World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseGeorgios Tsolakoglou was born in Rentina, Karditsa, Thessaly, Greece in Apr 1886. As an officer in the Greek Army, he participated in the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913, WW1, and the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922. Rising to the rank of lieutenant general by 1941, he commanded III Army Corps during successful defense against the Italian invasion and the subsequent Greek counteroffensive, and then during the German invasion. In Apr 1941, when the German victory was apparently inevitable, he, now in command of the Epirus Army, and the other Greek generals began discussing surrender terms. On 20 Apr, a messenger was dispatched to the Germans with his consent, and later on the same day he signed a surrender protocol opposite of German SS General Josef Dietrich. On the following day, he signed the surrender of the entire Greek Army. By the end of the month, he was made the Prime Minister of a German puppet state named the Hellenic State. He acted in that role until Dec 1942, when he was replaced by Konstantinos Logothetopoulos per order of the Germans. After the war, he was found guilty of collaborating with the Germans and was sentenced to life imprisonment. He died of leukemia in prison in 1948.

Georgios Tsolakoglou Timeline