5th Cretan Division
Encyclopedia
The 5th Cretan Division formerly the 5th Infantry Division (V Μεραρχία Πεζικού) and commonly referred to simply as the Cretan
Division (Μεραρχία Κρητών), is a formation of the Hellenic Army
. Founded in 1912, it continues to exist today as a reserve and training formation of brigade
size.
, on the eve of the First Balkan War
, following the mobilization of Greece and the other Balkan League
states. Its first commander was Colonel Dimitrios Matthaiopoulos
, and it comprised the 16th, 22nd and 23rd Infantry Regiments, the 3rd Squadron of the 1st Field Artillery Regiment and the 2nd Mountain Artillery Squadron.
The division fought in the First and Second Balkan War
, and was retained on the Army's order of battle afterwards. It was relocated to Kilkis
in August 1913 and from December 1913 in Drama
in Macedonia
, and subordinated to the newly formed IV Army Corps. It comprised the 22nd and 23rd Infantry Regiments and the 3/37 Cretan Regiment. As Greece remained neutral initially during World War I
, the division remained at Drama. On 12 September 1916, along with the rest of IV Corps – at the time demobilized to a skeleton force of ca. 7,000 men – it surrendered to the Germans during the German-Bulgarian occupation of eastern Macedonia. For the remainder of the war, the 5th Division was interned at Görlitz
in Germany, and was disbanded upon the war's end.
Soon after, the outbreak of a Venizelist revolt in Thessaloniki
resulted in the formation of a "Provisional Government of National Defence
", which entered World War I on the side of the Allies
. The new government quickly extended its authority across northern Greece and the Aegean Islands, including Crete. There, from October 1916 until April 1917 a new Cretan Division, based at Chania
, was formed. The division participated in the Macedonian Front
operations in 1917–1918, and subsequently in the Asia Minor Campaign. In early 1921, following the anti-Venizelist victory in the November 1920 elections
, the division was renamed to 5th Infantry Division in order to purge the Venizelist-associated name.
Following the Greek defeat in Asia Minor in August 1922, the division retreated along with the rest of the Greek army, to Chios
. It was reformed at Serres
in early 1923, again as the Cretan Division, by merging the remnants of the 5th and 9th divisions. On 30 June 1923 it was re-renamed to 5th Infantry Division. From 1924, the division was based again in Chania in Crete, comprising the 14th (Chania), 43rd (Heraklion
) and 44th (Rethymno
) Infantry Regiments.
With the arrival of British troops that took over the defence of the island in late 1940, the division was transferred to the Albanian front
where it participated in the January–February offensives against the Italians, distinguishing itself in the Capture of Klisura Pass
and in the Battle of Trebeshina
. The division remained in the front until the Greek withdrawal from Albania in the face of the German invasion of Greece in April. The division retreated to the Peloponnese
, where it dissolved itself in May 1941, as there was no way for it to reach Crete.
Greece was liberated from German occupation in October 1944, although German garrisons remained on Crete until the German capitulation in May 1945. Soon after, the Independent Crete Military Command was established, comprising the 603rd, 606th and 607th National Guard Battalions. In April 1946, these troops were reformed as the 51st Independent Brigade (51η Ανεξάρτητη Ταξιαρχία). On 2 January 1951, it was reformed as the 5th Infantry Division, comprising three battalions and a Mountain Artillery Squadron. In 1954, with the reduction of the army's size, the 5th Division was converted into a training and reserve formation.
On 1 July 2004, as part of a general reorganization of the Greek Army's structure, the division was disbanded and reorganized as the 5th Infantry Brigade (5η Ταξιαρχία Πεζικού). On 20 October 2009 however, it was renamed as the 5th Cretan Division (V Μεραρχία Κρητών).
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
Division (Μεραρχία Κρητών), is a formation of the Hellenic Army
Hellenic Army
The Hellenic Army , formed in 1828, is the land force of Greece.The motto of the Hellenic Army is , "Freedom Stems from Valor", from Thucydides's History of the Peloponnesian War...
. Founded in 1912, it continues to exist today as a reserve and training formation of brigade
Brigade
A brigade is a major tactical military formation that is typically composed of two to five battalions, plus supporting elements depending on the era and nationality of a given army and could be perceived as an enlarged/reinforced regiment...
size.
