Military Wiki
Military Wiki
Lieutenant Colonel
Nikolaos Kladas
KLADAS-1917
A portrait of Nikolaos Kladas
Native name Νικόλαος Κλαδάς
Born c. 1871
Died c. 1938
Place of birth Lixouri, Kefalonia, Kingdom of Greece
Allegiance Greece Kingdom of Greece
Service/branch Flag of Greece Greece Army
Years of service 1892-1917
1920-1923
Rank GR-Army-OF4-1912 Lieutenant Colonel
Commands held 1st Field Artillery Regiment
Deputy commander of the Hellenic Military Academy
11th Infantry Division
Battles/wars

Greco-Turkish War (1897)
Balkan Wars

Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)

Nikolaos Kladas (Greek: Νικόλαος Κλαδάς) was a Hellenic Army officer who reached the rank of major general.

He was born at Lixouri in 1871.[1] After studies in the Hellenic Army Academy, he was commissioned an artillery lieutenant in 1892.[1] He fought in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897 and in the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, where he distinguished himself by saving his battery during the Battle of Sorovich.[1] Kladas was respected for his professional erudition, and wrote a number of studies on tactics, including the first Greek treatise on the use of the machine gun in the battlefield.[1]

During the mobilization of 1915, as a lieutenant colonel, he chose to command a battalion of the 1st Field Artillery Regiment, before being appointed as deputy commander of the Army Academy.[1] As a royalist, he was dismissed in 1917–1920, but returned after the November 1920 elections, taking over command of the 11th Infantry Division in the Asia Minor Campaign.[1] He led his unit in the region of Nicomedia, and later around Bilecik. During the Greek retreat in August 1922, he was cut off around Prousa by Turkish cavalry, and captured with his division while trying to reach Moudania.[1]

During his captivity at Mocissus, he tried to commit suicide by poison. Quick medical assistance saved his life, and he was released early, on account of his damaged health, in February 1923.[1]

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 (in Greek). Athens: Ἔκδοσις Μεγάλης Στρατιωτικῆς καὶ Ναυτικῆς Ἐγκυκλοπαιδείας. 1929. p. 149. OCLC 31255024. 
All or a portion of this article consists of text from Wikipedia, and is therefore Creative Commons Licensed under GFDL.
The original article can be found at Nikolaos Kladas and the edit history here.