The 5/42 Evzone Regiment "Delvinaki" () is an active infantry unit of the Hellenic Army. It was established in 1913 as an elite regiment of Evzones, recruited in Central Greece and headquartered in Lamia. As such the unit served in the Macedonian front of World War I, the Allied intervention in Ukraine, the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922, and the Greco-Italian War during World War II. Reformed as the 53rd Brigade (53η Ταξιαρχία) in 1948, it participated in the Greek Civil War, before receiving the designation 5/42 Infantry Regiment (5/42 Σύνταγμα Πεζικού, 5/42 ΣΠ) in 1951. The regiment was disbanded in 1954, but revived as a reserve formation in 1979, under its original name. In November 2000 it received the honorific title "Delvinaki". Since January 2003 it is a battalion-sized formation that forms the garrison of the Dodecanese island of Kalymnos.
History Establishment and World War I The regiment was established, along with the other four Evzone regiments of the Hellenic Army, by Royal Decree on 23 December 1913. Its base was at Lamia, and it came under the command of 13th Infantry Division in Chalkis.
The first years of its history are relatively obscure, largely because the relevant archives were destroyed both in the aftermath of the National Schism of 1916 and during the Axis occupation of Greece in World War II. The regiment certainly participated in the mobilization of 10 September 1915, and remained in wartime strength until the demobilization, forced on Greece (then still neutral) by the Allied Powers, on 26 May 1916. As part of the Allied demands, most of the Greek army was evacuated to the Peloponnese; doubtlessly the 5/42 Regiment was part of this.
Following Greece's entry into World War I on the side of the Allies in June 1917, the Greek army began to be re-formed. The 5/42 Regiment began its mobilization on 16 January 1918, and after reaching its full strength moved by ship to Thessaloniki, where it completed its training by the end of May 1918. As part of 13th Division, in June the regiment was moved to the Macedonian front along the Strymon River, occupying positions between the Achinos Lake and the village of Agia Eleni. During September, the regiment conducted a reconnaissance in force mission to ascertain enemy strength in its sector, in preparation for the great Allied offensive of that month. In October, as the rest of 13th Division was withdrawn to participate in the northward advance of I Army Corps, the regiment took over the entire front sector of the division. On 16 September, Bulgaria signed the Armistice of Salonica, obliging it to evacuate all Greek and Serbian territory it occupied. As a result, on 3 October the 5/42 Regiment was ordered to reoccupy the port city of Kavala. The Bulgarian garrison initially refused to comply with the armistice terms, but after the regiment took battle positions outside the city, the Bulgarians agreed to withdraw.
Plastiras takes command and the Ukraine expedition Despite its participation in the front, the regiment was regarded as highly problematic: most of its recruits and officers, including its commander, Colonel Kontos, were loyal to King Constantine I, who had been ousted by the Allies in June 1917, allowing Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos to bring Greece into the war. Dissatisfaction was so rife that in August 1918 the regiment was the centre of a conspiracy, which included the other units of the 13th Division as well, to defect to the Bulgarians. The conspiracy was thwarted at the last moment due to happen-stance. The unit was furthermore plagued by indiscipline, with soldiers and even officers looting the local peasants, particularly Turks.
It was at that point that command was assumed by Lt. Colonel Nikolaos Plastiras, who had until then commanded the 6th Regiment of the Archipelago Division, part of the staunchly Venizelist Army of National Defence. As such, his first contact with his men was marked by barely disguised hostility, with soldiers muttering that they would shoot him as soon as they got into combat. The regiment was slated to be part of the Greek expeditionary force in the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, and Plastiras tried to raise morale by pointing out that the expedition was in support of Greek territorial claims on Smyrna and Asia Minor. Plastiras soon managed to instill discipline, reform and re-equip the unit, which under his command distinguished itself over the following three years of campaigning.
The regiment remained at Kavala until February 1919. On 28 February, it embarked at Eleftheres for Ukraine, on board the passenger liners Imperator Nikolai and Patris. The regiment disembarked at Odessa on 4 March. Ten days later it was sent to reinforce the northeastern sector of the Allied front at Serbka. In the evening of 16 March it relieved the 3rd Infantry Regiment, which had been fighting against superior Bolshevik forces for ten days without interruption. Plastiras took over command of two other Greek battalions from the 3rd and 34th regiments, as well as local French cavalry, engineers, and artillery units, and formed a tactical detachment, which gave the regiment the name under which it became famous: "Plastiras Detachment" (Απόσπασμα Πλαστήρα). On 17 March the detachment repelled Bolshevik attacks and, launching a counterattack, pursued them beyond their original starting lines. Renewed offensives on the 18th were also repulsed, but the withdrawal of French units elsewhere along the front forced the 5/42 Regiment to likewise withdraw. The following five days (19–23 March) were spent in a continuous fighting retreat, until the Allied high command negotiated their safe withdrawal to Bessarabia. On 29 March, the 5/42 Regiment crossed the Dniester River to Romanian territory. Along with the other Allied forces, the 5/42 Regiment occupied defensive positions along the Dniester to prevent the Bolsheviks from crossing it until 17 May, when it was relieved by Romanian troops. As with the rest of 13th Division, it gradually withdrew through Romania over the next month, until embarking for Smyrna from Galați on 15 June.
