Platis, Andreas

Andreas Platis was born in Athens in 1865. He graduated from the Military School of Evelpids on August 11, 1888, with the rank of junior infantry lieutenant. He took part in the short-term, how strange, Greek-Turkish war of 1897. In the Balkan Wars, he commanded a battalion of the 17th Infantry Regiment. Being a monarchist, during the period of the National Schism, he did not follow the Prime Minister E. Venizelos and as a result was demobilized from the army and did not take part in the First World War ^{[1] [2]} .

In 1919, under the Entente’s mandate, Greece occupied the western coast of Asia Minor . The Sevres peace treaty of 1920 secured the region for Greece, with the prospect of deciding its fate in 5 years, at a referendum of the population ^[3] . The battles with the Kemalists that began here took on the character of a war that the Greek army was forced to wage alone. Of the allies, Italy, from the very beginning supported the Kemalists, France, solving its tasks, also began to support them. The Greek army firmly held its ground. The geopolitical situation changed radically and became fatal for the Greek population of Asia Minor after the parliamentary elections in Greece in November 1920. Under the slogan “we will return our guys home”, the monarchist People’s Party won the election. The return of the Germanophile Constantine to Greece freed the Allies from their obligations towards Greece. Unable to find a diplomatic solution to the issue of the Greek population of Ionia , in a completely different geopolitical setting, the monarchist government continued the war. By straining her limited human resources, Greece mobilized another 3 draft in the army.

Spring and Summer Offensive 1921

After the defeat of Venizelos in the parliamentary elections of November 1920, Platis was recalled to the army. In 1921, he took command of the VII Infantry Division ^[4] .

Commanding this division, he took part in the Spring and Summer offensives of the Greek army in the West of Asia Minor, including the largest battle of the war, victorious for the Greek weapons, the Battle of Afyonkarahisar - Eskisehir . However, the Turks moved to Ankara, and the Greek government again faced a dilemma: what to do next ^[3] .

French General Gouraud said that the Greeks can send to the frontline no more than 60 thousand soldiers, who must pass 600 km march from Smyrna . Gouro said that forcing peace in Asia Minor it was necessary to have 27 divisions, but the Greeks had only 9 divisions.

July 13/26, 1921, in the occupied by the Greek army of Kutahye, a meeting of the command of the expeditionary army took place. The next day, Prime Minister Gunaris arrived and the Great Military Council was convened. The government was in a hurry to end the war and decided to advance further. July 28 / August 10, 7 Greek divisions crossed the Sakarya and went east.

Greek historians such as Sarandos Kargakos ^[5] and Dimitris Fotiadis ^[3] call the campaign of these 7 divisions "the epic of the Greek army."

Polatly

Unlike the other divisions that went to Ankara crossing the waterless Salt Desert, the Platis VII division was tasked with marching 130 km along the Eskisehir-Ankara railway line ^[3] and with force to cross Sakarya on its northern bend. The strategic goal was to occupy the Polatli railway station, located 80 km from Ankara and the formerly extended base of the Kemalist army ^[3] . The division forcefully crossed the Sakarya on the night of August 10–11 and, gaining a foothold on the eastern shore, proceeded to expand the bridgehead ^[3] . The division was ordered to occupy Polatli ^[3] . On the way to Polatla there was the so-called Conical Hill, which the division soldiers took on the move. However, after heavy shelling by Turkish heavy artillery, the hill was abandoned. There was a threat to the bridgehead. Platis ordered his 1/22 battalion to re-take the hill at any cost. In the night attack and the ensuing two-hour battle, the commanders of the three companies of this battalion were killed. In the battle around this hill, the Platis divisions were opposed by four (!) Turkish divisions. However, on August 12/25, 3/23 the battalion managed to break the resistance of the Turks and occupy Konichesky Hill. As the Turks tried to avoid breaking through their front in front of Ankara in the southern sector, where the remaining Greek divisions advanced, they were forced to transfer part of their forces from the Polatla sector. Platis took advantage of the situation and took the initiative in his own hands. The division managed to break into the mountain pass of Polatla and occupy the Toothed hill and also the Besh Tepeler ridge. But the forces of the soldiers were exhausted in this continuous offensive impulse, and Platis was forced to give them a respite. After a couple of hours, the offensive continued and the division occupied Dua Tepe (Gemini Hills) dominant in this region. After this significant success, the division launched an attack on Polatli ^[3] . According to the historian D. Fotiadis, the objective task set before the Platis division “was almost achieved.” 3/23 battalion approached Polatla at a distance of 4 km. The Turks were in a panic. They tried to remove the ammunition from the depots, but due to the lack of vehicles, they began to detonate them. Polatli was neutralized as an extended supply base for the Turks. The VII division was connected with the III corps of the army, in the submission of which it was. But the Platis division paid dearly for its success. She lost killed 17 officers and 260 privates, plus 65 officers and 1,361 privates wounded ^[3] .

