Ioannis Gennimatas

Who is Ioannis Gennimatas?

Ioannis Gennimatas was a Greek Army officer who rose to the rank of Lieutenant General and the post of Chief of the Hellenic Army General Staff in 1964–1965. An ardently right-wing and royalist officer, he is notable for his involvement against the Centre Union party in the 1960s, which led to the political crisis of July 1965.

Ioannis Gennimatas was born in Gytheio, Laconia, in 1910. He entered the Hellenic Army Academy and graduated as a Second Lieutenant on 23 July 1930. He was promoted to Lieutenant in 1934 and Captain in 1937. He fought in the Greco-Italian War and during the attempts to halt the German invasion of Greece in April 1941. In August 1944 he fled from occupied Greece to the Middle East, where he joined the armed forces of the Greek government in exile as a company commander. In 1945, he was promoted to Major and fought in the Greek Civil War as company and battalion commander, ending the war with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and as Chief of Staff of the 36th Brigade.

Subsequently he served as commander of the 5/42 Evzone Regiment, was promoted to Colonel and became CO of the Greek Expeditionary Force in Korea. He then commanded the 3rd Infantry Regiment and the 2nd Infantry Division, taught at the War Academy and served as its commander, before rising to First Deputy Chief of the General Staff and later CO of the II Army Corps. In 1960 he was promoted to Major General and in 1962 to Lieutenant General.