An advertising card of the Greek Army from the series Armées des États Balcaniques, published in 1910.
The card shows, from left to right: an artillery detachment, a soldier in battle dress and another in parade dress, a cavalry man, an infantry officer, two hunters of a battalion of evzones, and a mountain artillery officer.

Armées des États Balcaniques. Greece.

Véritable Extrait de Viande Liebig.

Voir L’Explication au verso.



Reverse:

Grèce. - Le service militaire obligatoire est en vigueur en Grèce. L'effectif total, en temps de paix, est d'environ 23,000 hommes; en cas de mobilisation, on compte disposer de 80,000 troupiers, sans compter l'armée territoriale et ses réserves. Sur le recto de cette carte, nous voyons, de gauche à droite: un détachement d'artillerie, un fantassin en tenue de campagne et un autre en grande tenue, un cavalier, un officier d'infanterie, deux chasseurs d'un batallion d'evzones, un officier d'artillerie de montagne.



Greece. - Greece has Compulsory military service. The total force, in times of peace, is about 23,000 men; in case of mobilization, one can expect 80,000 soldiers, plus the Territorial Army and its reserves. On the front of this card, we see, from left to right: an artillery detachment, a soldier in battle dress and another in parade dress, a cavalry man, an infantry officer, two hunters of a battalion of evzones, and a mountain artillery officer.

Other views: Larger, Back, LargerBack

Saturday, December 11, 1915

"At this time there was also some concern over the neutrality of Greece and the potential threat to the Allied troops at Salonika. So on 20 November [1915] a special squad was constituted in Malta, under admiral Le Bris, comprising three French battleships, three British battleships and an Italian and Russian cruiser. The squadron then headed for the island of Milos, some 90 miles away from Athens, arriving there on 25 November, in a show of force to the Greeks. This proved to be effective, so that by 11 December the Greeks agreed to remove all but one of their divisions from Salonika."

Quotation Context

As neutral Bulgaria mobilized for war, signalling its intention to join the Central Powers, Eleftherios Venizelos, Prime Minister of neutral Greece, discussed inviting forces of the Entente Allies to land at Salonika with the French and British ambassadors, and with his King, Constantine. Venizelos favored the Allies; Constantine the Central Powers. On October 3, 1915, Venizelos received the backing of the Greek Parliament, but on the 5th, as an Allied fleet entered the Gulf of Salonika, the King refused to back the Prime Minister who resigned. In the coming weeks, Constantine threatened to intern the British troops in Greece, and the French, retreating from the Bulgarians, feared they would need to fight their way through a Greek army to return to Salonika.

Source

Gallipoli — Attack from the Sea by Victor Rudenno, page 212, copyright © 2008 Victor Rudenno, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2008

Tags

1915-12-11, 1915, December, Salonika, Greece, Constantine