Ethnofylaki The Greek Territorial army

By Demetrios Rammos

INTRODUCTION

Ethnofylaki, the Greek Territorial Forces, is a part-time military formation tasked with local defence in case of war in cooperation with the Greek regular army.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements
Narrative
Terminology
Order of Battle
Background
Recent Military Actions
Organization
Units
The Popular Defence doctrine
Personnel and Rank structure
Equipment
Notes
Appendix A. Unit names

Acknowledgements

The all too many writers on Etranger from whom I shamelessly borrowed weapons systems and ideas. Dan Hebditch for hosting this in addition to the above.

Narrative

DEA Ioanna Aristidou had another look at the column of Luki VIIIs and M-24s struggling with the Pentadaktylos ravine below her. Her own platoon was down to 17 men and direct contact with battalion headquarters was lost, together with the HQ when one of the multitudes of Turkish Paras teams spread over the island in the start of the invasion 2 days ago had taken it out. Now she was decidedly north of the frontline or what passed for one and word was that the army was holed into the Paphos redoubt.

It didn’t matter. Plans had accepted the possibility of this happening and her job as well as all the others left behind by the Turkish advance was known and simple…at least in theory. Namely cause every kind of havoc they could. The platoon still had 2 Green Hunter launchers and a couple smart AT mines. As a matter of fact…

The first mine exploded under the Luki leading the column while a second mine blew up under a M-24 and a Green Hunter hit the Luki closing the column. The other Green Hunter hit on the 3rd Luki only to graze a trace of fire on the top of the turret glance and blow away, leaving the tank intact. Aristeidou did not stop to contemplate over the chances of that happening, as infantry start pouring out of the surviving M-24s under fire from her own men and the turrets of the surviving tank and APCs opened up. Her second anti-armor team was lost under a hail of automatic gun fire but the first announced it’s presence by taking out the last Luki. Then everything went black as the laser rifle burned through her battledress killing her.

When she woke up she was back in the virtual battlefield simulator in the Paphos Infantry School a major raising an eyebrow at her…

Terminology

Why a glossary before anything else? To quote the English proverb. “It’s all Greek to me.” Terms not found here can be found in parentheses in the OOB.

Abbreviation

Full

Meaning

Taxiarchia Ethnofylakis

Territorial Army brigade

 

Syntagma Ethnofylakis

Territorial Army regiment

 

Tagma Ethnofylakis

Territorial Army battalion

ORDER OF BATTLE

VIII Taxiarchia Ethnofylakis “Georgios Karaiskakis”

201 Tagma Ethnofylakis (Ioannina)
202 Tagma Ethnofylakis (Argyrokastron)
203 Tagma Ethnofylakis (Korytza)
204 Tagma Ethnofylakis (Corcira)

21 Taxiarchia Ethnofylakis “Theodore Kolokotronis”

205 Tagma Ethnofylakis (Xanthi)
206 Tagma Ethnofylakis (Komotini)
207 Tagma Ethnofylakis (Alexandroupolis)
221 Tactical Command (Samothrace)

208 Tagma Ethnofylakis (Lemnos)

43 Syntagma Ethnofylakis “Alexios Kallergis”

209 Tagma Ethnofylakis (Khanea)
210 Tagma Ethnofylakis (Rethymno)
211 Tagma Ethnofylakis (Cyclades)

98 Syntagma Ethnofylakis “Antonios Oikonomou” (Lesvos)

212 Tagma Ethnofylakis
213 Tagma Ethnofylakis

79 Syntagma Ethnofylakis “Lykourgos Logothetis”

214 Tagma Ethnofylakis (Samos)
215 Tagma Ethnofylakis (Chios)

88 Taxiarchia Ethnofylakis “Alexandros Olympios”

44 Syntagma Ethnofylakis “Euagoras”

216 Tagma Ethnofylakis (Paphos)
217 Tagma Ethnofylakis (Lemessos)
218 Tagma Ethnofylakis (Larnaca)

14 Syntagma Ethnofylakis “Onesilaos”


219 Tagma Ethnofylakis (Kyreneia)
220 Tagma Ethnofylakis (Nicosia)

95 Taxiarchia Ethnofylakis “Rhigas Ferraios”
 

22 Syntagma Ethnofylakis “Panagiotis Rhodios”

222 Tagma Ethnofylakis (Rhodes)
223 Tagma Ethnofylakis (Rhodes)
225 Tactical command (Karpathos)

80 Syntagma Ethnofylakis “Akritas”

224 Tagma Ethnofylakis (Kos and Nisyros)
226 Tactical Command (Telos and Symi)
227 Tactical command (Leros and Kalymnos)

INDEX

BACKGROUND

The Territorial Army is as old as the modern Greek state dating back to the 1830s, or even earlier as it makes a claim to descend from the irregular troops that were the mainstay of Greek armies during the Greek revolution. During the 3rd World war Greek and Cypriot Territorial Forces units fought on all fronts the two Greek states of the time had to fight and played an important role in the defence of the Aegean islands and the battle of Nicosia.

