| First Army, Hellenic Army | |
|---|---|
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| Active | 1912-present |
| Country | Greece |
| Garrison/HQ | Larissa |
| Motto | Εστ' άν τήν αυτήν οδόν ίη - As long as the sun follows his course. |
The Greek First Army (Greek: Α' Στρατιά) is the highest formation of the Hellenic Army and its only extant field army.
On October 28, 1940, Italy attacked Greece from bases in Albania, which it had annexed in 1939. Benito Mussolini, Il Duce, hoped success in the invasion would make up for the disappointing Italian invasion of France of June 1940. Mussolini had issued a three-hour ultimatum to Greece, complaining about Greece's "non-neutral" attitude towards Italy. On the day Italian troops invaded Greece, a buoyant Mussolini declared to Adolf Hitler that "we are on the move." Soon, Britain declared its support for Greece and Turkey declared neutrality.
However, to Mussolini's chagrin, the Greeks held out with valiant resistance. Italian troops began a big offensive in Greece in early November, but the Greeks swiftly defeated it and entered southern Albania. The Greek First Army spearheaded the offensive into Albania. The Greeks captured cities and ports and defeated the Italian Ninth Army, stunning Italy. In December 1940, Mussolini had to ask Hitler for help in the Greek campaign.
In January 1941, German troops began arriving in Romania in order to launch the invasion of Greece. Hitler had forced Yugoslavia and Bulgaria to join the Tripartite Pact. At the end of that month, Greek premier General Ioannis Metaxas died and was succeeded by Alexandros Korizis. The Germans were allowed to cross the Danube into Bulgaria on March 1.
Since the Greek entrance into Albania in 1940 Italian armies had repeatedly launched offensives against the Greek First Army, all of which were not very successful. In March 1941 the Italians launched yet another attack on the First Army, which made very little progress.
With the Italian Army still stuck against Greece, German, Italian, and Hungarian forces invaded Yugoslavia and Greece on April 6. Soon the Germans defeated the Greek Army Section of Eastern Macedonia (TSAM) and forced the surrender of the Metaxas Line, capturing Thessaloniki. On April 13, at which time the German troops had captured most of Yugoslavia (Axis troops had invaded Yugoslavia on April 6 after a pro-British government took control in late March) and were penetrating into Greece, the Italian Eleventh Army began following the Greek First Army (still in Albania) that had started retreating the previous day due to the German advance on its rear.
On April 18, Korizis committed suicide. Athens was captured by Axis troops on April 27 and by the end of the month all of Greece was under Axis control. The First Army had surrendered on April 20 to the Infanterie-Regiment (mot.) Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler under SS-Obergruppenführer Sepp Dietrich. In May, German troops invaded and, after long, difficult and quite bloody efforts, captured Crete.
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