The regiment's experience in Ukraine, albeit brief, resulted in an innovation that characterized it under Plastiras' command: due to their contact with the Russians, especially the Cossacks, the Evzones had acquired horses, and Plastiras formed a small mounted detachment of Evzones. Gradually, this mounted detachment was expanded over the next few years with captured horses. In Asia Minor, it provided valuable reconnaissance services, making contact and dismounting to fight while the rest of the regiment caught up; although not trained as cavalrymen, its infantrymen even held their own in clashes against the formidable Turkish cavalry.
Asia Minor Campaign Arrival and first operations, 1919 The 5/42 Evzone Regiment arrived at Smyrna on 19 June. From there the regiment marched to the front, relieving the 5th Archipelago Regiment near Manisa on 28 June. The regiment had its first clash with the Turkish nationalists on 8 July, when it repelled attack by Turkish irregulars against the village of Papazli, killing 5 and taking 25 enemy prisoners. Another attack by an 800-strong force on 29 July was also repulsed, with 90 casualties among the attackers. The regiment retained and strengthened its positions around Manisa for the next three months. In November, however, the Supreme Allied Council allowed the Greek army to advance beyond the original limits of the Greek zone of occupation, and the 5/42 Regiment occupied new forward positions on 19–22 November. The regiment participated with one company in a local attack by the 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment on 8 January 1920, but otherwise the period until the beginning of the Greek summer offensive in June 1920 was relatively tranquil.
1920 summer offensive
During the 1920 summer offensive, the regiment captured Akhisar (Axari), followed by Gelembe (12 June), Balıkesir (16 June), and Ömerköy (19 June), where it linked up with the Mixed Brigade of the Xanthi Division, that had landed at Bandırma on the same day. From 23 June to 23 August it occupied defensive positions in the Susurluk–Kepsut area. On 24 August it began moving south to Elvadar in the area of Alaşehir, and from there, on 10 October, to Uşak. On 15 October the regiment took over the salient at Gediz, and three days later advanced further to take over the front subsector of Dosecık. A Turkish attack on the Gediz sector was repelled, and the Greek forces were able to occupy strong defensive positions. As contact with the retreating Turkish forces was lost, on 3 November two companies of the 5/42 Regiment carried out a reconnaissance in force in a depth of 7–10 kilometres, engaging and destroying two enemy groups of 100 men each.
From 6 November 1920 until March 1921, the regiment occupied defensive positions in the Selvioğlu—Kada area west of Uşak. During that time, in Greece, a decisive political change occurred, when Venizelos was defeated and the royalist opposition took power in the November 1920 elections. In its aftermath, most of the commanders in the Asia Minor front, who were mostly Venizelist, were replaced by royalist appointees. Although most of the men of the 5/42 Regiment were themselves royalist and anti-Venizelist, by this time their esprit de corps and identification with Plastiras was so strong, that the latter was retained in command of the regiment by the new government.
1921 spring offensive The regiment participated in the spring offensive of 1921, that ended with the Second Battle of İnönü. It began its advance on 10 March, at the head of the 13th Division's column, occupied the passes between Tokutepe and Tezler Karlık on the 11th, descended the northern slopes of Akar Dağ despite the heavy snow which in many places reached the height of a man (1.7 m), and occupied the line Güney Tezler on the 12th. On the 13th, the regiment reached the Cakirsaz–Yağcılar heights, where it came into contact with the main Turkish forces. On 6:00 on the next day, the regiment launched a frontal attack with its 1st and 2nd Battalions, while the 3rd Battalion launched a flanking manoeuvre to the enemy left. The threat of encirclement forced the Turks to withdraw, allowing the regiment to capture the Cakirsaz heights and enter the city of Afyonkarahisar on the same day. Over the next five days, the regiment advanced east some 15 kilometres, and captured the town of Çay on the 20th. However, despite the successes achieved in the southern sector of the front, assigned to I Army Corps, in the north the III Army Corps failed to achieve its objectives. As a result, the Army of Asia Minor broke off the offensive and ordered the I Army Corps to withdraw from its gains to the area of Dumlupınar. The 5/42 Regiment withdrew to Balmahmut, and thence to positions south of Dumlupınar on 26 March. On 28–29 March the regiment participated in the repulsion of the Turkish attack on the new Greek positions, by a manoeuvre towards Ali Veran, where it succeeded in dispersing significant Turkish infantry and cavalry forces.
Advance to Ankara and retreat, summer 1921