The modern Territorial Army and its organization though is largely the result of military reforms in the aftermath of the defeat in the 2nd Aegean war and experience gained during the subsequent 3rd Aegean war.

Recent Military Actions

Given its role Ethnofylaki sees combat only when Greece proper is in danger. Thus while Greece was involved in no less than 4 wars in the last 60 years Ethnofylaki saw action only in 2 of them.

The 2nd Aegean war (2243): What territorial units existed at the times were largely secondary formations manned with older reservists and with insufficient and usually rather old equipment that failed to affect the result of operations much. Surviving territorials proved quite valuable as guerrillas though.

The 3rd Aegean war (2274): Guerrilla activity, largely instigated by Greek Special Forces, peaked up sharply in Chios and the Dodecanese as soon as the war start and after the islands were liberated the guerrillas were incorporated in the Ethnofylaki.

The intervention into Albania (2296): Territorial Army units in Epirus and western Macedonia often have to support local security forces in overseeing the border with Albania. In the aftermath of the 2296 coup and the ensuing fighting local territorial units had to be mobilized and while they did not saw combat with the exception of a number of border incidents between patrols they offered valuable humanitarian aid to refugees escaping south.

INDEX

ORGANIZATION

The basis of the organization of the Territorial Forces are infantry battalions and smaller tactical commands, the latter usually consisting of 2 rifle companies.

Regiments and Brigades do exist largely for administrative purposes and to loosely coordinate operations over larger areas. Often enough especially in the Aegean battalions and tactical commands are themselves spread out in company sized forces over several islands.

The Ethnofylaki is organized as a light infantry force, liberally supplied with AT weapons, that in case of war is intended to conduct rear area security operations, harassment operations either in support of the regular army or alone in occupied areas, as well as form the core of the defence of redoubts in urban or fortified mountain areas. Particularly in the stay behind role Ethnofylaki units are intended to operate as cadre for larger partisan formations.

Battalions are typically organized into a small HQ company and 4 rifle companies. Each rifle company is organized in 3 rifle and 1 support platoon. The support platoon includes the company HQ with 6 men, a mortar section with 4 E-80 mortars and 14 men, 2 sections with 4 Peltast or Lynx Fast Attack Vehicles each and two sniper teams armed with PSG-98 heavy anti-material rifles. Each rifle platoon has 40 men in a command and 3 rifle squads. The command squad includes a 4 man HQ section, 2 anti-armor teams with Green Hunter launchers and an AA team with a FIM-100 launcher. Each rifle squad has 10 men with the squad leader armed with a FAM-90S assault rifle, a sniper with a Brazil made MD-93 sniper rifle and 2 fireteams. Each fireteam has 4 men, 2 armed with FAM-90 assault rifles, one with a P-92 plasma gun and one with a FAM-180 SAW.

INDEX

UNITS 

VIII Taxiarchia Ethnofylakis: Descending from the old VIII infantry division the brigade is responsible for the regions of western Greece bordering with Albania. While Albania is not considered an overt military threat some military presence in the area is still though desirable should the communist regime take its official rhetoric over liberating “all historical Albanian lands” as more than rhetoric. More often than not though the role of the brigade involves supporting the police and coast guard in border control as well as refugee management, there is a steady streak of Albanians trying to escape to Italy and Greece and in times of internal crisis like 2296 it goes up sharply.

INDEX

THE POPULAR DEFENCE DOCTRINE

Greece has a very long history of revolts and guerrilla warfare, most recently during the 2nd and 3rd Aegean wars and quite a bit of thought has been put on integrating this in the overall defence doctrine. In any future war it is the Territorial Army units that are expected to become the core around which volunteers will form either in defence of the “redoubt” areas or to act as guerrillas.

To that extend special care is being given in training with an emphasis on urban and guerrilla operations as well as some basic knowledge of demolitions while most junior officers have gone through the army’s Urban and Guerrilla Warfare schools. Understandably veterans of the army’s commando and combat engineer units are particularly welcome in the Territorial Forces.

The redoubt areas are usually either urban or mountain areas were at least some work has been done from peacetime to hold them in time of war even if the immediate area around them is controlled by the enemy. They vary in size and organization, the Paphos Fortified Zone in Cyprus is covering a good chunk of the south-western third of the island including the quite extensive air force and navy facilities there, others like in some of the major Aegean islands are only a small fraction of the size.

