I picked up this paybook a while ago to a gent who served in the Light Aid Detachment of the 2nd Greek Brigade - I'm hoping someone on here may be able to help me with some detail of his service - a long time ago I asked on another forum and I got a brief reply but stupidly didn't follow up, the info I got then was basically that he enlisted in Alexandria, the person thought he may have been Egyptian (speaking Arabic and French) and was under the impression he served all his time in Egypt. Confirmation and any additional info most welcome This is the only one of these I have seen, cant be many around
AB64, the son-in-law of a very good friend is Greek, If no other member can help, I am willing to ask Panos. Stefan.
Thank you both, I look forward to seeing what it says, I'm not expecting any amazing revelations but anything that fills out his story would be great Thanks again
Hello AB64, Gus has forwarded me your enquiry. More than happy to help ! From the pics you have uploaded , we are seeing the paybook of a Greek soldier of the 2nd Greek Bde He most definitely is an egyptian citizen of greek origin born in Alexandria in 1917 or 1918 ( A big greek community in Alexandria , Port-Said and Cairo up until the Nasser days). Pages 3 &4 hold personal data . Our guy was living in Alexandria ( Attarine Str. - check goole maps it seems that there is a neighborhood "El Attarin" in Alex ) and was a mechanic during his pre-war days. Pages 20-25 record his time as an enlisted man . He enlisted end of Sept 1942 Looks like he was served at a special "Press A" detachment in Alexandria ( most likely due to his French and Arabic knowledge) and he was discharged at Oct 1945 from the Alexandria Garrison unit. Regarding the acronyms used, and noted in the changes recorded during his service , I need to check further and come back to you . Let me know if you are after something more specific . Regards// Dimitris
Brilliant, I've updated my notes - looking at the El Attarine area there are a couple of cemeteries right next to it with Commonwealth graves. Any idea what the "Press A" detachment is? The book is well stamped up with 2nd Brigade etc but I had read that there were EAM related mutinies (in 1st and 2nd Brigades) and some units were disbanded so wasn't sure if that affected him at all. Have you ever seen any similar paybooks? Thanks again
Hello again AB64 ... some new and more reliable info after cross-referencing with some colleagues at a Greek history FB group . Here is the latest : Light Aid Detachment is certain and fits with the fact that our guy was a mechanic ( nothing to do with what I thought regarding some kind of "Press" service) He most certainly belonged to the Technical Corps of the Greek Army in the Middle East based in Egypt . Starting with page 20 : 25.9.1942 Joined as private 02.10.1942 He was assigned at the HQ Company of the Technical Corps in Alexandria 11.11.1942 Was transferred to the "Eforia" Company ( a service equivalent to Logistics & Ordnance ) again in Alex 29.12.1942 6-day leave in Alexandria 18.1.1943 Transferred to LAD "A" 16.5.1943 Promoted to Lance Corporal 24.9.1943 13-day leave in Alexandria 6.12.1943 Promoted to Corporal 30.12.1943 13-day leave ( Alexandria ) 10.6.1944 He is transferred from LAD "A" to unit or service of the 2nd Bde (unfortunately the writing is not as clear to be 100 % certain as to the exact unit this Π.Μ.Η.ΚΕΣ - in fact we are not sure whether this is a "Π" or a badly written "Λ" , 29.6.1944 - 13.7.1944 He is serving at the "General Measures" zone. 12.10.1945 He is serving at the Alexandria Garrison coming from the 7th Coy General Transports Now a couple of minor info-points that I thought I should add Page 10 : His inoculations with dates are noted here. Page 9 : It is interesting that he is reporting to the army doctors that he has annoying headaches On Page 1 there is a well known quote from Plato ( "Crito" dialoge, attributed to Socrates when he was imprisoned awaiting execution) which broadly translates as "our country is more to be valued and higher and holier far than mother or father or any ancestor" I hope the above sheds some light to your enquiry Regards/// Dimitris PS : I have not seen such paybooks before from the Greek army in Egypt before ; I could post the whole set of pics to the FB group , if you agreed and see if we will get back any further information from other members .
Thanks again Dimitris, if you could share it that would be great, maybe it will prompt some more discussion but even if not hopefully its of interest Cheers
Greetings , i have a similar pay book belonging to a member of the royal greek forces (VESMA) and was wondering if anyone could shed some light on what seems to be makers marks 7259/PMEL/12-43. i suspect the 12-43 may refer to the month and year of production
12-43 is either the print date or contract date for the print run - looking at my book the printer seems to be PMEAC, I have a manual with PMEA, I have also just picked up a Greek Pay Book (part 2) by PMEM - these were printed in the Middle East but that's all I know, the fact they all start PME makes me think it's only the last letter(s) that are some kind of code for different print works
greetings from australia . Thankyou for the information , that has helped immensely. i did some research and discovered that in WW1 the british did have Army Printing and Stationery Services throughout the middle east printing army publications. The paybook you have posted seems to be the first variation i suspect of the greek paybook which included part 1 and 2 within the same publication. this was followed by a variation which seems to have the two parts in seperate books labelled as part 1 and part 2 respectively . you will notice the cover of my playbook it says ΜΕΡΟΣ Ι or part one and the second book indicated ΜΕΡΟΣ ΙΙ or part two. it is interesting to note that i have two copies of the part 2 books belonging to the same soldier which have different serials numbers which has perplexed me.
This is the Part 2 I recently picked up, the top right hand corner says Officer (I think) so I'm guessing the red print is to a way of at a glance recognising it as an officers
This is truly an amazing and rare find , i have never seen this variation before. its seems the red lettering would denote an officer. i believe the term ΚΛΑΣΙΣ 1945 denotes start of military service of 1945 i believe. The royal Greek forces had returned to greece by the end of 1944 and they formed the nucleus of the new Greek army. amazing find. could i post this on my greek military history group for the members to see ?
Feel free to share the images, I haven't seen any others of these so when I got the chance I grabbed them as examples
can you please confim if the printing serial number on the bottom of your booklet is 5253/PMEAC/7-43? Thankyou
