Relative Priority of Bombing Targets in the Balkans. Note by Sec. Covering Report by J.I.C. (M.E.)22

(e) when the situation had sufficiently deteriorated in BULGARIA itself, of making this a direct German military security commitment, extremely difficult if not impossible to meet in present circumstances. It is not anticipated that, so long as the Germans saw any hope of ultimately restoring the situation in a dissident BULGARIA, they would initiate a voluntary withdrawal either of German or Bulgarian troops from their forward positions in the Outer Ring or from GREECE. They could not afford to abandon the defences of their much advertised European Fortress, except as a last resort, or as a purely military measure in reaction to, say, a Russian penetration of the BALKANS from the North.