Arming the would be volunteers is no small task and hardly something that can be left to chance. To that end the Territorial Forces keep considerable amounts of older but still serviceable material, like the SG-77 assault rifles the FAM-90 replaced, at hand either in their armories or in sealed caches spread around the country. Significant numbers of “civilianized” surplus SG-77 rifles have been sold to private citizens and a civilian version of the FAM-90 known as M-95 is also available in the market.

Licences to own either M-95s or SG-77 require the owner to be member of a target shooting club or a hunter. In both cases the owners need a certificate that they are able to safely operate and maintain their weapons issued by the local Territorial Army formation, or should one not exist the local Police.

INDEX

PERSONNEL AND RANK STRUCTURE

Service in the Territorial forces is voluntary. Civic service is universal for all Greek citizens at the end of higher education with potential recruits being able to select between active army, territorial forces and civilian service. Those that volunteer to fulfil their service obligations in the Territorial Forces form the bulk of the rank and file of them. The other source of personnel is the army itself. Army personnel and reservists discharged from the army and the army reserve system can volunteer to join the Ethnofylaki if they so wish.

Untrained volunteers pass 6 months of basic training. After its completion they are subject to 4 weeks of refresher training every year as well as 2day call ups on a monthly base till the age of 40. Afterwards they can choose to leave the Territorial Army if they so decide.

Noncoms are either army veterans or are Territorial army soldiers who have successfully gone through LYB (Lochoi Ypopsifion Bathmoforon, Noncom Candidate Companies) Successful LYB graduates counting on their performance become either corporals or sergeants and may rise up to Sergeant Major although it is more usual not to rise above Staff Sergeant with most Sergeant Majors and all Warrants being army veterans.

Officers are either army veterans or come from the army’s ROTC program which every year has a small number of slots earmarked for Territorial Forces commissions. Any that successfully complete OCS become DEA (Dokimoi Efedroi axiomatikoi) and then get promoted to 2nd lieutenant after 6 months of continuous service and 3 years in the reserve system. Afterwards they may rise up to major in the reserves. A number of officers are also directly seconded from the army.

Greek Territorial Army rank structure

Greek Rank

Translation in English

Taxiarxos

Brigadier General

Syntagmatarchis

Colonel

Antisyntagmatarchis

Lt Colonel

Tagmatarchis

Major

Lochagos

Captain

Ypolochagos

Lieutenant

Anthypolochagos

Second Lieutenant

Dokimos Efedros Aksiomatikos (DEA)

Probationary reserve officer

Anthypaspistis

Warrant officer

Archilochias

Sergeant Major

Epilochias

Staff Sergeant

Lochias

Sergeant

Dekaneas

Corporal

Ypodekaneas

PFC

Oplitis

Private

INDEX

EQUIPMENT

The Territorial Army has no heavy equipment of its own. In its role as a light infantry force it is very well armed though, sometimes even taking precedence over the army in deliveries of equipment.

Fast Attack Vehicles

The Territorial Army is operating the Lynx Hover FAV and the Peltast wheeled FAV. Both are conversions of fast all purpose utility vehicles already in use with the army, roughly in the same category with the Bridgeport-Swift Warbird and Houston Rangestar 8 respectively with the addition of an armor package and weapons. Both Lynx and Peltast have an overhead weapons station with either a M2A2 Plasma gun or a Mini-12 machine gun, 2 Kinzhal ATGM launch tubes positioned in what normally makes the vehicle’s cargo space and a M-75 machine gun. Usually half the FAVs in a rifle company will carry the M2A2 and the other half the Mini-12.

Peltast Fast Attack Vehicle

Type: 6-wheeled Fast Attack Vehicle
Crew:
2
Combat Weight:
3 tons
Armor:
Front and Top: 6, Sides 4, Bottom 2, Rear 2
Armament:
1 Quinn-Darlan M2A2 Plasma gun (120 rounds) *
1 M-75 7.5mm machine gun (1000 rounds)
2 Kinzhal ATGM
Fire Control:
+2
Signature
: 2
Evasion: 4
Max Speed, Road: 201 kph
Max Speed, Off Road:
105 kph
Sensor Range:
10 km (+2)
Power Plant:
150 kW MHD Turbine
Fuel Capacity:
4.5 kg of hydrogen
Fuel Consumption:
54 kg per hour
Endurance:
12 hours
Cargo:
200 kg

* Alternatively 1 DunArmCo Mini-12 12mm machine gun (1,000 rounds)

