ARMY GENIUS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 April 1941, Page 6

ARMY GENIUS

GENERAL PAPAGOS OF GREECE A BRILLIANT STRATEGIST. NOTABLE MILITARY CAREER. Tall, handsome, slim, General A. Papagos, who is in’ command of the Greek armies, has shown himself to be one of the finest commanders of his day. The Italians may have made many serious mistakes, but it is to the genius of General Papagos and his staff, combined with the fine fighting qualities of the Grecian soldiery, that the magnificent Greek victories against the Italians were due.

Papagos’s strategy and tactics are regarded in British military circles as being of the highest order and he has probably done more to help the Allied cause in the present war than any other military commander, with the exception of Sir Archibald Wavell. General Papagos is Greece's No. 1 soldier now that General Metaxas is dead. As Chief of the Greek General Staff during the last four years he had been engaged in working out the plans which he was able to put into actual, practice when the Italians launched their invasion. Few people in Greece had any illusions as to the ultimate intentions of Italy, and the army was ready for the campaign. ART OF WAR. After attending the Military School at Athens in his youth, Papagos went to France, where he finished off his preliminary training. It has often been said that the Greek Army has been trained on German lines. This is not the case. The late General Metaxas certainly received his military training in Germany, but the Greek Staff •have always acted on French lines, and a French military Mission was largely responsible for the education and training of officers. General Papagos is a cavalry officer, and during the Balkan wars in 1912-13 he was in command of a Greek Cavalry Brigade, distinguishing himself on several occasions. During the Great War he saw service on the Allied side, but it was during the invasion of Asia Minor that he first demonstrated, as a member of the General Staff, his potentialities as a military leader. From that time he has been closely concerned with the training of the small but highly efficient Greek Army. When the Greek people decided to ask King George, their present ruler, to return to the throne, Papagos was one of the party which went to London to make the request. Since that ■ time he has been one of the King’s right-hand men, and was largely responsible for securing the resignation of General Condyles, who opposed his sovereign's decision to issue a general amnesty to political prisoners. General Papagos was also a great personal friend of General Metaxas, who placed | the highest confidence in him —a con-' fidence which clearly has not been misplaced. HOME IN MODEST FLA l. In Athens General Papagos has his homo in a modest flat, where in peace time he lived quietly with his wife and two children —a son and daughter. The former is now in the Greek Foreign Qffice, where he is showing promise as a diplomatist. Aged 54, the Greek Commander is a man of strong character and quick decisions. He is sparing in words, but is not unbending to those who serve under him. He is quick to give praise and encouragement to those who earn it, but severe on officers who fail him. His favourite recreations are riding and an occasional quiet game of cards, and he leads a simple, unostentatious life. Like most good Europeans, Papagos has long been in favour of a stand being made against international disturbers of the peace. In 1936 he announced that Greece would do her duty as a member of the League of Nations should the Italian war with Abyssinia become general. He detests, in fact, the methods of the totalitarian Powers, and he has never regarded tire Italian forces as being quite what Mussolini pictured them to be. STUDIED ALBANIA. It is well known that the military relations between the British and the Greeks have run exceptionally smoothly, largely due to the outlook of the Greek Commander. In the course of his duties General Papagos traversed on foot, often in civilian clothes, the whole of the territory in which,- the troops under his command are now fighting. He knows the whole of Southern Albania and its terrain as well as any man. This is one of the reasons for his success: lie is thorough in everything he undertakes. Little wonder that, this quiet, abstemious man is regarded with great confidence by the Greek people. He is. indeed, a Greek of the Greeks, and the nation is proud of his military genius. On more than one occasion Papagos visited Italy and attended Italian military manoeuvres. With observant eye he detected weaknesses in his potential enemy, and he has since seen in the fie.d how different are their me- ■ thods and conduct from those of the Germans, for whose army the Greek : Commander has a great, respect.