Cretan Gendarmerie - From The Departure of Prince George Until The Balkan Wars

From The Departure of Prince George Until The Balkan Wars

On 16 December 1906 Eugenio Monaco, third and last head of the Italian mission, delivered command of the Gendarmerie to Artillery Major Andreas Momferratos, head of the Greek mission. The first objective of the Greek mission was the creation of a militia and the equipping of the Gendarmerie with new rifles of the Mannlicher-Schönauer type. They also tried to introduce more intensive military education. The creation of battalions of militia released the Gendarmerie from certain military duties.

The Greek mission immediately began to promote of Cretans to commissioned officer rank. The first Cretans to be commissioned as lieutenants on 14 January 1907, in order of seniority, were: Evangelos Sarris, Dimitrios Kokkalas, Andreas Androylakis, Alexandros Hatzioannou, Nikiforos Nikiforakis, Zaharias Mprillakis, Ilias Mourginakis, Minos Mylogjannakis, Emannouel Vogiatzakis, Georgios Vouros, and Ioannis Souris.

On the eve of the Balkan Wars in 1912 there were 45 officers, 50 senior non-commissioned officers, and 1,371 junior non-commissioned officers and constables serving in the Cretan Gendarmerie. Of the officers, five second lieutenants were physicians and one a pharmacist, while another pharmacist was a senior NCO.

Some of the officers were attached from the Greek Army, including the commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Andreas Momferratos. Army officers constituted the entire Greek mission that replaced the Italians in December 1906.

As a direct result of the Cretan Gendarmerie's success in its duties, the organization of the Greek Gendarmerie was also assigned to Italian officers in July 1911. Some of them, like Arcangelo de Mandate, had also participated in the organization of the Cretan Gendarmerie.

Read more about this topic:  Cretan Gendarmerie

Famous quotes containing the words from the, departure, prince, george, balkan and/or wars:

    How did they meet? By chance, like everybody.... Where did they come from? From the nearest place. Where were they going? Do we know where we are going?
    Denis Diderot (1713–1784)

    An idea is a point of departure and no more. As soon as you elaborate it, it becomes transformed by thought.
    Pablo Picasso (1881–1973)

    In a borealic iceberg came Victoria; she
    Knew Prince Albert’s tall memorial took the colours of the floreal
    And the borealic iceberg;
    Dame Edith Sitwell (1887–1964)

    What is our task? To make Britain a fit country for heroes to live in.
    —David Lloyd George (1863–1945)

    ... there was the first Balkan war and the second Balkan war and then there was the first world war. It is extraordinary how having done a thing once you have to do it again, there is the pleasure of coincidence and there is the pleasure of repetition, and so there is the second world war, and in between there was the Abyssinian war and the Spanish civil war.
    Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)

    America is addicted to wars of distraction.
    Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)