![]() Meanwhile, the Allies had returned the ships of the Greek navy.īy July 1918 there were a total of 250,000 men in 7 Greek divisions on the Macedonian front. On June 27, Greece, under Prime Minister Venizelos, broke off relations with the Central Powers and declared war on July 2. He abdicated on June 12, 1917, and went into exile voluntarily. However, the Allied invasion of Thessaly finally led to the situation that the position of the king becoming untenable. On October 10, 1916, the Allies seized the ships of the Greek navy and blocked a large part of Greece to put pressure on King Constantine. The first three of these divisions fought on December 1916 on the Macedonian front. These formed the infantry divisions Arkhipelagnos, Kritis, Seres and Kiklades kai Ionia, named after the home areas of the volunteers. ![]() In September 1916 – by now major- general – Zymbrakis founded the National Defense Army (later called a Corps) with 60,000 volunteers. In the meantime Colonel Zymbrakakis had carried out a coup in Salonika on Augwith the support of the Allies, and on September 29 Venizelos formed a Provisional Government, which declared war on the Central Powers on November 23. This led to the resignation of Venizelos and caused a lasting constitutional crisis – the ‘National Schism’.Īccording to the Serbian-Greek alliance treaty of May 1913, Venizelos mobilized the Greek army in September 1915 and sanctioned the landing of the Allied Armee de l’Orient in Salonika on October 5.īulgaria then declared war on Greece on October 14, 1915, but King Constantine’s determined neutrality led to surrender of Eastern Macedonia by the demoralized Greek IV Corps on September 18, 1916. Venizelo’s offer to the Allies of March 5, 1915, to send Greek troops to the Dardanelles, was rejected by King Constantine, who thus surpassed his powers as a constitutional monarch. ![]() World War One split Greece into the neutral group of King Constantine, including the army’s high commando, which did not want to be involved in the conflict, and the faction, led by Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos, who preferred to join the Entente (Allies). Greek ‘Evzones’ troops arriving at Smyrna. In addition, there were the gendarmerie (police: Elliniki Chorofilaki) with 16 foot companies and three mounted squadrons. The Army Aviation Corps (Ellinikos Polemikis Aeroporisas), set up in September 1912, grew up on three squadrons. It consisted of 5 Pre-Dreadnoughts, an armored cruiser, a light cruiser, 14 destroyers, 14 torpedo boats and 2 submarines. The Royal Greek Navy (Vasilikon Naftikon) was extensive, but obsolete. There were a total of 41 infantry regiments: 33 of the Line, 5 of the Elite Evzones and three Cretan regiments. A field artillery regiment with four battalions (V Corps, only three battalions), each with three batteries of 153 men each, an engineer regiment with six companies (V Corps, a battalion with four companies), a transport battalion with three companies (V Corps, only two), a medical battalion as well as between two and three divisions.Ī division (actually a pure infantry division) composed of three (5th Division only two) infantry or Evzone regiments, each with three 1,045 men strong infantry battalions, each with four 253 men strong infantry coys and a machine gun platoon as well as a mountain artillery battalion (three batteries of 103 men each). There were 14 divisions (1-14).Ī corps consisted of a cavalry regiment of 480 men, with four squadrons of 120 men each. Greece was divided into five military districts, each of which mobilized an army corps (I-V, Greek A-E), but the V corps was only partially formed.
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