Dimitrios Spanidis Dimitrios Ioannou ( October 23, 1861 – 1926) was a senior officer of the

Hellenic Army The Hellenic Army (, sometimes abbreviated as ΕΣ), formed in 1828, is the army, land force of Greece. The term Names of the Greeks, '' Hellenic'' is the endogenous synonym for ''Greek''. The Hellenic Army is the largest of the three branches ...

who fought in the

Macedonian front The Macedonian front, also known as the Salonica front (after Thessaloniki), was a military theatre of World War I formed as a result of an attempt by the Allied Powers to aid Serbia, in the autumn of 1915, against the combined attack of Germa ...

during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and in the opening stages of the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922.

Biography

Born on 23 October 1861 at Levadeia, Ioannou entered the

Hellenic Military Academy The Hellenic Army Academy (, ΣΣΕ), commonly known as the Evelpidon, is a military academy. It is the Officer cadet school of the Greek Army and the oldest third-level educational institution in Greece. It was founded in 1828 in Nafplio by Io ...

and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Engineers on 25 July 1884. In 1897, as a Captain, he participated in the Greek expeditionary force to

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

under Colonel

Timoleon Vassos Timoleon Vassos or Vasos ( or Βάσος; 1836–1929) was a Hellenic Army officer and general. He was born in Athens in 1836, the younger son of the hero of the Greek Revolution Vasos Mavrovouniotis. He studied at the Hellenic Military Academ ...

. By the time the

First Balkan War The First Balkan War lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and involved actions of the Balkan League (the Kingdoms of Kingdom of Bulgaria, Bulgaria, Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia, Kingdom of Greece, Greece and Kingdom of Montenegro, Montenegro) agai ...

broke out October 1912 he was a Lt. Colonel, and served as chief of staff of the Army of Epirus, under Lt. General Konstantinos Sapountzakis. Later, during the Battle of Bizani, he commanded a detachment of four Evzone battalions, and was distinguished for his drive and determination. He was named as the commanding officer of the newly raised 9th Infantry Division in 1913, and commanded it until 1916, when he joined the Venizelist Movement of National Defence in

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

, which, in opposition to the royal government in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

, entered

on the side of the

Entente Powers The Allies or the Entente (, ) was an international military coalition of countries led by the French Republic, the United Kingdom, the Russian Empire, the United States, the Kingdom of Italy, and the Empire of Japan against the Central Powers ...

. Ioannou was tasked with the formation of the

Archipelago Division The Archipelago Division () was an infantry division of Greece in World War I and the early stages of the Asia Minor Campaign. Establishment The division began being raised in September 1916 by the Provisional Government of National Defence, as ...

, drawn from the inhabitants of the Aegean islands. By May 1917, his division was ready and deployed in the Monastir sector of the

. He led his division to victory at the Battle of Skra-di-Legen in May 1918, and participated with it in the general Allied offensive of September 1918, which broke the German-Bulgarian front. The armistice with Bulgaria found him with his division at Pehčevo. Promoted to Lieutenant General already a few months earlier, Ioannou now assumed command of I Army Corps and then of the Army of Epirus. Following the Greek landing at Smyrna in May 1919 and the establishment of a zone of occupation around the city, he was chosen to command the newly constituted Smyrna Army Corps, which he led in the spring operations and the summer offensive of 1920. Following the unexpected electoral victory of the anti-Venizelist United Opposition in November 1920, he was dismissed from his post. He died in 1926 in Athens.

Legacy

Ioannou enjoyed a reputation as an expert in fortifications, but distinguished himself for his—often reckless—bravery and aggressiveness as a leader. The Greek writer Stratis Myrivilis, in his anti-war novel ''Life in the Tomb'', which describes life on the Macedonian Front based on the author's own experiences as a soldier in the Archipelago Division, gives a portrait of Ioannou, under his popular nickname Balafaras: a slightly buffoonish but larger-than-life man, who likes to demonstrate his personal bravery by refusing to take cover or wear a helmet while visiting the trenches in full uniform, and whose more foolhardy impulses have to be restrained by his aides and the French high command.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ioannou, Dimitrios 1861 births 1926 deaths People from Livadeia Hellenic Army lieutenant generals Greek military personnel of the Balkan Wars Greek military personnel of the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) Recipients of the War Cross (Greece) Greek military personnel of World War I