History
The 5th Division was first formed in September 1912 at FarsalaFarsala
Farsala , known in Antiquity as Φάρσαλος, Pharsalos or Pharsalus, is a city in southern Thessaly, in Greece. Farsala is located in the southern part of Larissa regional unit, and is one of its largest towns. The city is linked with GR-3, the old highway linking Larissa and Lamia and is also...
, on the eve of the First Balkan War
First Balkan War
The First Balkan War, which lasted from October 1912 to May 1913, pitted the Balkan League against the Ottoman Empire. The combined armies of the Balkan states overcame the numerically inferior and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies and achieved rapid success...
, following the mobilization of Greece and the other Balkan League
Balkan League
The Balkan League was an alliance formed by a series of bilateral treaties concluded in 1912 between the Balkan states of Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro and Serbia, and directed against the Ottoman Empire, which at the time still controlled much of the Balkan peninsula...
states. Its first commander was Colonel Dimitrios Matthaiopoulos
Dimitrios Matthaiopoulos
Dimitrios Matthaiopoulos was a senior Greek Army officer who participated in the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913.He was born in Piraeus in 1861, entered the Greek Army Academy and was commissioned as an Engineer officer on 24 March 1881. He participated in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897, taught at the...
, and it comprised the 16th, 22nd and 23rd Infantry Regiments, the 3rd Squadron of the 1st Field Artillery Regiment and the 2nd Mountain Artillery Squadron.
The division fought in the First and Second Balkan War
Second Balkan War
The Second Balkan War was a conflict which broke out when Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its share of the spoils of the First Balkan War, attacked its former allies, Serbia and Greece, on 29 June 1913. Bulgaria had a prewar agreement about the division of region of Macedonia...
, and was retained on the Army's order of battle afterwards. It was relocated to Kilkis
Kilkis
Kilkis is an industrial city in Central Macedonia, Greece. As of 2001 there were 17,430 people living in the city proper, 24,812 people living in the municipal unit, and 56,336 in the municipality of Kilkis. It is also the capital city of the regional unit of Kilkis.-Name:Kilkis is located in a...
in August 1913 and from December 1913 in Drama
Drama, Greece
Drama , the ancient Drabescus , is a town and municipality in northeastern Greece. Drama is the capital of the peripheral unit of Drama which is part of the East Macedonia and Thrace periphery. The town is the economic center of the municipality , which in turn comprises 53.5 percent of the...
in Macedonia
Macedonia (Greece)
Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of Greece in Southern Europe. Macedonia is the largest and second most populous Greek region...
, and subordinated to the newly formed IV Army Corps. It comprised the 22nd and 23rd Infantry Regiments and the 3/37 Cretan Regiment. As Greece remained neutral initially during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, the division remained at Drama. On 12 September 1916, along with the rest of IV Corps – at the time demobilized to a skeleton force of ca. 7,000 men – it surrendered to the Germans during the German-Bulgarian occupation of eastern Macedonia. For the remainder of the war, the 5th Division was interned at Görlitz
Görlitz
Görlitz is a town in Germany. It is the easternmost town in the country, located on the Lusatian Neisse River in the Bundesland of Saxony. It is opposite the Polish town of Zgorzelec, which was a part of Görlitz until 1945. Historically, Görlitz was in the region of Upper Lusatia...
in Germany, and was disbanded upon the war's end.
Soon after, the outbreak of a Venizelist revolt in Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...
resulted in the formation of a "Provisional Government of National Defence
Movement of National Defence
The Movement of National Defence was an uprising by Venizelist officers of the Hellenic Army in Thessaloniki in August 1916 against the royal government in Athens. It led to the establishment of a separate, Venizelist Greek government in the north of the country, which entered the First World...
", which entered World War I on the side of the Allies
Allies of World War I
The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...
. The new government quickly extended its authority across northern Greece and the Aegean Islands, including Crete. There, from October 1916 until April 1917 a new Cretan Division, based at Chania
Chania
Chaniá , , also transliterated Chania, Hania, and Xania, older form Chanea and Venetian Canea, Ottoman Turkish خانيه Hanya) is the second largest city of Crete and the capital of the Chania peripheral unit...
