Greek Thessaly Army, First Balkan War, October 3rd 1912
v.1.0 June 9, 2002

Alexis Mehtidis

 

Source : ' The 1912 - 1913 War ', Greek Army Historical Service.

Corrections and additions welcome at: alexmehtidis@hotmail.com

According to the 1912 Mobilization Plan the Greek Army consisted of two General Headquarters : the Thessaly Army General Headquarters and the Epirus Army Headquarters.

Thessaly Army consisted of :

• A' Army Corps ( I and II Infantry Divisions )
• B' Army Corps ( III and IV Infantry Divisions )
• C' Army Corps ( with the mobilized V and VI Infantry Divisions )
• VII Infantry Division ( independent )
• Cavalry Brigade
• 1st, 2nd, 4th and 6th Evzones Battalions ( organised in two detachments )
• 1st and 3rd National Guard Battalions
• 1st Siege Artillery Squadron
• Seven Sapper Companies ( organic to Divisions )
• Two Bridgelayers Companies
• Two Telegraphists Companies
• Two Stretcher-bearers Squadrons
• Eight Operating Theatres
• One Supply Column
• L.O.C. Service
• One Flotilla with four airplanes

Each Division consisted of : Staff, three Infantry Regiments and one Field Artillery Regiment. The Divisions' artillery came from the following Field Artillery Regiments : 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th. I, II, III and IVth Divisions were pre-war Divisions ( organised under the Army Organisation in January 7th, 1912 ).

The Infantry Regiment consisted of : three three-company battalions and two machine-gun platoons.

The Field Artillery Regiment consisted of three two- or three-battery squadrons.

Each Evzones Battalion consisted of : four companies and two machine-gun platoons.

Each Mountain Artilley Squadron consisted of : two or three batteries.

The Cavalry Brigade consisted of : two regiments of four companies and two platoons each.

During its existence Thessaly Army created various tactical formations includings various of the units and formations mentioned here. For example, it was divided into three Groups for tactical reasons from 23/10 - 7/11/1912:

• Central Group ( I, II, IV and VI Divisions )
• Left Group ( V Division, Gennadi Evzones Detachment, II/24 Battalion )
  Right Group ( II and VII Divisions, Konstantinopoulos Evzones Detachment, 1st Cavalry Regiment )

Composition of Thessaly Army formations

Notes :

1. The dates for the composition of the various units and formations is October 3rd, 1912 - two days before the army crossed the borders with Ottoman Turkey -.

2. The Garibaldi Corps was a volunteer force first created by the Italian Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1860 to fight with the '...ones fighting for their freedom. ' His son, Ricioti Garibaldi took part in the Balkan Wars, on the side of Greece, in command of about 2300 Philelenes and Greek volunteers. This Corps was also called The Redshirts. The Greeks in the Garibaldi Corps were about 1100.