On 28 October 1940, at 3 a.m., the Italian ambassador delivered his government’s ultimatum to Metaxas. Greece stood accused of committing hostile acts along its border with Albania, which the Italians had invaded and occupied since April. It was also accused of allowing the British Royal Navy to operate in Greek waters. Metaxas was given three hours to respond (Gooch 2020: 134). Mussolini needed a war. Britain and France had stood in the way of Italy’s ambitions to expand its ‘Roman Empire’ in the Mediterranean, which to that point consisted merely of Libya and the Dodecanese. Germany’s stunning victories across northern Europe in the spring provided a unique opportunity, but a sudden deal with the French and the British might have seen that window shut quickly. The Italian dictator also wanted a victorious ‘parallel war’ to put Italy on a more equal footing with its Axis partner. Greece, an even weaker power than Italy, seemed easy prey. Aside from its islands, Greece had never been a target of Italian expansionist dreams, but Mussolini had convinced himself and many around him that Greece would fall easily and give him the kudos he desperately lacked. He told foreign minister Galeazzo Ciano that he would send in his ‘resignation as an Italian’ if there were objections within his government to his decision (Gooch 2020: 126).

In recent months, Metaxas had been trying to avoid reacting to Italian provocations. In August 1940, he claimed he had been counselled by Hitler not to retaliate after the Greek battleship Elli was torpedoed off the island of Tinos (Clogg 2002: 36). In the end, it was the Führer who gave Mussolini the provocation he needed. Infuriated by Hitler’s recent political interventions in Romania, which he claimed fell within Italy’s sphere of influence, Mussolini made his decision in a fit of anger. He complained to Ciano: ‘This time I’ll pay him back in his own coin. He’ll learn from the newspapers that I have occupied Greece and so restored the balance between us’ (Bosworth 2002: 376). Unlike the First World War, Europe did not sleepwalk into the second.