The Greek Sacred Band was steeped in the epic military history of the ancient hoplite warriors.
Established in 1942, the unit was trained to follow the footsteps
of the British SAS and the Special Boat Service.
For over two years, the seasoned Greek commandos conducted land and
sea-based raids against the Axis forces. Having honed their skills to perfection,
they were now ready to reconquer the Aegean islands.
During moonless nights, the commandos boarded their small boats,
stealthily approached the Dodecanese islands,
and launched hit-and-run attacks from multiple sectors to overwhelm the enemy.
By the time the Axis forces could retaliate,
they were already encircled and cut off by several commandos.
This strategy cemented the reputation of the Greek
Sacred Band as the corsairs and liberators of the Aegean…
The Invasion of Greece
Prior to the outbreak of World War 2, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini,
who had first conceived fascism in the 1920s,
developed an ideology aimed at restoring Italy to the glory days of the Roman Empire.
Mussolini argued that Fascist Italy required Spazio vitale, or vital space, to grow properly.
He believed that the only way to achieve this was through territorial expansion,
similar to that of France and the United Kingdom.
Consequently, Italy's military embarked on a journey of territorial conquest in
Southern Europe and Africa in the 1930s.
Triumphs such as the Second Italo-Ethiopian War of 1935 and the Duce’s intervention in the
Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939 convinced Mussolini that it was time to pursue more aggressive goals
in the Balkans and the Mediterranean. One of Mussolini's targets was the young Greek nation,
which had achieved total independence from the Ottoman Empire just before World War 1.
The Italian invasion of Albania in April of 1939 prompted the Greeks
to mobilize their military forces for an impending war against Italy.
During a visit to occupied Albania, Prime Minister Galeazzo wrote in his diary: (QUOTE)
"We will go to the Aegean and will take Piraeus. And if all goes well, we will take Athens too.”
Anti-Greek sentiment grew in Italy after British warships were spotted near Crete
and other Greek islands in early 1940. Mussolini used this as a pretext to
satisfy his territorial ambitions and launched a full-scale invasion of Greece on October 28.
Fighting from Exile
Despite Mussolini's ambition to make Italy the modern equivalent of the ancient Roman Empire,
his armies were not as formidable as the Roman legionaries of old.
Besides the elite Alpini and Bersaglieri, most Italian troops were undertrained and
lacked the morale needed for a lengthy campaign.
The Greek military, on the other hand, responded to the Italian invasion with heroic bravery,
due in large part to the experience of its officers. Many of them had served in
the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913, World War 1, and the Greco-Turkish War of 1919.
Meanwhile, Greek propaganda relied on epic tales of the free Greek states who fought against the
Persian Empire to boost morale and support for the defenders against overwhelming odds.
Echoing the spirit of their forefathers, who fought at Marathon, Salamis, and Thermopylae,
the outnumbered Greeks fought tirelessly
against the Italians and succeeded in pushing them back in January of 1941.
This humiliating defeat forced Hitler to launch Operation Marita,
the Wehrmacht’s invasion of Greece three months later.
This time, the Greek and British forces were swiftly pushed back, and the Greek government fled
to Egypt, where it continued to fight alongside the troops who had not surrendered to the Germans.
Once in exile, Greek Air Force Lieutenant Colonel G. Alexandris recognized the
surplus of officers and non-commissioned officers or NCOs in the Hellenic Army.
As he knew there was a shortage of soldiers, he decided to create a unit of volunteers with them.
The Chosen Immortals Colonel Alexandris discussed
his idea of creating a volunteer unit with Panagiotis Kanellopoulos, vice president of
the Greek government in exile in Cairo. The idea was intriguing, but Kanellopoulos had reservations
about whether officers would be willing to give up their privileges and fight as regular soldiers.
Whichever the case, they had nothing to lose, and the suggestion was approved by infantry
Colonel Alkiviadis Bourdaras, Commander of the 2nd Greek Brigade, who considered it urgent.
Officers from across the British dominions gathered in Palestine to consolidate the unit,
which was formed in August of 1942 as the “Company of Chosen Immortals.”
Cavalry Major Antonios Stefanakis was provisionally appointed as the commanding
officer of the unit, which consisted of over 210 men, including some 140 low-ranking officers,
40 regular soldiers, and 20-30 auxiliary troops, such as cooks and waiters.
Soon, more volunteers from the Royal Hellenic Air Force, Navy, and Gendarmerie joined the Immortals.
The unit was initially formed as a machine gun
company attached to the 2nd Greek Brigade, but things soon changed.
In mid-September of 1942, the unit was transferred to Egypt, where Colonel Christodoulos Tsigantes,
an officer discharged from the Royal Hellenic Army after the 1935 coup, assumed command of the unit.
His involvement in Greek politics did not fare well with some of his subordinates and other
high-ranking officers that were split between right and left-wing movements. However,
Tsigantes quickly proved his worth and also changed the name of the unit from the Immortals
to the “Sacred Band” in honor of the ancient hoplite warriors of the Sacred Band of Thebes
and the Sacred Band of the Greek Revolution from the early 19th-century Greek War of Independence.