Epos Sakarya

Meanwhile, the remaining Greek divisions, continuously, for 14 days ^[3] , took one by one the fortified peaks in front of Ankara and exhausted their strength and ammunition. This allowed the Turks to launch a counterattack on August 28 / September 10 between the 1st and 5th Greek divisions. These two Greek divisions survived, fought off a counterattack and fled the Turks to the north, pursuing them with battalions of Evzons . But after this victory, the 1st division had almost no ammunition ^[3] Having realized that in addition to irreparable losses, the divisions remained completely without shells and almost without bullets, the headquarters of the expeditionary army decided on August 29 / September 11 to end the attack and leave for Sakarya. The III Corps continued to remain in its positions and its headquarters ordered the III Division to transfer the VII Division of Platis, which accepted the main onslaught of the Turks, all its forces, with the exception of one regiment. At the same time, the soldiers of the same company of Platis’s VII division repelled the Turks’ attack with grenades and bayonets for several hours and not only restrained the onslaught of the whole division (! - the 57th Turkish division), but also forced it to retreat. Then the 2/39 Regiment of the Evzons immediately approached the positions of this company and the battle continued uninterruptedly for the whole night. At midnight, having made an unexpected attack, the Turks overturned one of the Greek regiments and secured themselves on the slope of Mount Kara-Dag. The situation in the sector became critical, as the Turkish headquarters constantly transferred forces here ^[3] At 7 am on August 29, units of Platis’s VII division rushed into a counterattack in the direction of the Gemini Hills, constantly under the fire of Turkish artillery. Parts of the division were stopped by artillery fire 600 meters from the tops of these hills. The 1/37 battalion was forced to leave the “Sawtooth Hill” just occupied by it under fire. However, the Turks' attempt to occupy this hill was repulsed by the counterattack of the Greek battalion, which once again was forced to leave the hill under artillery fire. In one of the subsequent attacks, a 2/39 Evzon regiment captured 124 Turks. At 11:30, the X Greek division entered the battle, but was stopped by Turkish artillery fire. At 17:30, the IX Greek Division entered the fray. It was one of the deadliest battles of this battle. The companies were left without commanders, the wounded were left on the battlefield and collected only at nightfall. It was also the last battle of the Greek army east of Sakarya and ended with a Greek victory ^[3] .

At 20:45, the headquarters of the expeditionary army ordered all three corps to retreat beyond Sakarya.

I Corps left its position at 01:00 a.m. on August 30 so silently that only at dawn the Turks were surprised to find that the Greeks had left. Observing the complete order and without the slightest pressure from the Turks, they retreated behind Sakary II and III army corps. With the latter, the seventh division of Colonel Platis left ^[3] .

Towards the End of the Asia Minor Campaign

The historian Dimitris Fotiadis writes: “tactically we won, strategically we lost” ^[3] . The government of the monarchists doubled the territory under its control in Asia, but did not have the possibilities for a further offensive. Having not resolved the issue with the Greek population of the region, the government did not dare to evacuate the army from Asia Minor. The front froze for a year.

In early 1922, Colonel Platis transferred the command of the VII Division to Colonel Vasily Kurusopoulos. Having been promoted to the rank of major general, and after a short vacation, he took command of the reserve headquarters in Smyrna , which also covered the rear areas around the city. After the front was broken in August 1922, Major General Platis took over the short-term command of the units retreating to the Eritrean Peninsula ( Cesme ), before their evacuation to the Greek islands.

After the ensuing anti-monarchist rebellion of the army in September 1922 , Major General Platis, being a monarchist, was demobilized. However, as a sign of his military merits, during mobilization he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general. His further fate is unknown. Given the fact that at the time of demobilization he was about 60 years old, he died most likely in the interwar years.

1. ↑ PDF pager
2. ↑ Μεγάλη Στρατιωτική και Ναυτική Εγκυκλοπαιδεία, 1930, Τόμος Ε ′: Νάβα - Σαρακηνοί, σελ. 348
3. ↑ ^{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15} Δημήτρης Φωτιάδης, Σαγγάριος, εκδ.Φυτράκη 1974
4. ↑ Εθνικό Ίδρυμα "Ελευθέριος Κ. Βενιζέλος »
5. ↑ Σαράντος Ι. Καργάκος Η Μικρασιατική εκστρατεία (1919-1922), Από το έπος στην τραγωδία, τόμος Β΄ (link not available)