Greek naval policy and the Great Powers, 1931–40

Abstract

This article focuses on the inter-relationships between Greek naval development, domestic financial constraints and international naval political affairs. It begins with a survey of international naval disarmament during the early 1930s, which reinforced the adoption of the ‘flotilla navy’ concept by the Venizelos administration. This concept was further forced upon the Greek Navy by the poor state of Greece's finances. The increasing polarisation of European power politics towards the middle of the decade did not result in any significant strengthening of the Greek fleet or its supporting infrastructure, despite legislative and diplomatic initiatives. By contrast the Ethiopian crisis stimulated the establishment of a generally comprehensive Greek coastal defence system. In the countdown to the Second World War, the closing of the ring around Greece obliged the Metaxas administration to rely exclusively on anticipated British diplomatic and naval support, which was, however, hardly forthcoming for economic as well as political reasons. Indeed, the satisfactory performance of the Greek Navy during the Second World War stemmed from the successful application of a British-modelled Greek naval educational system rather than any direct and material British naval assistance.

Keywords:

• British Admiralty
• British naval missions
• flotilla navy
• Greek coastal defence service
• Greek naval policy

Acknowledgements

The financial support of the Greek State Graduate Funding Body (IKY) is gratefully acknowledged.

Notes

Potter and Nimitz, Sea power, 480–1.

Hattendorf and Goldrick, Mahan is not enough, 230.

Guvenc and Barlas, ‘Ataturk's navy’, 16–17.

Svolopoulos, He Hellenike exoterike politike, 225.

Athinon, Historia tou Hellenikoy ethnous, 328–31.

Pantelakis, Dimosia Dania, 77–8.

Svolopoulos, He Hellenike exoterike politike contains a good number of references to the points of friction between Greece and its Balkan neighbours during the inter-war years. Vego, Naval strategy, 21, 31.

Svolopoulos, He Hellenike exoterike politike, 212.

The National Archives, Kew [TNA] FO 371/13648, C4880, Lorrain to Foreign Office, Athens, 24 June 1929; and C3354, Harvey to Henderson, Athens, 13 Nov. 1929.

TNA FO 371/14379, C9206, Ramsay to Sargent, Athens, 6 Dec. 1930. The influential senator, Ginis, subsequently advocated the procurement of three pocket battleships by Greece. Efimeris ton Sizitiseon tis Gerousias, Third Synod, Session 111, 6 July 1931, 1442. Rosinski, Development of naval thought, 12–13; Hattendorf and Goldrick, Mahan is not enough, 233.

Genika Archeia tou Kratous [GAK] Metaxas MSS, File 121, Sinoptikon Ipomnima epi tou Naftikou Programatos, 1935; TNA FO 371/13648, C7391, Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean Station to Secretary of the Admiralty, Malta, 22 Aug. 1929.

Sourvinos, ‘To programma exoplismou’, 214.

TNA FO 371/15230, C6296, Naval Staff Intelligence Division Admiralty to Foreign Office, 12 Aug. 1931; Kavadias, O naftikos polemos tou 40, 183; Guvenc and Barlas, ‘Ataturk's navy’, 19–20.

Stavrianos, Balkans since 1453, 736; Svolopoulos, He Hellenike exoterike politike, 213–15.

TNA FO 371/15230, C5122, British naval attaché to Ramsay, Athens, 26 June1931.

Karamanlis, O Eleftherios Venizelos, 215; GAK Metaxas MSS, File 121, Isigitiki Ekthesis Sxediou Nomou peri ekteleseos Naftikou Programatos, 1935.

Stavrianos, The World Since 1500, 530–31; Svolopoulos, He Hellenike exoterike politike, 225.

For a detailed exposition of Venizelos's critique of the Balkan Pact of February 1934, see Svolopoulos, To Valkanikon Simfonon; Stavrianos, The World Since 1500, 531.

Dafnis, I Hellas metaxi dio polemon, vol. 2, 256; Barros, Britain, Greece and the politics of sanctions, 42; Guvenc and Barlas, ‘Ataturk's navy’, 21.

ibid., 22.

ibid.

