Last modified: 2005-01-22 by ivan sache
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The Greek Army has two distinct sets of flags, colours and unit flags. The colours are the "war" flags. This is a translation of the Greek term, although perhaps the word "colours" is better to describe them. They are the flags carried into battle - or supposed to be carried into battle - by the Greek armed forces.
In peacetime colours are used for ceremonial purpose only. Each Army regiment has its own war flag, although they are all of the same design with no distinguishing feature, i.e., a white cross on a blue field with St. George slaying the dragon in the middle. When soldiers are sworn in, there is a ceremony and the regiment's war flag are paraded.
Yannis Natsinas, 2 August 1999
Each unit above the brigade level has its own emblem/sleeve
badge.
This is in the form of a shield although the top part (the chie,f to
use the heraldic term) is taken up by a motto, which is, of course,
not heraldically correct. The motto should be on a scroll.
There are such shields for the Ministry of Defence, Joint Chiefs of Staff (Greek initials are: GEETHA), Army General Staff (GES) etc.. Those emblems can also be taken as emblems of the whole armed forces (GEETHA) or emblem of the army (GES).
These emblems can also be displayed in the form of a flag. Such flags are horizontally striped. There are three stripes and I think the middle one is almost invariably fimbriated. I don't think there are any particular rules about or reasons behind the choice of colours - they seem decorative to me. The flags incorporate the emblems of GES, GEN (navy general staff), GEA (air force general staff) and GEETHA.
Those flags are used as wall decorations or in the form of desk flags. I have never seen them flown in HQs etc. (of course, the war flag is not flown either - instead HQs and barracks fly the Greek national flag and there are flag raising and flag lowering ceremonies). I suppose the Ministry of Defence or the General Staff HQs may fly those flags but I've never been there.
Where I was in the Army, we never even saw such a flag, although we knew our division's "emblem", wore it on the left sleeve of our dress uniforms and were supposed to know its description and meaning - especially the motto which was usually some historical quote, especially from Classical Greek texts.
For the record, I have served in the 50th Infantry Brigade. Its
emblem was a fuchsia pink shield with a golden sphinx. The motto is
The Beginnnig of Victory is Courage, which is supposed to be a
quote from Pittakos, a classical Greek writer of the VIIth century
BC.
Later I was with the 15th Division (which I believe is now defunct).
Its emblem was a blue shield with a white griffin. The motto was
Even this number is sufficient, a saying attributed to
Leonidas, King of Spartans, when asked how he expected to defeat the
Persians with only 300 warriors.
The 16th Division had a yellow emblem with a black double-headed eagle
and part of a castle walling and its motto was We shall all die of
our own free will. It is an extract from a letter by
Constantine Paleologue, last Emperor
of Byzance to Sultan Mehmet III of the
Ottomans. The latter had asked
Constantine to surrender Constantinople to him and Constantine had
said that rather than surrender the city's defenders would prefer
that they all died of their own free will.
Yannis Natsinas, 2 August 1999
Vexillinfo [vxf] #5/82 reports that:
Jaume Ollé, 1 August 1999
The website of the Greek Armed Forces shows 66 flags, probably all the unit flags of the Greek Army. By clicking on the link below each flag, you can reach another page with a large image of the flag.
All flags have the same general design: Three horizontal coloured stripes, with a fimbriation between them, an emblem in the middle and a golden fringe.
Ivan Sache, 18 February 2002
The flags of the following units are shown on this website: