| Commandoes of the Sacred Squadron return to caiques of the 1st Special Boat Squadron (SBS) and the Levant Schooner Flotilla (LSF) after a successful raid in Nazi German-held Greece. After the German invasion of Greece in April-May 1941, the “free” Greek government fled to Egypt and began to reconstruct the military units there. A Hierchos Lochos (“Sacred Company”), is traditionally raised when Greece is in mortal danger; it was 1st formed in 379 BCE against Sparta, then in 1821 against Turkey. The modern Hierchos Lochos was established on September 6, 1942, by the charismatic and outspoken Colonel Christodoulos Tsigantes (January 30, 1897 – October 11, 1970) from a 140 officers in Kfar Hyna, Palestine. Hierchos Lochos’s special feature was that it consisted for the most part of officers who were involved in Mediterranean smuggling and could not be used in the Ellinikés Énoples Dynámeis Mésis Anatolís (ΑΒΕΣΜΑ – “Greek Army of the Middle East”). The unit was, according to the 1st thoughts, to be called the “Elected Immortal Company” and be a machine gun unit. Colonel Tsigantes took in many officers who were dissatisfied with the political infighting within ΑΒΕΣΜΑ. They had escaped Greece to fight the Nazi Germans, not to continue the intra-political battling among the Greek Army. Thus, the power of the Sacred Company from initially 143 men gradually increased, and with the successive integration of new volunteers at the end of the war, it reached 1,100 men. On November 25, 1942, it joined the British 1st Special Air Service (SAS) Regiment at Kabrit Camp near Cairo. Having rich military action in his assets, Tsigantes wanted to give the unit a special character and, by obtaining in time the new tactics and developments, followed the route of the Special Forces. At the same time, the name “Sacred Company” was established in commemoration of the traditional Greek military bodies from antiquity to the 20th century, such as the Sacred Band of Thebes (4th Century BCE), or the Sacred Band of Demetrios Ypsilantis (1793 – August 16, 1832). In this way the Sacred Company became the 1st Special Forces unit of the Greek Army. As a special emblem, an ancient Greek sword surrounded by laurels with the Spartan distinctive bronze breast badge with the traditional Greek warning to a departing warrior – “Come back carrying your shield, or [carried dead] upon it,” was also introduced, with the beige beret of the SAS. The training was varied including mountain struggle, parachuting training, martial arts, and weapons. The Sacred Company was organized in 3 strike platoons moving on jeep-armed machine guns, while there was also a support section with machine guns. Starting January 24, 1943, Hierchos Lochos carried out commando raids along the North African coast, supporting the United Kingdom 8th Army, attacking German forces in Tunisia through April. On February 7, 1943, Hierchos Lochos was placed under the command of French General Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque (November 22, 1902 – November 28, 1947) of the Deuxième Division Blindée (“French Second Armored Division”) at Colonel Tsigantes’ request for jeep raids and carrying out patrol action. The 1st serious clash took place at the Battle of Ksar Ghilane (February 23 – March 10, 1943) when Hierchos Lochos and Deuxième Division Blindée came under Axis attack which they eventually repelled. Hierchos Lochos joined the New Zealand 2nd Infantry Division and fought through Wadi Acarit, Sfax, Sussie, until they broached the Axis’s last defensive line in Efidaville. There on April 17, 1943, the Sacred Company returned to Egypt in order to prepare for the planned operations in the Aegean. In the Aegean Sea, the Germans consolidated their occupation after they neutralized the English attempts to infiltrate the region after the Italian capitulation of September 8. In these operations Hierchos Lochos actively participated in special operations. On October 30, 1943, the unit made the only parachute drop in Greek history in Samos, while another part of it arrived by sea on the island. The Axis forced Hierchos Lochos to leave Samos on November 14 and through Turkey to return to the Middle East. Absorbed into Raiding Forces Middle East Hierchos Lochos expanded, by accepting non-commissioned officer enlistments, into a 246-man battalion (with 1st through 3rd Commando Units, each divided into 5-man combat teams). From September 1943 to May 1945, German and Allied forces fought to occupy Italian-controlled Greek Aegean islands. Since the attempt to occupy the Aegean islands failed, the British Middle East Headquarters commissioned the British Commando forces, to which Hierchos Lochos was also subjected to take action in order to weaken and maintain insecurity the German garrisons of the Aegean. The intervention of Hierchos Lochos in the Aegean, with a force of 446 men now, began in March 1944. A total of 207 patrols were carried out until the end of the war and 33 small, medium- and large-scale operations were carried out. Reorganized