Eighty-six years ago today, on October 28, 1940, Italy's forces crossed into Greece expecting a quick conquest. They got...

Eighty-six years ago today, on October 28, 1940, Italy's forces crossed into Greece expecting a quick conquest. They got the opposite. Greek troops not only stopped the Italian advance but pushed it back into Albanian territory, handing Mussolini one of his most embarrassing early defeats of the war. That was just the beginning. A widely circulated comparison of national resistance durations puts Greece at 219 days, the longest of any occupied nation in Western Europe. Norway held out for 61 days, France for 43, Poland for 30, Belgium for 18, the Netherlands for four, Yugoslavia for three, and Denmark for zero. The only country in Western Europe that lasted longer was the United Kingdom, which was never occupied outside the Channel Islands. The figures are a conventional measure rather than a universally accepted historical ranking. The exact count depends on how the start and end of each country's military resistance is defined, and historians approach that question differently. But the general picture holds: Greece outlasted its European counterparts by a wide margin. Germany entered the fight on April 6, 1941, driving through Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. The mainland fell within weeks, but fighting did not stop there. On May 20, German paratroopers launched an airborne assault on Crete, one of the most costly operations the Luftwaffe ever attempted. Greek and Allied defenders held the island until the end of May before it fell. Even then, the resistance continued. Through the years of Axis occupation, Greek resistance organizations carried out sabotage operations, gathered intelligence for the Allies, and fought in armed clashes against the occupiers right up until liberation in 1944. Civilians endured mass famine, executions, and brutal reprisals throughout. Today, October 28, is marked in Greece as Oxi Day, the anniversary of Greece's refusal to surrender and the start of that 219-day stand. #OxiDay #Greece #WWII