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This uniform is just a sample , we asked for some minor changes to look more greek.
Sometimes we have to knock them to make sure which is the steel helmet!

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"Only the dead have seen the end of war"
Plato
Greek author & philosopher in Athens (427 BC - 347 BC)

https://www.facebook.com/WW2-Greek-Army ... 751753340/

Sadly gonna be a few years before I get the cash and everything to put together a Greek impression. However I'll always keep an eye on it. A friend has got me into his WW1 Aussie group and I was thinking of transferring some of the stuff over. Namely the brodie helmet, as I believe they were still in common use by the Greeks...seen quite a few photos of them being used....

for some reason the other ranks tunic is the most rare piece of the greek 1940 uniform...you dont see one not even to museums..!!! aparently they are all lost in the 1941 retreat & original surviving samples run for thousands of euros nowdays...the officers service tunics of the 1940 are fairly easy to find because they kept by the officers families after the war so they are still around for very logical money

Few years ago these uniforms could be found for few drachmas in Monastiraki. Typically our families did not see any value in "old junk full of dirt and lice". My grandma literaly burned many valuable stuff this way, including my grandfather's demob uniform, my fathers's Cyprus expedition battledress, but only kept my uncle's dentist reserve officer, because it was brand new from the 70s.

You will be surprised to know then that I got my tunic for nothing! or to be precise just a big dinner and lots of wine in a taverna. My tunic had been in a friend of my fathers' family for 70 years and when they learned that I collect they said
"oh are you interested in that old uniform we have burried in mothballs in the basement?". The story he could remember
was that the father of this gentleman while serving his National service he got "postponement" in 1939 for long sickness, just before the war and when the war broke and his postponement ended he was made auxilliary in the HQ of II Division. This tunic was never used in the front probably explains why it still has the pre-war badges, including a '3' on the shoulders, which I guess is a unit mark or something. It is unclear if he was demobed in this in 1941 or went on leave in 1939. He might have got some details wrong, but the guy had no reason to lie - especially since his father saw no action on the front and had nothing to brag about.

the one and only greek EM tunic i have seen in monasthraki it was in 1986...they were allways ultra rare even back then...EM greatcoat i have seen only one in 2002..trousers are more rare and boots even more rare...MS pouches & helmets were pretty common few years back but not anymore...canteens are still easy to find but most are postwar boyscouts 50s & 60s faithfull copies...Greek backpacks are very hard to find but you can buy a french one from europe as an alternative...suspenders & belts are rare too but u may find one...gasmasks with long hose maybe you can still find one here & there if you are lucky but you will pay more than 100 euros...the haversack for the mask is ultra rare...entrenching tool is rare too but you dont need it as nobody actualy used them in albania as it was a luxury...in short all the pieces of the greek uniform & equipment is a nightmare to discover & collect...i dare to say that maybe is the most rare european WWII uniform today

Good outline of the current state of affairs, I totally agree. And don't even start about the rarity of Greek firearms...
99% went to the US from where is virtually impossible to re-import. I was extremely fortunate (plus 10 years investigation and search) to get my Greek collection, but always hopeful to discover more. I just wish I had strated earlier, before there were so many collectors that push the prices to silly levels now.

My full impression of a Greek private in 1940-41 period.
Almost everything I wear and use is genuine WW1-WW2 era
material, made in Greece or France, as issued.

Permission to be uber jealous.

Hoplite my advice is "put this uniform on a manequin and leave it there"...dont go reenaction with these original "impossible to replace" items...if you destroy any of these pieces you wont find it again...

+1

_________________
"Only the dead have seen the end of war"
Plato
Greek author & philosopher in Athens (427 BC - 347 BC)

https://www.facebook.com/WW2-Greek-Army ... 751753340/

Don't know anything about the Greek army, but for what it's worth, my father-in-law (British army) was in Greece during the war (we don't know anything about it because he died in 1968) organising partisans. There were the two sets of partisans - the Royalists and the Communists, who after the second World War engaged in a civil war against each other. Apparently this Greek family offered him an island they owned and he said "What would I want with a Greek island"!! Then in the 1970s the daughter of the family came to look him up here in Norfolk, and express their gratitude for what he had done, and my wife and her mother (I was at work) gave her tea etc but of course he was dead by then. I wish I knew more.

Hehe, I agree, but bear in mind I am not the "running around shooting" kind of reenactor. I am one of those 'boring' "show and tell" kind, something like living-museum. With the first drizzle or strong sun I run for cover...and never keep in gear for more than few hours each summer, then everything goes back in the collection room. As I mainly do WW1 and other forces, it will be the first season I am considering taking the complete Greek 1940 kit out.

you preserve the history of my country

Proud to, also I feel committed in teaching the exciting military struggles of Greece, 1897 to 1949. Loads to show and tell!

Comrades, You both show much Political Perception regarding your Direction of Interest.

An excellent Scale of Issue.

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"Wenn ist das Nunstruck git und Slotermeyer?, Ja! .. Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!"
( Lease lend material from Comrade Sandy Boots)

"We have internal enemies. We have external enemies. This, comrades, must not be forgotten for a single moment"
( Comrade Stalin, 1928)

"Who watches The Watchmen?"... The NKVD.

"The Devil came to me one night, he struck his claws into my hands, I prayed for him to stop but he wouldn't .....so I told him to F' off..... he did".
(An old Russia lady)

"We will fight for peace until there isn't one stone left standing on another".
(Soviet folk-saying)

"Gesplitzenblitz !" ( Peter Sellers)

"To err is to be arrested ".
"To forgive is not within the Scale of Norms".

what would be a good starting point on the uniform? what tunic are there around that could be changed etc to look like a Greek ww2 type? im really wanted to get a ww2 Greek army reenactment group started for ages but have always given up with regards to uniform and kit etc

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Don't worry, old chap. Been handling this stuff ever since I blew up the nursery with my first chemistry set. Poor old Nanny.