During World War II, Operation Alpine Violet (German: Unternehmen Alpenveilchen) was a proposed German operation designed to help the Italians in 1941 break out of their Albanian colony and into Greece. This operation was never executed. In October 1940, the Italians invaded Greece without German help and were quickly driven back by the Greeks into retreat and into Albania. An Italian "Spring Offensive" in March 1941 made little progress and proved very costly for the few gains made.