Other Forces

Gen. Tsolakoglou with Sepp Dietrich

Bundesarchiv

A disconsolate Gen. Tsolakglou with another Greek staff officer and a radiant Dietrich, before signing the surrender of his army and of all the Greek troops. Actually Tsolakglou wasn't authorized by the Greek chief of staff, gen. Papagos, to surrender and furthermore he didn't have the authority for signing for all the Greek troops. In fact the other Greek troops continued to fight until it was possible. After the war Gen. Tsolakoglou was sentenced to death (with commutation to life prison) not only for his collaboration with the Axis during the occupation, but also for his "betrayal" during the war. Actually nobody remembers that Tsolakoglou have had a fierce debate with gen. Papagos and the Greek goverment when the Germans were menacing the Greece. In fact he didn't rely on the resistance of the Yugoslavian army and of the Metaxas line and pretended to withdraw the Greek armies arrayed against the Italians to shorter and more defensible positions. Furthermore he wanted to split the west armies to reinforce the east menaced by Germans (the most part of Greek troops was deployed against the Italians). Papagos and the Greek government strictly refused this strategy, for reasons of pride and prestige and ultimately of moral. It was impossible to left back the territories conquered to the Italians with so many sacrifices and courage, and even part of national land, without a conseguence of a moral backlash in the troops and in the country. Furthermore, even if the west Greek armies were very strong , they were also exhausted , and their move and splitting could give the Italians a risky advantage that until then they haven't had. So the Tsolakoglou "technical" proposals were denied, and when what he feared happened, with the encirclement of the west Greek armies by the Germans, he thought that were was no reason to continue the fight and it was better for all the Greek armed forces to surrend. DVX