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Italy also sought to increase its profile in Africa by seizing French and British colonies in the Horn of Africa in the chaos of 1940. However, the Allies swiftly retook this territory, as well as Ethiopia and Eritrea from Italy. Italian efforts to push to the Suez Canal in Egypt from the Italian colony Libya were largely repelled by British forces. Italy desired a string of colonies along the Adriatic coast in Yugoslavia and to take former French colonies in North Africa. It was in this vein, jealous of Hitler's successes in Poland and France, that Mussolini ordered the invasion of Greece in October 1940. This invasion backfired spectacularly with Greece launching a counter-offensive and occupying a large segment of Albania. Germany had to bail out Italian forces in April 1941. In a show of exasperation, Italian troops were forbidden by the Germans from occupying Athens. In an effort to placate Germany, Mussolini directed 300,000 Italian troops to the Eastern Front against the Soviet Union, where their forces fared poorly.<ref>Kallis, Aritstotle, ''[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FA5ZVY/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000FA5ZVY&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=0418abe175ad3e9a035b7915e320b503 Fascist Ideology: Territory and Expansionism in Italy and Germany, 1922-1945]''. London: Routledge Press, 2000. Page 115.</ref>

====Japan====