Montgomery greets Greek I Brigade commander Brigadier Katsotas in October 1942

After the Germans conquered Greece in spring and summer of 1941, the King and Government of the country fled to Egypt. There they began to reestablish the Greek Armed Forces, with the intention to fight on until Greece was liberated.
Creating an Army far from the home country was enormously difficult. The Free French ranks were swelled by troops serving in the numerous colonies around the world, the Free Poles could draw on men interned in the Soviet Union in 1939, yet the Free Greeks did not have reserves of this size. The only sizeable Greek unit in Egypt in spring of 1941 was a battalion drawn from Greeks living in that country. It was supplemented by Quartermaster and Armourer units sent to sort through captured Italian weapons and vehicles for equipment to reinforce the Greek Army.
Ironically, it was the successful German attack on Greece in April '41 that provided the first, and most significant, reinforcement. The Greek Army's Evros Brigade, defending the extreme east of the border with Bulgaria, was cut off by the Germans and, according to pre-war planning, retreated into Turkey. After considerable diplomatic activity, the Turkish Government agreed to allow them to the majority of these men to join the Greek Army in Egypt. By June '41, nearly 1300 of them had reached Egypt, travelling in dispersed groups to avoid Axis spies spotting this obvious breach of Turkish neutrality.
This influx of personnel allowed the establishment of the I Greek Brigade, consisting initially of three infantry and an artillery battalion. A steady, if not large, flow of fugitives from occupied Greece allowed the Brigade's slow expansion to the British Brigade establishment, including a full artillery Regiment by winter of '41. By that time, the Brigade had been relocated to Palestine, where training in British fighting methods and equipment continued. A continued problem was the issue of equipment, with HQ Middle East giving priority to outfitting other units, despite the constant requests of Greek Army HQ. The slowness in filling these shortages meant that the Brigade was considered battle-ready only in August of '42, and was deployed south of Amirya, defending the approaches to Alexandria. After the failure of the German attack on the El Alamein line in August, the Brigade was relocated to the front, reaching its position near Alam Nayil on September 9th. At the time, the Brigade's 5500 men were organized as follows:

Brigade Headquarters and Headquarters Company
1st, 2nd, 3rd Infantry Battalions
I Field Artillery Regiment

• I, II, III Field Artillery Battalions

• I Antitank Battalion

I Engineer Company
I Machinegun Company
I Antiaircraft Battalion

Opposite the Brigade, the Axis position was defended by the Italian 20th Infantry Regt, with its flanks secured by two German Paratrooper Battalions, Schweiger to the North and Burkhardt to the South. For the next weeks, I Greek Brigade kept up constant reconnaissance and patrolling, mapping the Axis minefields and works to its front. When the El Alamein offensive started, the Brigade, as part of XIII Corps, was tasked with tying down the Axis forces to its front. It did so with several company-strength attacks on the 24th and 26th October and 2nd November '42, and with continuous aggressive patrolling. On November 3rd, when the withdrawal of Axis forces began, the Brigade sent out company-strength detachments to occupy the vacated positions, and from November 4th formed a series of fast motorized detachments were formed to pursue the fleeing Germans and Italians. On November 15th it returned to the Alamein lines, to round up materiel and lift mines from the extensive Axis defenses. It was brought up to the front again on December 6th, to take part in the assault on the Axis defenses at El Agheila, but the Italo-German forces withdrew before that took place. On December 18th, the Brigade was officially ordered to return to Egypt, and spent the rest of its war in training or garrisoning Lebanon. Its participation in the Alamein Offensive had cost it 300 casualties.

Aris is working on much more about the Commonwealth Forces and since he is Greek... this was common sense first entry for readers to gain knowledge about one of the contributing country's forces in the North African Campaign... he is a dedicated researcher in TO&E/OOB and the development of armored forces.