizelists, Antivenizelists, past, factions, dangers, sufferings and titles of each of us, all suffered a stroke and, if they have not all died, they are dying. Both the one Greece that weeps for her man and the other one that does not curse her persecutor out of propriety, as much as the one lays flowers and the other thorns, before his body, as much as they besiege his dead and as much as they present themselves as refusing to detach from his coffin, deep down they ask for nothing better than to return from the cemetery, to open the windows of their house, and to stand there, free, carefree to breathe. Because Eleftherios Venizelos, no matter how he was characterized by enemies and friends, had always been a heavy handed leader for his own, a terrible danger for others. A man who, from the day he appeared until the day he disappeared, created on his own the history in which all other Greeks, either as opponents or as his fellow soldiers we were called to live in..."
George Vlachos, Kathimerini newspaper (OTL 22/3/1926, ATL 2/5/1939, translation mine)
* * *
"Greeks were being born and dying Venizelist or anti-Venizelist. They had stopped thinking politically. His followers believed his words as a creed. His opponents, just because they had found themselves in the anti-Venizelist camp felt obliged to oppose every action of Venizelos. Thus the Greek political problem had been solved. Eleutherios Venizelos was thinking on behalf of all Greeks. After his death Greeks had to start thinking politically. Make decisions, study issues, find solutions to the problems..."
George Dafnis, "Hellas between two wars" (OTL 1955, translation mine)
