Führer Directive No. 25
Führer Directive No. 25 was a March 1941 directive issued by German dictator Adolf Hitler during World War II. It ordered German intervention against Yugoslavia and Greece in the Balkans campaign, in particular focusing on the invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia.
Background
In October 1940, Fascist Italy had attacked the Kingdom of Greece only to be forced back into Italian-occupied Albania. German dictator Adolf Hitler recognised the need to go to the aid of his ally, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Hitler did this not only to restore diminished Axis prestige, but also to prevent Britain from bombing the Romanian Ploiești oilfields from which Nazi Germany obtained most of its oil.In 1940 and early 1941, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria all agreed to adhere to the Tripartite Pact and thus join the Axis. Hitler then pressured Yugoslavia to join as well. The Regent, Prince Paul, yielded to this pressure, and declared Yugoslavia's accession to the Pact on 25 March 1941. This move was highly unpopular with the Serb-dominated officer corps of the military, various Serbian organizations, a large part of the Serbian population as well as liberals and Communists. Military officers executed a coup d'état on 27 March 1941, forced the Regent to resign, and declared 17-year-old King Peter II to be of age.
On the same day as the coup in Yugoslavia, Hitler issued Führer Directive 25, which called for Yugoslavia to be treated as a hostile state. Hitler took the coup as a personal insult, and was so angered that he was determined, in his words, "to destroy Yugoslavia militarily and as a state" and to do so "with pitiless harshness" and "without waiting for possible declarations of loyalty of the new government".
Strategic consequences
The German-led Axis powers launched simultaneous invasions of both Yugoslavia and Greece, commencing on 6 April 1941; both nations were forced to surrender within the month, and were subsequently occupied and partitioned among the Axis members and their newly-created puppet states. The invasion of Yugoslavia was initiated with the heavy German bombing of the capital Belgrade, which devastated the city and killed thousands of civilians. The airborne invasion of the Greek island of Crete at the end of May completed the German conquest of the Balkans.With their victory on Crete the Germans had secured their southern flank and turned their attention towards the Soviet Union. The reason most commonly cited for the postponement of Operation Barbarossa from the initially planned date of 15 May to the actual invasion date of 22 June 1941 is the unforeseen contingency of invading Yugoslavia and Greece from April to June 1941.