The Army (stratos) was organized into five corps (soma stratou) designated by the first five letters of the Greek alphabet: "A" (Alpha), "B" (Beta), "G" (Gamma), "D" (Delta) and "E" (Epsilon). Each consisted of two or three divisions and various support units. Army Corps Epsilon was weaker than the others and its units typically were equipped with older weapons.

In October 1940 there were 15 divisions (merarchia) in the Greek Army, 14 were infantry (pezikon) divisions with another almost formed, and one was cavalry (ippikon). Three divisions were independent: the 5th on the island of Crete, the 8th in the Epirus area of Western Greece, and the Cavalry Division.

Between the Italian attack in October 1940 and the German invasion in April 1941 five more divisions were formed, one of them motorized. Two army (stratia) HQ's were formed after the war commenced: Epirus (Eperon) and Macedonia (Makedonion).

Infantry Formations

Greek infantry divisions were similar in organization and equipment to those of most other second class European armies in the late 30's. Each division usually consisted of three infantry regiments (suntagma), one artillery (purobolikon) regiment, a recon group of two cavalry squadrons (mira) and a sapper company (lochos) , with a strength of around 12,000 men.

The 56 infantry regiments existent in October 1940 were made up of two battalions (tagma), a HQ company and a recon platoon. They had a very modest allotment of heavy weapons: 36 light machine-guns, 8 heavy machine-guns, 4-81mm Brandt mortars, and 2-65mm Schneider mle 1906 mountain guns. The recon group had an additional 4 light machine-guns.

What was unusual about the Greek infantry divisions was their artillery regiment, which was usually made up entirely of mountain guns. This allowed significantly more mobility, was appropriate for Greece's terrain, and compensated somewhat for the regiment's limited firepower.

Each regiment consisted of 16-75mm Schneider mle 1919 and 8-105mm Schneider mle 1919 guns, except in the divisions (12th and 13th) of Army Corps Epsilon which still used 76mm Schneider-Dangli mle 1909 guns and the independent 8th Division which had 28-75mm Skoda M-28's and 8-105mm Skoda M-39's. Divisional artillery regiments formed later usually consisted of 24-75mm guns of various types, mostly Italian 75/27 mod 11's supplied by the British.

There were also a number of independent infantry units spread out around Greece. There were four independent infantry brigades (taxiarchia), four regiments, eight battalions and numerous companies.

Six of the battalions and 10 of the companies were assigned to the Metaxas Line as fortress (epaktion) troops. The other battalions and companies were frontier guard troops or garrisons on the smaller islands in the Aegean. The Greek Army also had nine heavy machine-gun battalions, each of two or three 12-gun batteries, four of them static and assigned to the Metaxas Line, and one mobile with each corps. Two infantry regiments had the title "Evzonon", elite highland light infantry, with a status similar to Guards units in the British Army.

Other Combat Arms

Greek independent cavalry formations consisted of five corps recon groups and the Cavalry Division. The corps recon groups had two squadrons with 12 light machine-guns and two mortars.

The division consisted of two mounted and one mechanized (mechanokinton) regiment, one 12-gun machine-gun battalion and one weak artillery unit of 12-75mm Skoda model 28's. Each regiment had four squadrons with 12 light machine-guns and four 81mm mortars.

Actually the division did not operate as a whole, the mechanized regiment (the 2nd) was kept as an army reserve asset and the remainder operated as a brigade. With the arrival of weapons and other equipment from the British in early 1941 the 2nd Cavalry Regiment was expanded into three mechanized regiments (191, 192 and 193), forming a weak mechanized division, the 19th. This unit theoretically possessed 24 light tanks (mostly Italian CV-33's), 78 light machine-guns, 30 mortars, 22 AT guns (British 2 pdr) and 24-75mm guns. At the same time a new horsed 2nd Cavalry Regiment was formed and the Cavalry Division was reconstituted with captured Italian artillery.

The Greek artillery reserve consisted of nine regiments and two battalions. Army Corps "A', "B", "G", and "D" had two regiments each, one heavy (varus) with 8-85mm Schneider mle 1927's, 8-105mm Schneider mle 25/27's and 12-155mm Schneider mle 1917 howitzers, and the other with 36 of the ubiquitous French 75mm mle 1897's. Army Corps "E" had a battalion with 4-85mm 27's, 4-105mm 25/27's and 4 British 152.4mm mark XIX guns.

The army reserve regiment had 12-85mm, 12-105mm and 12-155mm. The other independent battalion belonged to the army reserve also and was the only motorized unit in the Greek army other than the 2nd Cavalry Regiment. It contained 12-149mm Skoda Model 33's. There were also a few independent batteries of various calibres.

The field army had four anti-aircraft (antiaeroporikon) regiments, one each assigned to Army Corps "A", "B", "G" and "D". Each consisted of one to three batteries of 80mm Skoda PL vz 33 or 75mm Swedish Bofors model 29's, one or two batteries of Bofors 40mm or 37mm Hotchkiss mod 1925, three batteries of 20mm Oerlikons and one or two batteries of St. Etienne 13.2mm anti-aircraft machine-guns. The 80mm, 75mm, 40mm and 37mm batteries had four guns, the 20mm six, and the 13.2mm 16 guns each. There were a few other anti-aircraft units, including a battalion assigned to Army Corps "E" and some batteries assigned to the defense of Greek cities. It was planned to assign a six gun battery to each division, but as of October 1940 only the 8th, 9th, and Cavalry Divisions had them.

There were seven anti-tank (antiarmatikon) batteries in the entire Greek army in October 1940, only two of which were equipped with Skoda PUV vz 37 guns that could penetrate medium tank armor.

Other support units included six engineer (mechanikon) battalions, one per corps and one in the army reserve, four bridging companies, four railroad battalions, and 27 construction companies, many of which were concentrated under the Thessaloniki Fortress Construction Brigade.

The Greek Armed Forces in 1940-41

Introduction and Preparation
Army
Navy
Air Force
The Campaign