5/42 Evzone Regiment

The 5/42 Evzone Regiment "Delvinaki" (Greek: 5/42 Σύνταγμα Ευζώνων «Δελβινάκι», 5/42 ΣΕ) is an active infantry unit of the Hellenic Army. It was established in 1913 as an elite regiment of Evzones, recruited in Central Greece and headquartered in Lamia. As such the unit served in the Macedonian front of World War I, the Allied intervention in Ukraine, the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922, and the Greco-Italian War during World War II. Reformed as the 53rd Brigade (53η Ταξιαρχία) in 1948, it participated in the Greek Civil War, before receiving the designation 5/42 Infantry Regiment (5/42 Σύνταγμα Πεζικού, 5/42 ΣΠ) in 1951. The regiment was disbanded in 1954, but revived as a reserve formation in 1979, under its original name. In November 2000 it received the honorific title "Delvinaki". Since January 2003 it is a battalion-sized formation that forms the garrison of the Dodecanese island of Kalymnos.

History

Establishment and World War I

The regiment was established, along with the other four Evzone regiments of the Hellenic Army, by Royal Decree on 23 December 1913. Its base was at Lamia, and it came under the command of 13th Infantry Division in Chalkis.

The first years of its history are relatively obscure, largely because the relevant archives were destroyed both in the aftermath of the National Schism of 1916 and during the Axis occupation of Greece in World War II. The regiment certainly participated in the mobilization of 10 September 1915, and remained in wartime strength until the demobilization, forced on Greece (then still neutral) by the Allied Powers, on 26 May 1916. As part of the Allied demands, most of the Greek army was evacuated to the Peloponnese; doubtlessly the 5/42 Regiment was part of this.