Early Monday morning, October 28, 1940, when the insistent sound of the sirens heralds the war, which actually began 2.5 months ago, on August 15, with the sinking of the airship “Ellie”.

The Athens radio station broadcasts the first communique of the Greek General Staff, informing the Greeks that the Italian armed forces are attacking the Greek units on the Greek-Albanian border.

War Declaration No. 1 was issued by Kostas Stavropoulos.

“This is the Athens radio station. We are transmitting the first message from the Greek General Staff.
From 05:30 am, the Italian armed forces attack the main elements of the defense of the Greek-Albanian border.
Modern forces defend the fatherland, ”heard in an audio recording that was broadcast to thousands of homes.

“Greece has been at war with Italy since yesterday,” was the title of the main topic of the KATIMERINI newspaper of October 28, 1940.

Chronicle “NO”

The “NO” anniversary marks Greece’s rejection of Italy’s claims contained in the ultimatum delivered by Italian Ambassador Emanuele Grazzi to Ioannis Metaxas on October 28, 1940.

The consequence of this refusal was the country’s entry into the Second World War and the beginning of the Greco-Italian War of 1940. This date was established to be celebrated annually in Greece and Cyprus as an official national holiday and holiday.

Shortly after 3 am on October 28, 1940, the then Italian government sent an ultimatum to Greece through the Italian ambassador in Athens, who personally delivered it to Ioannis Metaxas at his home in Kifisia.

The free passage of the Italian army from the Greek-Albanian border was required in order to then occupy some strategic points of the Greek kingdom (ports, airports, etc.), for its supply needs and other facilities, in its subsequent advance to Africa.

After reading the text, Metaxas turned his attention to the Italian ambassador and answered him in French (the official diplomatic language) the historical phrase: “Alors, c’est la guerre” (Well, that means war), thereby expressing a negative position on Italian requests.