GAK Metaxas MSS, File 121, Isigitiki Ekthesis Sxediou Nomou peri ekteleseos Naftikou Programatos, 1935.

Fioravanzo, History of naval tactical thought, 170.

GAK Metaxas MSS, File 121, Isigitiki Ekthesis Sxediou Nomou peri ekteleseos Naftikou Programatos, 1935.

Koliopoulos, Palinorthosi, diktatoria, polemos, 59–60; Mezeviris, Tessares dekaetirides, 129–31, 158, 160; Pratt, East of Malta west of Suez, 138.

Barros, Britain, Greece and the politics of sanctions, 172.

Petropoulos, Anamniseis kai skepseis, 29.

Salerno, ‘Multilateral strategy and diplomacy’, 48.

ibid., 41, 49–54, 57.

Hardie, Abyssinian crisis; Pratt, East of Malta west of Suez, 29–37; Cliadakis, ‘Neutrality and war in Italian policy’, 175; Stavrianos, The World Since 1500, 536, 537, 540.

Ropp, ‘Modern Italian Navy’, 107.

ibid.

Marzari, ‘The Balkans, the Great Powers and the European war’, 23.

Salerno, ‘Multilateral strategy and diplomacy’, 61.

Hardie, Abyssinian crisis; Pratt, East of Malta west of Suez, 29–37.

Barros, Britain, Greece and the politics of sanctions, 75–7, 95–194; GAK Metaxas MSS, File 84, Ekthesis Sibliromatiki peri tis Stratigikis Katastaseos tis Hellados se periptosi Agloitalikou polemou, 20 Jan. 1936.

Quartanaro, ‘Imperial defence’, 216–17; Marder, ‘Royal Navy and the Ethiopian crisis’, 1331–2.

Salerno, ‘Multilateral strategy and diplomacy’, 65.

Pratt, East of Malta west of Suez, 13.

Barros, Britain, Greece and the politics of sanctions, 186, 189, 203–6, 215–16.

Phocas, Ekthesis epi tis draseos tou B, 12; Kavadias, O naftikos polemos tou 40, 106. Ever since 1885 some form of rudimentary defence of the Greek coasts was improvised whenever the country was under threat. However, these constructions were short-lived and hardly merit attention.

GAK Metaxas MSS, File 93, Ekthesis Pepragmenon Anoteras Diefthinsis Paraktiou Aminis apo sistaseos tis mechri telous Ianouariou, 1938, 1–12, 62–8; Phocas, Ekthesis epi tis draseos tou B, 13–18.

ibid., 12, 18; GAK Metaxas MSS, File 88, Ektimisis tis katastaseos kata tin arxikin phasin tou polemou: apaitoumeni pros tin Ellada voithia kata thalassa, Vice-Admiral Sakellariou and Captain Petropoulos, 23 Aug. 1939.

Petropoulos, Anamniseis kai skepseis, 67; Phocas, Ekthesis epi tis draseos tou B, 14; Pratt, East of Malta west of Suez, 138.

Kavadias, O naftikos polemos tou 40, 108–10; Phocas, Ekthesis epi tis draseos tou B, 18–23.

Schreiber et al., Germany and the Second World War, 373, 375.

Barros, Britain, Greece and the politics of sanctions, 208.

Santoni, ‘Italian Navy at the outbreak of World War II’, 296–7; Pratt, East of Malta west of Suez, 29, 112; Budden, British policy towards Fascist Italy, 34; Kennedy, Rise and fall of the Great Powers, 296–7.

Salerno, ‘Britain, France and the emerging Italian threat’, 78–9; Pratt, East of Malta west of Suez, 161; Schreiber et al., Germany and the Second World War, 373, 375; Athinon, Historia tou Hellenikoy ethnous, 401–2.

Pratt, East of Malta west of Suez, 104, 155, 158; TNA, ADM 116/3499, Simon to Foreign Secretary, 29 Sep. 1938; Kennedy, Rise and fall of the Great Powers, 319; Koliopoulos, Palinorthosi, diktatoria, polemos, 115–22; Koliopoulos, ‘Unwanted ally’, 13–14.

TNA, ADM 116/3949, Waterlow to Foreign Office, Athens, 16 Oct. 1938.

