Early in the morning of 28 October 1940, Italy gave an ultimatum to dictator Ioannis Metaxas: either allow Italian troops to occupy Greece or else war. Metaxas refused the demand and Italy immediately invaded Greece. The Jewish community reported that 12,898 Jews fought for Greece in the war; 613 died and 3,743 were wounded, most famously Mordechai Frizis, a Greek colonel. During the winter of 1940–1941, Italians and Greeks fought in Albania, but in April 1941, Germany joined the war and occupied all of mainland Greece by the end of the month. A group of generals announced a new government with German backing on 26 April, while the royal family was evacuated to Crete and then to Cairo, where the Greek government-in-exile was founded.