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The Civil War in Greece, Home 1943-49

By Brian Train

A Greek resistance fi ghter somewhere in the hills in 1944.

Occupied Greece, 1941-44 Then a vigorous German anti-guerrilla operation, combined with their usual he Germans invaded and harsh policies of reprisal killings and conquered Greece during the deportations, plus a severe famine T spring of 1941 in a lightning brought on by German food confi sca- campaign. The country was then occu- tions, and the growing strength of pied by Italian, German and Bulgarian the German-controlled security forces. The main resistance to the Axis battalions, soon had ELAS maneuver- occupation was organized by the Greek ing simply to try to save itself. Communist Party (KKE in Greek- In 1944 the Allies were on the language acronym). It managed to advance across Europe and it bring most of the resistance elements became clear Greece would soon be together in a political organization liberated. A free Greek government called the National Liberation Front was created in the mountains in (EAM in Greek). Its armed element was March, and it presented itself as the the National People’s Liberation Army legitimate alternative to the right-wing, (ELAS). The communists’ main rival pro-monarchist, government-in- was EDES, a republican organization exile in London. In reality it was a made up largely of former army front organization of the KKE. offi cers and recruits from the Epirus In April, communist sedition led region in northwestern Greece. to mutinies in Greek-exile army units Th e Western Allies sent the fi rst of and ships in the Middle East and Italy, several military missions to Greece in which were fi ghting alongside the September 1942. Their mission was to Allies. The mutinies were suppressed, support anti-Axis partisans. That Allied and most of the mutineers imprisoned effort wasn’t large, however, and the or sent to labor battalions. New unwillingness of the communist ELAS units were formed around offi cers to work with the republican EDES and others who’d stayed loyal to the meant the Greek resistance would London government-in-exile. Those British armor, along with pro- accomplish little against the Axis. units followed the British forces Allied Greek soldiers and resistance On 8 September 1943, Italy sur- that landed in Greece in October, fi ghters, clearing out a pocket of rendered and its troops occupying and they would form the core of the resistance in Athens. Note the amazing Greece and the Dodecanese Islands postwar Greek National Army. international array of equipment. were disarmed and taken prisoner, By the beginning of November the some by the Germans and some by the Germans had evacuated mainland Greek resistance. ELAS immediately Greece. ELAS was by then almost used that windfall of weapons and 50,000 strong and organized into 10 equipment to attack rival resistance divisions of 2,000 to 8,000 men each. groups. For two weeks in October it It controlled most of the country appeared the communists might suc- ceed in wiping out their competition. continued on page 10 »

6 MODERN WAR 11 | MAY–JUN 2014 MODERN WAR 11 | MAY–JUN 2014 7 Development of the Greek National Army 1947 from the lowest unit-level to the top: 1) a Greek National Army 1949 ELAS & DSE military commander responsible for operations,

