helmodww2e

GREECE IN WW II - ARMED FORCES & MERCHANT MARINE

ARMY

In 1949 the Greek Army totalled 18 divisions. Except for its heavy guns, which were inferior, it had more efficient artillery than the Italians and more machine-guns, but it had only one pitifully equipped motorized division and virtually no tanks.

In October 1940 at the start of the Balkan campaign four first-line divisions opposed six Italian ones on the Albanian border. But Italian divisions 12,000-14,000 strong were smaller than Greek ones (18,500 strong) and the Italians were soon driven back, though they had air superiority.

By mid-November the Greeks had numerical superiority on the front where eventually eleven infantry divisions, two infantry brigades, and one cavalry division opposed fifteen Italian infantry divisions and one tank division.

Other Greek divisions manned the Metaxas, or Nestos, Line, which protected Salonika, and, with British forces, the Aliakmon Line.

Casualties during the Balkan campaign amounted to 13,408 killed and 42,485 wounded.

About 9,000 escaped to Crete, others fled through Turkey to Egypt. These constituted the 18,500-strong Royal Hellenic Army in the Middle East which came under British command and which eventually formed three brigades, an armoured car regiment, an artillery regiment, and the Greek Sacred regiment, made up solely of officers.

One brigade fought at the second El Alamein battle before being withdrawn, but the rest, apart from the Greek Sacred Regiment, saw little active service as the army was riven by politics. After the mutiny of April 1944, which precipitated a confront with British forces, much of it was interned.

The rest were used for non-operational duties, though 2,500 of those regarded as more 'reliable' were formed into the Third Mountain Brigade which subsequently fought with distinction in the Italian campaign.

There it became known as the Rimini Brigade, and it helped the British quell the ELAS insurgency in Athens in December 1944.

NAVY

In October 1940 the Greek Navy comprised 200 officers and 2,700 men. The fleet consisted of an ancient 10,000-ton cruiser, a flotilla of 6 modern and 4 old destroyers, 13 old torpedo boats, 6 submarines, and 30 miscellaneous craft.

Its submarines sank 18 Italian ships from Adriadic convoys, but in April 1941 many Greek warships were sunk by German aircraft.

Twelve, including the cruiser, three new destroyers, and three submarines escaped to Alexanderia, and were subsequently operated under overall British command.

By April 1944 the numbers had risen to several thousand men, some of whom manned destroyers handed over by the British.

Five ships, which joined the mutinies of April 1944, were stormed by Greek seamen loyal to the government-in-exile. Eleven seamen were killed, others wounded, and many were subsequently interned.

AIR FORCE

The Army and Navy Air Forces comprised about 3,000 men. These flew and maintained a miscellany of about 300 aircraft, many of them obsolete, and they made no impact on the Italians.

There were too many aircraft types, few spare parts, no replacement aircraft, and a dearth of forward airfields because of the country's rugged terrain.

Too few personnel escaped for an independent air force to be formed but eventually three Greek squadrons (nos 13, 335, and 336) were raised as part of the Western Desert Air Force.

MERCHANT MARINE

At the outbreak of war the substantial Greek Merchant Marine consisted of 557 ships, totalling 1,837,315 tons.

Of these 334 were sunk through Axis action, 32 were seized by the Axis powers, and 63 were lost for other reasons. Total tonnage lost amounted to 1,346,502, 71% of the total.

Two thousand seamen lost their lives and a further 2,500 were wounded, losses which had a disproportionate impact on the relatively small number of Aegean islands from which crews were recruited.

R.Clogg,

Oxford Companion to the Second World War (1995), p.508