Pratt, East of Malta west of Suez, 155.

TNA ADM 116/4200, Admiralty to naval attaché, London, 11 Jan. 1939.

TNA ADM 116/4200, Waterlow to Halifax, 16 Jan. 1939.

TNA ADM 116/4200, Waterlow to Halifax, Athens, 25 Jan. 1939, enclosing Packer to Waterlow, 24 Jan. 1939. The motor torpedo boat was the counterpart of the Italian MAS and was suddenly brought back into the British naval programme for 1936, at the beginning of October 1935, after an absence of nearly 20 years. Quartanaro, ‘Imperial defence’, 211.

TNA ADM 116/4200, ‘Memorandum on Greek naval policy and proposed naval rearmament’, by Packer, Athens, 30 Jan. 1939

Quartanaro, ‘Imperial defence’, 208.

TNA ADM 116/4200, ‘Memorandum on Greek naval policy’ by Packer, Athens, 30 Jan. 1939; Waterlow to Halifax, Athens, 1 Feb. 1939.

ibid.; Roskill, Naval policy between the wars, 533.

TNA, ADM 116/4200, Military Branch to Foreign Office, London, 20 Feb. 1939, Appendix A.

TNA ADM 116/4200, Comment on M. 07712/39 by Head of M Branch, London, 3 Feb. 1939.

TNA ADM 116/4200, Military Branch to Foreign Office, London, 20 Feb. 1939, Appendix A.

Pratt, East of Malta west of Suez, 156.

TNA ADM 116/4200, Naval attaché to Director of Naval Intelligence, London, 8 Mar. 1939.

TNA ADM 116/4200, Waterlow to Halifax, Athens, 25 Jan. 1939, enclosing Packer to Waterlow, 24 Jan. 1939.

TNA ADM 116/4200, Report on meeting of 17 Feb. 1939.

TNA ADM 116/4200, Report of a conversation between Captain Matessis and Commander Dorman-Smith.

TNA ADM 116/4200, Comment on M. 02103/39 by the Director of the Torpedo Department, London, 17 Mar. 1939.

TNA ADM 116/4200, Naval attaché to Director of Naval Intelligence, Athens, 6 March 1939; Petropoulos, Anamniseis kai skepseis, 86.

TNA ADM 116/4200, Naval attaché to Director of Naval Intelligence, Athens, 6 Mar. 1939; Notes of Meetings held at the Directorate of the Division of Naval Intelligence on 20 and 21 Mar. 1939 and Aide Memoire; TNA ADM 116/4199, Admiralty to naval attaché, 23 Mar. 1939; Royal Greek Legation to Admiralty, London, 5 June 1939.

Peden, British rearmament.

Van Kessel, ‘British reaction to German economic expansion’, 264.

Pratt, East of Malta west of Suez, 159.

Black, Second World War, 134.

GAK Metaxas MSS, File 88, Meleti 45, Ektimisis tis katastaseos kata tin arxikin phasin tou polemou: apaitoumeni pros tin Ellada voithia kata thalassa, Vice-Admiral Sakellariou and Captain Petropoulos, 23 Aug. 1939.

See Koliopoulos, ‘Unwanted ally’; Phocas, Ekthesis epi tis draseos tou B.

Despotopoulos, Polemiki proparaskevi tis Elladas, 114; Phocas, Ekthesis epi tis draseos tou B, 154–5; Petropoulos, Anamniseis kai skepseis, 107.

Phocas, Ekthesis epi tis draseos tou B, 126, 203–6; Vego, Naval strategy, 153–4.

Kavadias, O naftikos polemos tou 40, 127, 174; Mezeviris, Tessares dekaetirides, 127, 164–5; Hattendorf and Goldrick, Mahan is not enough, 72.

Roskill, Naval policy between the wars, vol. 2, 189–90; Alexandris, To naftikon mas kata, 40–1.

Kavadias, O naftikos polemos tou 40, 128; Mezeviris, Tessares dekaetirides, 175.

TNA FO 371/14379, C8427, Ramsay to Henderson, London, 10 Nov. 1930.

Roskill, Naval policy between the wars, vol. 2, 230.