as a 931-man Commando Regiment, Hierchos Lochos – the traditional title was never changed – carried out 14 seaborne raids from March to October 1944. Either in cooperation with the British units Long Range desert group (LRDG) and Special Boat Squadron (SBS), or independently, Hierchos Lochos caused significant losses to the enemy in both animate and inanimate material. When the German withdrawal from Greece began in September 1944, Hierchos Lochos liberated a series of Greek islands, then isolated the garrisons that remained until the end of the war in the Aegean. Alongside the war work itself, Hierchos Lochos actively contributed to the catering and medical care of the struggling inhabitants of the islands. From October 14 – December 13 it sustained high casualties in Athens against Ellinikós Laïkós Apeleftherotikós Stratós (ELAS – “Greek People’s Liberation Army”), then undertook 5 more Aegean operations, culminating in the occupation of Rhodes in May 1945. The final recognition of the war of the unit came at the signing of the surrender of the German-Italian guards of the Dodecanese on May 8, 1945, when the British Brigadier General James Moffatt (October 24, 1896 – 1977) received the pistol of Generalmajor Otto Wagener (April 29, 1888 – August 9, 1971) handed it over to Colonel Tsigantes, saying: “This trophy belongs to you and to Hierchos Lochos, liberator.” The Levant Schooner Flotilla (LSF), a tiny special forces unit, waged an obscure but merciless campaign across the eastern Mediterranean. It was formed as the Royal Navy made the best of a bad situation. The May 1941 invasion of Crete by German airborne forces forced the British to evacuate thousands of personnel by any means necessary. They even commandeered a fleet of caïques – Greek fishing schooners – in order to fetch stranded soldiers. With Axis forces holding Crete and the other Greek islands, the Royal Navy then turned half the refugee fishing fleet over to the Special Operations Executive (SOE), which managed irregular warfare against the Axis. The SOE used the civilian vessels as a means of maintaining contact with British agents working in the eastern Mediterranean and the Adriatic. The other half of the displaced fishing fleet was reconstituted as the Levant Schooner Flotilla and assigned to more aggressive operations in tandem with a special forces brigade of the British Army, the Special Air Service (SAS). The Sacred Squadron was part of the SAS. The flotilla’s commander was the eccentric Lieutenant Commander Adrian Seligman (November 26, 1909 – August 6, 2003). He replaced the old noisy engines with Matilda tank engines, which could cruise at half throttle silently. Next, Seligman needed 70 officers and men to crew his informal navy. Officers he selected from a detachment of reservists ages 19 to 23. The sailors were volunteers, attracted by the prospect of something more than standard navy life offered. Once he had his crews, Seligman took them to a remote stretch of coast on western Cyprus to rehearse for clandestine warfare. 1 of the flotilla’s main roles would be landing raiding parties at night on Axis-held islands. The LSF crews practiced open-sea navigation using small aircraft steering compasses with phosphorescent dials, which made it easier than using sight alone to locate the mouth of a secluded creek or cove in the dark. Teams that had memorized the coastline silhouettes made final approaches in stages, inching toward a known rock in line with a cliff or a gap between hills. Camouflaging the boats was another key skill. The LSF planned to operate in darkness and spend daylight hours anchored in the Güllück Gulf, off southwest Turkey. Hiding their presence was imperative—not only to evade German patrols, but also to give neutral Turkey, which had agreed to turn a blind eye to British forces operating in its waters, plausible deniability of its tacit support. Just before dawn each day, LSF crews dismantled masts and draped hulls in camouflage netting, then raised bamboo poles and draped more netting over them, creating false profiles that mimicked rocky outcroppings. When RAF reconnaissance aircraft flew over the area, the pilots were unable to distinguish caïques from coastline. By late June 1943, the SBS was poised for its 1st raid, against Axis airfields on Crete. With the Allied invasion of Sicily imminent, their 3-week mission was to destroy and sabotage as many enemy aircraft as possible to put the enemy’s landing strips out of commission permanently. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0698.jpg |
| Image Size | 52.36 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 700 x 327 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | Royal Army Official Photographer |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | January 1, 1944 |
| Location | |
| City | |
| State or Province | |
| Country | Greece |
| Archive | Royal Army |
| Record Number | |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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