XXXX XX plans and security; 2) an administrative offi cer XXXX XX Formation, Organization GNA Infantry Division responsible for all logistical matters, from GNA Infantry Division & Command weapons to accommodations; and 3) a member [Re-equipped with XXX XXX US weapons] from EAM who acted as a commissar. Not Following the Axis conquest of Greece, only did he look after the morale, education the EAM/ELAS Central Committee oper- X I I I I I and political reliability of the members, he X I I I I XX XX I I XX X I I ated clandestinely in Athens. From there it 5.5” How 2X Btry Humber/M8 16x Vickers also approved the military commander’s 4 to 6 Jeep/Horse 9x 2.36” Rckt provided direction to about two dozen small 25-Pdr Armored Car MMG plans and could override his decisions. Later, 105mm How 75mm or 75mm RRifle I I I I I I Howitzer guerrilla groups, most of them led by KKE 4.2” Mortar the duties of the third member were often 4.2” Mortar members, operating in the mountains. By assumed by the administrative offi cer. I I I X I June 1943 ELAS had reached a strength 36x Centaur I I I I • • • Lt Tanks • • • 36x M4 Sherman of almost 15,000, far beyond its ability to Arms & Equipment • • • centrally control. A GHQ committee with six I I 3 or 4x 81mm Mortar 3X Bren LMG/BAR • • • 3X Bren LMG I 1x 2” or 60mm Mortar regional commands was therefore formed. 1x 2” Mortar ELAS units were originally armed with I I I 4x .30 cal or Vickers MMG The basic ELAS unit was the “band” of 30 3 or 4x 3” Mortar whatever weapons had been left in depots 1/2 Truck, to 100. Bands were grouped into battalions XX by the Greek Army in 1941 or that could M8 & M24 XX of up to 500, but they rarely fought as single Mountain Division be captured from enemy forces. The Allies Mountain Division units during the occupation. For administrative supplied ELAS with little in the way of arms purposes, battalions were grouped into regi- X I I I I I and ammunition compared to what they X I I I I I ments and eventually in numbered divisions. furnished Tito’s partisans in Yugoslavia. The 2x Batteries Jeep/Horse 16x Vickers 2X Btry Jeep/Horse 16x Vickers By the fall of 1944 ELAS had reached its peak 3.7” Howitzr MMG Italian surrender in 1943, and the later German 3.7” Howitzr MMG strength of 50,000 personnel, organized in I I withdrawal from the country, made more I I 10 divisions of 2,000 to 8,000 men each. A crew-served weapons available. During the division was in reality a regional command, and 1947-49 fi ghting, DSE units received German whenever possible a division commander would weapons captured as war booty, including I I form detachments of artillery, mortars or heavy ELAS was formally disbanded by the Varkiza at Bulkes, a town northwest of Belgrade, 75mm and 105mm guns, as well as limited machineguns to provide support to the bands. Agreement in February 1945, but by early 1946 several hundred miles from the Greek amounts of Soviet weapons via Yugoslavia. DSEDSE Communist Division Division 1949 1949 Though 50,000 is an impressive number, it had reconstituted itself as the Dimokratikos frontier. The armies of those communist far larger than any other rival guerrilla orga- Stratos Elladas or Greek Democratic Army countries provided instructors and advisors Auxiliaries XX I • • • XX nization, only about a third to a half of ELAS (DSE). The main difference between the ELAS at all levels. In fact, the Yugoslav Army members normally carried weapons. ELAS of the fi rst and second rounds of the Civil War attached a general and his staff to the The KKE maintained a large number of maintained a reserve component of unarmed and the DSE of the third was the latter had a base at Bulkes to oversee operations. auxiliary organizations to support the fi ghters 8x Bren/BAR or X Combat Support Admin Support village militia who served as replacements secure rear area in Albania, Yugoslavia and That training allowed the DSE to adopt of ELAS and DSE. They included the following. X Combat(could include) Support (couldAdmin include) Support • • • for guerrillas who’d been killed or captured, Bulgaria in which to conduct training, rest, a more standardized organization and shift (could include) (could include) provided local guides and gathered intelligence. reorganize and receive supplies and equipment. from the band of 30 to 50 guerrillas to the • ELAN. National Popular Liberation Each village in ELAS-controlled territory had to Several thousand recruits were in training company of 50 to 100 as its main unit of Navy. The naval aspect of ELAS, this 5x 2.36 I I maintain at least a platoon of such reserves. at any one time, most at the main DSE base maneuver. Two or more companies would be group was composed of about 1,200 I I PW MI assembled for larger operations but would men and 100 small boats. Organized an autonomous “Slavic Macedonia,” PW MI afterward disperse into the mountains. into seven squadrons, and falling under and maintained distinct units in the B By 1947 the DSE had reached a strength the command of the local division DSE order of battle. Since creating such Theoretical TO&E of a DSE Brigade: B of about 23,000, a level it would maintain until commanders, ELAN ran supplies and a region would’ve required annexing Pistols: 55 Medium Mortars: 6 Theoretical TO&E of a DSE Brigade: nearly the end of the war, while battalions of Rifles: 963 Plus occasional detachments men up and down the coast of Greece. most of northern Greece, DSE later Pistols:Submachineguns: 55 393 ofMedium artillery, Mortars: anti-tank 6 guns, or 250 to 500 emerged as an intermediate-level • ERGAS. Workers’ Anti-Fascist League, de-emphasized its support for the NOF. By Rifles:Light Machineguns: 963 81 airPlus defense occasional guns. detachments Submachineguns:Med./Heavy Machineguns: 393 6 of artillery, anti-tank guns, or unit. In mid-1947 the Greek National Army a group charged with organizing strikes 1948 most DSE recruits were Macedonian LightLight Machineguns:Mortars: 27 81 air defense guns. was able to identify 65 of those units. There and sabotage in large towns and cities. anyway, as the supply of volunteers (noMed./Heavy DSE brigade Machineguns: every actually 6 approached this scale of issue). Light Mortars: 27 were about 30 in the Epirus region, where the • ETA. This was the formal supply declined and the DSE resorted to forced (no DSE brigade every actually approached this scale of issue). DSE was most powerful. There were about 25 organization for the DSE. It was organized conscription in the areas it controlled. in Macedonia and Thrace, and the remainder into static units of 50 to 75 responsible • OPLA. Units for the Protection of the in the rest of the country where the battalions for caching, maintaining and distributing Peoples’ Struggle. Like a secret police, remained a loose association of companies. supplies in a given area. ETA members OPLA carried out reprisal killings, and At the end of 1948, when the also took charge of evacuating wounded. arrested and executed collaborators strength of 50,000 in 1947, with up to insurgent leadership decided to pursue a • KOSSA. Communist Organization of and known anti-communists when ELAS 250,000 sympathizers who gave, or conventional warfare strategy, the DSE was the Army and Security Corps. This group moved into a new area. This organization could be made to give, occasional help. further reorganized along more formal lines. was tasked with infi ltrating the army was responsible for the assassination • Committee for the Liberation of The order of battle then included fi ve divisions and police. Not many Greek soldiers or of several prominent political fi gures, Cyprus. The KKE organized this group that controlled a total of 23 brigades, 42 policemen changed sides, but it was easy including the minister of justice, in 1948. but, ironically, the leader of the Cypriot battalions, 25 bi-companies (somewhere for KOSSA to exploit their grievances. It’s • YIAFAKA. This group maintained a struggle from 1954 to 1959, and between a reinforced company and a half- estimated that in 1947 up to 15 percent network of cells in cities, towns and the source of real trouble, would be battalion) and 18 independent companies. of GNA members were disaffected. villages to support DSE units in their George Grivas, leader of an extreme The ELAS concept of command was based • NOF. Macedonian Liberation Front. local areas with intelligence, supplies right-wing organization called “X” (Chi) DSE fi ghters singing, “The Internationale.” on the three-man committee, which applied This group supported the creation of and recruits. It had an estimated peak during the German occupation. 