Greek Sacred Squadron
After changing the unit's name, Colonel Tsigantes contacted the commander of the
recently created Special Air Service Regiment or SAS, Lieutenant Colonel David Stirling.
Both men sought to convert the Greek Sacred Squadron or GSS into a commando unit modeled after
the SAS to conduct raids in the Mediterranean, the Aegean, and the Dodecanese Islands.
The success of the SAS and the Long Range Desert Group in North Africa prompted
Sterling to reorganize the GSS as a mechanized commando unit for use in Tripoli and the Sahara.
The GSS began training with the SAS in Qabrit, Egypt, in late December of 1942.
The men learned to employ jeeps and other vehicles for raids against German and Italian forces.
In early February of 1943, the Greek commandos were going to participate in a
sabotage operation against the Axis in Tunisia, but the capture of Stirling changed the plans.
The Greek commandos were then put under the command of French General Philippe
Leclerc and fought the Germans for the first time in March near Ksar-Rillan, Tunisia.
During the skirmishes of the Mareth Line, a German mechanized column engaged Greek and
British commandos covering the advance of the X British Army Corps. The Sacred Squadron fought
with tenacity and only lost three men before friendly aircraft forced the Germans to withdraw.
Days later, 13 jeeps from the Greek commandos and French troops took Ksar Rillan and secured it.
The Sacred Band was then put under the command of the 2nd New Zealand Division and saw action
at the Battle of Wadi Akarit. The Greeks once again demonstrated their capacity to
operate as commandos and took the fight against the Axis without any retreats.
Aegean Operations The Sacred Band liberated
the cities of Sfax and Sous between April 9 and 12 and conducted reconnaissance patrols
during the Battle of Enfidaville days later. The entire unit was then transferred to Palestine to
complete parachute training, and was reorganized into one commando unit and three raiding squads.
While the commando unit would continue operating just like the British SAS,
the raiding squads would follow the steps of the British Special Boat Service or SBS, which was
focused on amphibious assaults, sea-borne raids, and aerial operations over the Aegean islands.
Following extensive training in new tactics, some men were airdropped over
the island of Samos in October, while others secured the island aboard fishing boats.
Once the Sacred Squadron secured Samos, the island was bombed by the Germans.
Overwhelmed and surrounded, the British extracted the unit in November.
However, they soon resumed raiding operations and split into two sectors. The Greeks employed
hit-and-run tactics against German fortifications in the Dodecanese Islands and operated in units
that ranged from 12 to 30 men, and consistently sailed at night to conceal their positions.
Once a specific garrison was identified, reconnaissance
patrols observed them meticulously for days before launching a daring hit-and-run attack.
Reconquering the Islands
The year 1944 was hailed as the year of raids for the Sacred Squadron,
and Colonel Tsigantes closely observed the three amphibious detachments during their operations.
The Greek commandos unleashed the wrath of the
ancient hoplites by destroying German shipping vessels, dry docs, fuel tanks,
electricity lines, and other essential facilities for the German war effort.
In February of 1944, the attacks intensified, and two months later, the Sacred Squadron became
a regiment, now with about one thousand men in its ranks. With support from the British Special
Boat Service, the elite regiment continued destroying the Germans in the Aegean islands.
Surprise attacks were conducted in Samos, Paros,
and Chios, and on June 20, a unit attacked a German outpost in the Bay of Gera, Lesbos.
Some commandos attacked the enemy garrison and lured it away from the dock, while others planted
explosives, destroying the storehouse, the entire dry dock, and three Kriegsmarine boats.
By July, the Sacred Band and the SBS had seized control of Symi as part of Operation Tenement.
The Sacred Band attacked the island from three sectors: the north, the south, and the west.
Over 150 Greek commandos and 80 British troops overwhelmed and
forced the German and Italian forces to surrender.
Even so, there was no rest for the Sacred Band. In August,
the commandos attacked the Bay of Gera in Lesbos again,
but this time they destroyed valuable food supplies and the German headquarters.
Days later, the Germans began to retreat from the Aegean to
reinforce the Greek mainland before a complete withdrawal.
Return with Your Shield On August 12, Greek commandos
raided Santorini, successfully destroying German telephone lines. These actions were
followed by a raid on Kos, where the Sacred Band neutralized a German and Italian garrison.
Over the course of the following weeks, the Sacred Band continued to assume control of more Greek
islands and received the surrender of Italian forces. The culmination of their efforts came on
October 14, when the Greek commandos received a hero's welcome in the streets of Athens.
Despite the majority of Greece having already been liberated, the GSS remained active in
conducting mop-up operations against scattered German garrisons that refused to surrender.
After successful Sacred Band operations in Rhodes and Alimnia in April of 1945, General
Otto Wagner, commander of Rhodes, surrendered to Brigadier James Moffat and Colonel Tsigantes.
The Sacred Band was then disbanded in July, with General Sir Bernard Pager addressing the troops
and wishing them a good farewell: (QUOTE) “You have proved yourselves worthy of your
motto “Victory or Death.” 2,000 years ago, the first Sacred Regiment established that motto,
and died to save Thebes from the Spartans. 120 years ago, the second Sacred Regiment
did likewise and preferred death to surrender. You of the third Sacred
Regiment will return to your homes as victors… I wish you all good fortune and God Speed.”
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