3/40 Evzone Regiment

The 3/40 Evzone Regiment (Greek: 3/40 Σύνταγμα Ευζώνων, 3/40 ΣΕ) or 40th Regiment (40° Σύνταγμα) was an elite regiment of Evzones of the Hellenic Army, recruited in Epirus and headquartered in Arta. It was formed in 1913 after the Balkan Wars. In 1920, it was the first Greek unit to enter Adrianople, the capital of Eastern Thrace which had been ceded to Greece by the Treaty of Sèvres. Upon the outbreak of the Greco-Italian War, the unit had just come under the command of Col. Thrasyvoulos Tsakalotos, and was among the first to face the Italian attack.

The unit was disbanded after the conquest of the country by the Germans in 1941, but during the subsequent occupation, the two largest armed resistance groups, EAM-ELAS and EDES, both formed their own units named after the regiment.


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