Greek Army 1909

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Moving away from Latin American subjects for the moment, displayed is part of a colour plate from the 1922 Enciopeida Universal showing Greek Army uniforms c1909. The kepis make the style seem French but the origins are actually Danish - in the 1860s a military coup overthrew the Bavarian born King Otto of Greece and substituted a new dynasty from Denmark. The figures shown (which are only part of the full plate) are 1 General gala, 2 Colonel gala, 3 General Staff officer gala, 4 infantry officer gala, 6 infantry soldier gala, 7 infantry soldier field, 8 infantry soldier in greatcoat, 9 Evzone gala, 11 cavalry officer gala, 12 cavalry soldier service, artillery officer gala, artillery soldier gala.

Other figures in the plate include more infantry and evzones, engineers, medical, military academy, Evzone of the Royal Guard, navy and a Macedonian volunteer. The final figure is the universal khaki which was introduced in 1910 - just in time for the two rounds of Balkan Wars from 1912-13. The Greek Hellenic Armed Forces maintain a website with an excellent set of uniform colour plates and the Greek Army Museum in Athens has (or used to) a wide range of the actual garments on display.

Excellent find buistR! By chance could you link me to this Greek Army website with the color plates?

http://www.army.gr/structure/eng/istoria/stoles/index.htm
Hi Chris - try this.

Some old links from uniform insignia forum and web host, give them a try Chris.
http://www.panoramio.com/user/322429
http://clubs.pathfinder.gr/armyuniform/774814?album=229617
On the Greek page, top right corner is a search link in english. last time I tried it worked but was very slow.
Regards
WF

Brilliant Rowin, thanks
I love these plates they are what we need more of

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More Greek figures c1909 from the Spanish plate: 16 - Engineers soldier; 17 - Medical Corps soldier; 18 - Military Academy officer; 19 - Military Academy cadet; 21 - Navy senior officer; 22 - Navy officer service; 23 - Navy sailor; 24 - Macedonian volunteer (irregular fighting Turks).

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- and final group: 5 - Infantry officer service/field; 10 - Evzone service (actually dark blue tunic); 15 Engineers - soldier gala; 110 Evzone Royal Guard service (again should be darker blue); 25 Universal khaki - introduced experimentally 1908 and general issue 1910.

When the opportunity arises it is always interesting to cross-check contemporary pictures of uniforms, such as the above, with actual surviving garments. For example, displays in the Army Museum in Athens show the blue tunic worn by other ranks to be a very short, almost hip length, jacket. Also the green of the cavalry uniform to be of a greyish tinge - not the bright green shown above. Of course jackets can shrink and shades of green fade over the decades .....

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Just reactivating an older thread on Greek Army uniforms prior to WWI, to add this contemporary picture of Greek line infantry (not the exotic Evzones) on the march in the early 1900s. As so often the case in reconstructed Edwardian scenes the sun is shining, the uniforms are brightly coloured and everyone seems a good deal happier than they are likely to be for the remainder of the century. The uniforms are full dress - which for your ordinary infantryman simply meant the attachment of a "shaving brush" plume to the French style kepi. For field dress a white kepi cover and short leather leggings were added. Khaki was adopted in 1910 and the coloured uniforms retained only by officers, military cadets and the evzone detachments stationed in Athens.