, was formed. The division participated in the Macedonian Front
Macedonian front (World War I)
The Macedonian Front resulted from an attempt by the Allied Powers to aid Serbia, in the autumn of 1915, against the combined attack of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria. The expedition came too late and in insufficient force to prevent the fall of Serbia, and was complicated by the internal...
operations in 1917–1918, and subsequently in the Asia Minor Campaign. In early 1921, following the anti-Venizelist victory in the November 1920 elections
Greek legislative election, 1920
The legislative elections of 1920 were probably the most crucial elections in the modern history of Greece, influencing not only the few years afterwards, including Greece's defeat by Kemal Atatürk's reformed Turkish army in 1922, but setting the stage for Greece's political landscape for most of...
, the division was renamed to 5th Infantry Division in order to purge the Venizelist-associated name.
Following the Greek defeat in Asia Minor in August 1922, the division retreated along with the rest of the Greek army, to Chios
Chios
Chios is the fifth largest of the Greek islands, situated in the Aegean Sea, seven kilometres off the Asia Minor coast. The island is separated from Turkey by the Chios Strait. The island is noted for its strong merchant shipping community, its unique mastic gum and its medieval villages...
. It was reformed at Serres
Serres
Serres is a city in Greece, seat of the Serres prefecture.Serres may also refer to:Places:* Serres, Germany, a part of Wiernsheim in Baden-WürttembergIn France:* Serres, Aude in the Aude département...
in early 1923, again as the Cretan Division, by merging the remnants of the 5th and 9th divisions. On 30 June 1923 it was re-renamed to 5th Infantry Division. From 1924, the division was based again in Chania in Crete, comprising the 14th (Chania), 43rd (Heraklion
Heraklion
Heraklion, or Heraclion is the largest city and the administrative capital of the island of Crete, Greece. It is the 4th largest city in Greece....
) and 44th (Rethymno
Rethymno
Rethymno is a city of approximately 40,000 people in Greece, the capital of Rethymno peripheral unit in the island of Crete. It was built in antiquity , even though was never a competitive Minoan centre...
) Infantry Regiments.
With the arrival of British troops that took over the defence of the island in late 1940, the division was transferred to the Albanian front
Greco-Italian War
The Greco-Italian War was a conflict between Italy and Greece which lasted from 28 October 1940 to 23 April 1941. It marked the beginning of the Balkans Campaign of World War II...
where it participated in the January–February offensives against the Italians, distinguishing itself in the Capture of Klisura Pass
Capture of Klisura Pass
The Capture of Klisura Pass was a military operation that took place during 6–11 January 1941 in southern Albania, and was one of the most important battles of the Greco-Italian War. The Italian Army, initially deployed on the Greek-Albanian border, launched a major offensive against Greece on...
and in the Battle of Trebeshina
Battle of Trebeshina
The Battle of Trebeshina was fought between the Greek and Italian armies in southeastern Albania during the Greco-Italian War. Following the Greek capture of the strategic Këlcyrë/Klisura Pass on 10 January the Italians attempted to recover it by launching counter-attacks against the Greek II Army...
. The division remained in the front until the Greek withdrawal from Albania in the face of the German invasion of Greece in April. The division retreated to the Peloponnese
Peloponnese
The Peloponnese, Peloponnesos or Peloponnesus , is a large peninsula , located in a region of southern Greece, forming the part of the country south of the Gulf of Corinth...
, where it dissolved itself in May 1941, as there was no way for it to reach Crete.
Greece was liberated from German occupation in October 1944, although German garrisons remained on Crete until the German capitulation in May 1945. Soon after, the Independent Crete Military Command was established, comprising the 603rd, 606th and 607th National Guard Battalions. In April 1946, these troops were reformed as the 51st Independent Brigade (51η Ανεξάρτητη Ταξιαρχία). On 2 January 1951, it was reformed as the 5th Infantry Division, comprising three battalions and a Mountain Artillery Squadron. In 1954, with the reduction of the army's size, the 5th Division was converted into a training and reserve formation.
On 1 July 2004, as part of a general reorganization of the Greek Army's structure, the division was disbanded and reorganized as the 5th Infantry Brigade (5η Ταξιαρχία Πεζικού). On 20 October 2009 however, it was renamed as the 5th Cretan Division (V Μεραρχία Κρητών).