8 MODERN WAR 11 | MAY–JUN 2014 MODERN WAR 11 | MAY–JUN 2014 9 B U L G ARIA » continued from page 7 Buy Now! Greece During WWII DSE Strength Over Time except for an EDES enclave in the Y U GOSLAVIA Home THRACE Epirus region and the two major 1946 cities of Athens and Thessalonica. spring 2,500 Kavala MACEDONIA The ELAS high command sensed summer 4,000 ALBA NIA Florina Thessalonika Thasos Samothrace it was time to strike. The British fall 5,000 CHALCIDICE force in Greece was too small to fully winter 6,000 Athos control the situation militarily, and the political situation was too fl uid for the 1947 G R EEC E EPIRUS Lemnos T U RKEY newly restored national government to spring 13,000 Jannina Larissa Corfu assert its authority. During the last half summer 18,000 of November, then, ELAS maneuvered fall 23,000 THESSALY Arta its best troops into position to seize, or winter 21,000 Lesbos IONIAN at least surround, Athens and its port Lamia of Piraeus, along with Thessalonica, 1948 ISLANDS EUBOEA and to try to eliminate EDES. On 3 spring 25,000 Cephalonia Chios December a massive anti-government summer 26,000 Patras ATTICA Argostolia demonstration in Athens was fall 23,000 ATHENS Samos disrupted by gunfi re and, with that, winter 21,000 Zakynthos ELAS began its second bid for power. PELOPONNESE ELAS forces were effective at 1949 Ionian Sea CYCLADES fi rst, but their organizational and spring 19,000 Kalamal Naxos leadership defi ciencies told against summer 15,000 them. The decision to seize power had fall 13,000 German Melos been taken hastily, and its divisions winter 0 (surrendered) Occupied proved unable to move quickly,  Italian being repulsed whenever serious Occupied resistance was encountered. By Country Divided, 1946-49 Bulgarian the end of the year the British had Occupied Kania CRETE 0 Miles 75 Herkalion reinforced and Athens was relieved. The remainder of 1945 and early Bulgarian Occupied On Christmas Day, Winston 1946 passed in political and social tur- after Jul 1943 Churchill arrived there to convene a moil. Greece had suffered badly under conference to fi nd a political solution. the Axis occupation—over half-a-mil- A ceasefi re in mid-January 1945 was lion people—eight percent of the pre- followed by the Varkiza Agreement in war population of 7 million, had died February. It let the KKE continue as a of famine or disease or been killed in legal political organization, but ELAS the crossfi re. Short-lived governments, was to disband and hand over its arms strikes, demonstrations, sabotage and equipment. ELAS cached many and revenge killings by both left- and of its weapons in the mountains, and right-wing organizations added to the about 5,000 of its most dedicated atmosphere of lawlessness and chaos. members crossed the border into Increasing numbers of com- Yugoslavia and Albania into areas munist guerrillas entered Greece from controlled by communist partisans. Yugoslavia and Albania. The Greek ELAS’s failed offensive was a National Army (GNA) estimated that signifi cant military and political by December 1946 there were over defeat for the communists. They’d 8,000 insurgents of the renamed proven unable to take on regular Democratic Army of Greece (DSE) troops, while the KKE lost its popular inside the country. The DSE estab- front facade when other left-wing lished its strength in several bases organizations resigned from it. Worst inside Greece, mostly in the frontier of all for the communists, in the retreat corner around Lake Prespa where the from Athens, ELAS units took some borders of Albania, Yugoslavia and 20,000 hostages with them into the Greece converge. DSE also managed mountains. Many of those people died to infi ltrate troops by land and sea of illness and exposure and some were to the Peloponnese, and there were executed. That hardened the mood also low levels of guerrilla activity on against the KKE all across Greece. Crete and the Dodecanese Islands. The DSE played to its strengths by adopting a protracted struggle strategy. It conducted raids and ambushes and A view of some of the fi rst British soldiers ashore in Athens late in 1944. attacked isolated border posts, convoys Debris after the battle.

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