Lynx Fast Attack Vehicle

Type: Hover Fast Attack Vehicle
Crew: 2 +2
Displacement Weight: 1 tons
Combat Weight: 3.5 tons
Armour: Front and Top: 6, Sides 4, Bottom 2, Rear 2, Plenum: 2
Armament:
1 Quinn-Darlan M2A2 Plasma gun (120 rounds) *
1 M-75 7.5mm machine gun (1000 rounds)
2 Kinzhal ATGM
Fire Control:
+2
Signature:
1
Evasion: 9
Sensor Range: 10km (+2)
Cargo: 200kg
Max Speed: 270 kph
Cruise Speed: 200kph
Combat Movement: 5400m
Off Road Mobility: Full
Power Plant: 250 kW MHD drive
Fuel Capacity: 90 kg of hydrogen
Fuel Consumption: 7.5 kg per hour
Endurance: 12 hours

*
Alternatively 1 DunArmCo Mini-12 12mm machine gun (1,000 rounds)

Small Arms

Greece has been licence producing the FAM-90 since the first half of the 2290s fully replacing the SG-77 in army and Territorial Forces service. Territorial Army members are keeping their rifles and a basic ammunition load at home.

The SG-77 while not in use is nevertheless playing a significant role in the plans of the Territorial forces. With over a quarter million available weapons large quantities have been made available to the civilian market, with simpler optics and only ball ammunition with the rest finding their ways to Territorial Forces Armories and the caches intended for stay behind forces.

The M-95 is a civilian version of the Kragui M-90, the designation of the FAM-90 in Serb service without integral grenade laucher and civilian grade sights is also available in the market but is less popular than the cheaper SG-77.

Two types of sniper rifle are available. The 7mm MD-93 built in Brazil is used at the squad level and mostly as an antipersonnel weapon. The much heavier German PSG-98 12 mm is available at a rate of 2 per platoon as an antimaterial weapon.

Light Support Weapons

The Kragui P-92 is a Serb derivative of the German M-6 not particularly different from the British L-92 and available at the squad level. The squad automatic weapon is none other than the French FAM-180.

Heavy Weapons

The Green Hunter ATGM and the US FIM-100 Cottonmouth AA missile are both in use. LAW type weapons, usually the Bavarian PzF-70 or the roughly equivalent Russian RPG-77 are available in large numbers from existing warstocks and used as needed both by the army and Territorials mostly as cheap bunker buster weapons or agaist lightly armoured targets.

AN-5 and N-3 are the typical smart anti-vehicle and anti-personel mines respectively produced in Greece. The older AN-4 and N-2 are also in stocks.

The E-80 mortar is a modern 80 mm design typical of its kind that can be found in the support platoons of each company and capable of firing a wide range of ordnance including smart anti-tank rounds.

INDEX

NOTES

The concept behind the Territorial Army is essentially the same with that of the Texas Corps of Volunteers. As it might be expected it differs in the particulars of its organization and the standard Ethnofylaki battalion is also about a third smaller than its Corps of Volunteers counterpart (640 men rifle strength to 850) without taking into account that the Texan unit is also usually up to 50% over its paper strength. Overall roughly the same fraction of the population finds its way to the Volunteers and the Ethnofylaki. The notable differences lie in the rather more formal training received that is modelled more after the Swiss and US Army National Guard and in the existence of the regiments and brigades.

The Lynx and Peltast Fast Attack vehicles have been both designed using the GURPS system

Appendix A Unit Names

VIII Taxiarchia Ethnofylakis “Georgios Karaiskakis”

Named after the 1821 revolutionary and general.

21 Taxiarchia Ethnofylakis “Theodore Kolokotronis”

Named after the 1821 revolutionaly and general.

43 Syntagma Ethnofylakis “Alexios Kallergis”

Named after the 13th century Cretan revolutionary against Venice.

98 Syntagma Ethnofylakis “Antonios Oikonomou”

Named after the 1821 revolutionary who start the revolt of Hydra

79 Syntagma Ethnofylakis “Lykourgos Logothetis”

Named after the 1821 revolutionary who led the Samiote rebels.

88 Taxiarchia Ethnofylakis “Alexandros Olympios”

This was the nome de guerre of the commander of the Cypriot partisans during WW3.

44 Syntagma Ethnofylakis “Euagoras”

Named after the ancient Cypriot king and rebel.

14 Syntagma Ethnofylakis “Onesilaos”

Named after the leader of the Cypriot rebels during the Ionian revolution.

95 Taxiarchia Ethnofylakis “Rhigas Ferraios”

Named after the 18th century revolutionary and poet.

22 Syntagma Ethnofylakis “Panagiotis Rhodios”

Named after the 1821 revolutionary and organiser of the regular army.

80 Syntagma Ethnofylakis “Akritas”

This was the nome de guerre of the commander of the National Dodecanese Organization guerrillas between the 2nd and 3rd Aegean wars.

INDEX


Copyright 2008, Demetrios Rammos