Sorting out the British command structure in April 1941 in Greece

 <p>General Mackay had heard that the 1st Armoured Brigade was to move to Amindaion "before dawn". General Mackay might well have expected that the 1st Armoured Brigade would fall under his command. The General put Brigadier Vasey in charge of defending the Gap. He would get the 1/Rangers, 2/1st Australian Anti-Tank Regiment, and the New Zealand Machine Gun Battalion. The rest of the 1st Armoured Brigade would be held in reserve. He had a brigadier, Brigadier Herring, who was in charge of all artillery, several field regiments and the medium regiment. General Mackay's force was short of infantry, but strong in artillery, where the Germans might well be short. Mackay had a problem, that he and his staff lacked an interpreter. When I spoke with the Greek commander of the 12th Greek Division, they were forced to communicate in French, which did not go particularly well. 

The situation got worse on 9 April when  the Greek army in eastern Macedonia surrendered. The campaign in Eastern Macedonia only lasted for four days. The Germans had moved through Yugoslavia and went around a strong line. The Greek commander lacked the strength to act against the armored force that "outflanked his organization". By the Greeks trying to hold Salonika, they paid by losing four of six divisions.

General Wilson ordered a withdrawal to the Aliakmon line. This happened on 9 April. Wilson met on 10 April with General Mackay and the Greek commander of the Central Macedonian Army. They heard that the Greek General Papagos had approved the withdrawal. A famous man, Brigadier Galloway, was a member of Wilson's staff. General Papagos wanted to meet with General Wilson at Pharsala on 11 April. They learned that General Papagos had ordered a withdrawal by stages. There was apparently a third line of defense. They were apparently going to give up territory in Albania and Macedonia. "In an instruction from 9 April", General Wilson had "defined a rear defensive line". They would "offer a protracted defense". This is based on the account in "Greece Crete and Syria" by Gavin Long.