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Thrasyvoulos Tsakalotos

 
Wikipedia: Thrasyvoulos Tsakalotos
Thrasyvoulos Tsakalotos
3 April 1897 – 15 August 1989
Thrasyvoulos Tsakalotos.jpg
General Thrasyvoulos Tsakalotos, ca. 1950
Place of birth Preveza, Greece (Then Ottoman Empire)
Place of death Athens, Greece
Allegiance  Greece
Service/branch Hellenic Army
Years of service 1913–1952
Rank Lieutenant General
Commands held 3/40 Evzones Regiment (1940–1941)
3rd Greek Mountain Brigade (1944–1945)
I Army Corps (1948)
II Army Corps (1948–1949)
Chief of the Hellenic Army General Staff (1951–1952)
Battles/wars Battle of Rimini, Dekemvriana, Greek Civil War
Awards Cross of Valour in Gold

Thrasyvoulos Tsakalotos (Greek: Θρασύβουλος Τσακαλώτος, 3 April 1897, Preveza, Ottoman Empire — 15 August 1989, Athens), was a Hellenic Army officer who served in World War I, the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922 and World War II, rising to become Chief of the Hellenic Army General Staff.

Tsakalotos was born in Preveza in 1897. He entered the Hellenic Army Academy in 1913 and graduated from it as an Infanty 2nd Lieutenant in 1916. He fought at the Macedonian Front of World War I as well as in Anatolia against the Turks, being promoted to Lieutenant in 1917 and Captain in 1920. In the interwar period he held various staff appointments and commands, as well as a teaching post in the War Academy. He was promoted to Major in 1924, Lt Colonel in 1930 and Colonel in 1938.

During the Greco-Italian War, he commanded the 3/40 Evzones Regiment, until he was appointed Chief of Staff of II Army Corps on 22 March 1941, shortly before the German attack and occupation of Greece. In 1942, he managed to flee the country and reach Egypt, where the Greek government in exile resided. There he was placed in charge of the Ismaïlia training centre, before assuming command of the newly-formed 3rd Greek Mountain Brigade in April 1944. He led his brigade during the Gothic Line offensive in Italy, and then in the Dekemvriana clashes with the pro-Communist EAM-ELAS in Athens in December 1944.

In March 1945 he was appointed CO of the 2nd Infantry Division. In the next year he was placed as the head of the Supreme War Academy and promoted to Major General. In 1947, he was appointed Assistant Deputy Chief of the Army General Staff. In 1948 he was promoted to Lt General and given command of I Army Corps and then II Army Corps, from which position he contributed to the victory of the Hellenic Army in the Greek Civil War. From May 1951 he served as Chief of the Army General Staff, resigning the post in November 1952. In 1957–1960, Tsakalotos also served as Greece's ambassador in Yugoslavia.

On 23 March 1984, as a symbolic gesture of reconciliation and healing of the divisions caused by the Civil War, Tsakalotos publicly met and shook hands with his erstwhile adversary, Markos Vafiades, the commander of the Communist forces. Thrasyvoulos Tsakalotos died in Athens on 15 August 1989.


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3rd Greek Mountain Brigade
Evzones
Gothic Line order of battle

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