Demobilisation of the Greek army

A British chronology of the war records under 27 June 1916, that is 14 June by the Julian calendar then used in Greece, that the Greek government ordered a general demobilisation of the army. The New York monthly “Current History” gives the same date. This was the first and most important point of the note handed over on 21 June in Athens by the ministers of France, Britain and Russia. In it the powers demanded “real and complete demobilisation” and the placing of the army on a peace footing as soon as possible. The new Prime Minister, Alexandros Zaimis, accepted all the conditions and now began to carry them out.

An army under arms since September

Greece had kept its army under arms since September 1915, when in response to the Bulgarian mobilisation King Constantine I called up 24 classes of reservists. The mobilisation was an enormous burden for the impoverished country, and the Allies saw it as a threat. General Maurice Sarrail feared that the army, whose commanders favoured the King, would strike the Entente forces in Salonika from the rear. But it cut both ways. Eleftherios Venizelos maintained that most of the nation was still with him, and that the elections of December 1915, which his party had boycotted, were not representative, because his supporters were sitting mobilised in barracks. Demobilisation was therefore meant to prepare the way for new, fair elections, which the Allies promised in their note.

Athens took the first step itself. At the beginning of June the government of Stefanos Skouloudis, under the pressure of the blockade and the cost of maintaining the army, sent the twelve oldest classes home and gave soldiers from the south of the country two months’ leave. The Entente considered this insufficient.

Going home

After 27 June the soldiers dispersed to their homes. The British official history of operations in Macedonia records that in July Greek units from Eastern Macedonia sailed from Kavala to “Old Greece”, while the few who lived in Salonika or on the Chalkidiki peninsula were allowed to cross the Struma above Lake Tachinos. The British official history of the war at sea states that the demobilisation proceeded slowly but, for several weeks, without friction.

The Entente, however, misjudged the mood of the returning soldiers. The British publicist George F. Abbott, who was sympathetic to the King, wrote that the reservists left Macedonia embittered by the distrust and humiliations they had suffered at Sarrail’s hands, and on their way back to their villages shouted: “A black ballot for Venizelos!”, that is, a vote against him. Alongside the demobilisation, reservists’ leagues grew. The Panhellenic League of Reservists, founded in Athens at the beginning of June, spread across the whole country in the wake of the discharged soldiers, except for the areas controlled by the Entente, and according to Greek studies soon had about 200,000 members. It became the first mass royalist organisation, hostile to Venizelos and the Allies.

Consequences

Demobilisation weakened Greece where it was most dangerous. In August 1916 the Bulgarians advanced deep into Eastern Macedonia. According to the Greek official history, IV Corps in the Kavala area numbered about 600 officers and 8,500 men after the demobilisation, and the government forbade it to resist. The elections for which the Allies had demanded the release of the reservists never took place. The reservists’ leagues, on the other hand, played a major role in the following months of the National Schism, especially during the clashes in Athens in December 1916.