The Army of Thessaly ( el, Στρατιά Θεσσαλίας) was a

field army A field army (or numbered army or simply army) is a military formation in many armed forces, composed of two or more corps and may be subordinate to an army group. Likewise, Air army, air armies are equivalent formation within some air forces, ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

, activated in

Thessaly Thessaly ( el, Θεσσαλία, translit=Thessalía, ; ancient Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thes ...

during the

Greco-Turkish War of 1897 The Greco-Turkish War of 1897 or the Ottoman-Greek War of 1897 ( or ), also called the Thirty Days' War and known in Greece as the Black '97 (, ''Mauro '97'') or the Unfortunate War ( el, Ατυχής πόλεμος, Atychis polemos), was a w ...

and the

First Balkan War The First Balkan War ( sr, Први балкански рат, ''Prvi balkanski rat''; bg, Балканска война; el, Αʹ Βαλκανικός πόλεμος; tr, Birinci Balkan Savaşı) lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and invo ...

in 1912, both times against the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University ...

and commanded by Crown Prince Constantine.

1897

In preparation for the war, two of the three

infantry division A division is a large military unit or formation, usually consisting of between 6,000 and 25,000 soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades; in turn, several divisions typically make up a corps. Histo ...

s in the

Hellenic Army The Hellenic Army ( el, Ελληνικός Στρατός, Ellinikós Stratós, sometimes abbreviated as ΕΣ), formed in 1828, is the land force of Greece. The term ''Hellenic'' is the endogenous synonym for ''Greek''. The Hellenic Army is th ...

, 1st Infantry Division under Major General

Nikolaos Makris Nikolaos Makris ( el, Νικόλαος Μακρής, 1829–1911) was a Hellenic Army General and politician. Nikolaos Makris was born in Missolonghi in 1829. He was the son of Dimitrios Makris, a military leader during the Greek War of Indepen ...

and 2nd Infantry Division under Colonel Georgios Mavromichalis were mobilized and moved to

Larissa Larissa (; el, Λάρισα, , ) is the capital and largest city of the Thessaly region in Greece. It is the fifth-most populous city in Greece with a population of 144,651 according to the 2011 census. It is also capital of the Larissa regiona ...

and

Trikala Trikala ( el, Τρίκαλα; rup, Trikolj) is a city in northwestern Thessaly, Greece, and the capital of the Trikala regional unit. The city straddles the Lithaios river, which is a tributary of Pineios. According to the Greek National Stati ...

respectively. On 25 March, Crown Prince Constantine was named commander-in-chief of the Army of Thessaly, comprising these two divisions and support units, with Colonel

Konstantinos Sapountzakis Konstantinos Sapountzakis ( el, Κωνσταντίνος Σαπουντζάκης; 1846–1931) was a Hellenic Army officer. He is notable as the first head of the Hellenic Army General Staff and as the first commander of the Army of Epirus durin ...

as his

chief of staff The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supporti ...

. The Army of Thessaly comprised 36,000 men, 500 cavalry and 96 guns. When hostilities broke out on 18 April, the Army of Thessaly was defeated in successive battles on the border passes, the Battle of Farsala and the

Battle of Domokos The Battle of Domokos ( tr, Dömeke Savaşı) was a battle between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Greece. This battle was a part of the Greco-Turkish War (1897). Background After Greece tried to annex the island Crete the Ottoman porte dec ...

. By the time of the armistice on 20 May, the Army of Thessaly had been pushed out of Thessaly proper by the Ottoman advance.

1912

As war with the Ottoman Empire increasingly became a possibility in the early autumn of 1912, the bulk of the Hellenic Army was gathered in Thessaly, once again under Crown Prince Constantine, comprising the four peacetime infantry divisions and three newly formed from reservists, a cavalry brigade, and auxiliary units, for a total of some 100,000 men, of which ca. 80,000 effectives. In the course of the

, the Army of Thessaly overcame the fortified Ottoman positions along the border in the

Battle of Sarantaporo The Battle of Sarantaporo, also variously transliterated as Sarantaporon or Sarandaporon ( el, Μάχη του Σαρανταπόρου, tr, Sarantaporo Muharebesi, links=no), took place on 9–10 October, 1912. It was the first major battle ...

and advanced north. Despite a setback of a detached division in the Battle of Sorovich, the main army broke through the Ottoman defences at the

Battle of Yenidje The Battle of Yenidje, also transliterated as Yenice ( el, Μάχη των Γιαννιτσών, Battle of Giannitsa), was a major battle between Greek forces under Crown Prince Constantine and Ottoman forces under General Hasan Tahsin Pasha ...

, forcing, after a few days, the surrender of

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...

and its garrison. Having effected the union with the allied Serbian and Bulgarian armies, the Army of Thessaly was deactivated, with some units going to reinforce the Epirus front and others settling along the new demarcation line in Macedonia.

References

{{Greece field armies

Military units and formations of Greece in the Balkan Wars Greco-Turkish War (1897) Modern history of Thessaly