Sacred Band ( World War II ) The Sacred band ( ) was a Greek special forces unit formed in 1942 in the Middle East , composed entirely of Greek officers and officer cadets under the command of Col . Christodoulos Tsigantes . It fought alongside the SAS in the Libyan desert and the Aegean , as well as with General Leclerc ' s " Free French Forces " in Tunisia . It was disbanded in August 1945 but is the precursor of the modern Greek Special Forces . History . Establishment . Immediately after the German occupation of Greece in April – May 1941 , the Greek government fled to Egypt and started to form military units in exile . The plethora of officers in relation to the number of ordinary soldiers , led Air Force Lt . Colonel G . Alexandris to suggest the creation of an Army unit , formed by officers , with soldier ' s duties . This suggestion was approved by the Commander of the II Greek Brigade , Infantry Colonel Alkiviadis Bourdaras . Some volunteers that fled firstly to Turkey were told that they would not be accepted if identified as soldiers . Therefore according to reports they claimed to be Greek officers and later joined the original group of officers . Firemen were also reported in that group . Thus , in August 1942 the Company of Chosen Immortals ( ) was formed under Cavalry Major Antonios Stefanakis in Palestine , with 200 men . Initially , the unit was organized as a Machine Gun Company and intended to be attached to the II Greek Brigade , then under formation . However , on September 15 , 1942 , the unit ' s new commander , Colonel Tsigantes , renamed the unit to " Sacred Band " after the Sacred Band of Thebes and the Sacred Band of the Greek Revolution , and successfully applied for its conversion into a special forces unit . SAS Squadron . In close cooperation with the commander of the British SAS Regiment , Lt . Colonel David Stirling , and with the approval of the Greek HQ , the company moved to the SAS base at Qabrit in Egypt to begin its training in its new role . However , following the Second Battle of El Alamein , the speed of the Allied advance across Libya brought an end to the era of jeep - borne raiding . Nevertheless , this period provided a useful introduction to the SAS Regiment in general , and Major Jellicoe ' s squadron in particular . This squadron was being built upon the amphibious skills of the famous Commando unit , the Special Boat Section ( SBS ) and would become the Special Boat Squadron ( SBS ) . With the end of the war in Africa , in May , the SAS split into two branches . The Special Raiding Squadron would serve in the central Mediterranean , before returning home to develop an airborne role , whilst the SBS would serve in the Aegean , operating alongside the Greek Sacred Squadron for the rest of the War . Both were later expanded to Regimental status . Meanwhile , the Greeks were keen to put their new jeep - borne role into practice . First actions in Tunisia . On 7 February 1943 , following Colonel Tsigantes ' suggestion , the Commander of the British 8th Army , General Bernard Montgomery , put the Greek company under the command of General Jacques - Philippe Leclerc of the Free French 2nd Armoured Division , with the duties of Light Mechanized Cavalry . On March 10 , 1943 , in the area of Ksar - Rillan in Tunisia , the Sacred Band gave its first battle against a German mechanized detachment , while covering the advance of the X British Army Corps that tried to by - pass the Mareth defence line from the South . Immediately after the Allied forces captured the Tunisian city of Gabès , the Sacred Company was detailed to the 2nd New Zealand Division ( March 29 ) and on April 6 , a mixed Greek - New Zealand detachment fought against the Germans at Wadi Akarit . On 12 April the Sacred Band entered Sousse , and participated in the battle for Enfidaville between April 13 and 17 . Commando actions in the Aegean . From May 1943 , the Sacred Band , now composed of 314 men , moved to Palestine , in various camps . In July , it went to Jenin for parachute training . There it also underwent a reorganization into an HQ Section , a Base Section , and Commando Sections I , II and III . After the Italian armistice on 9 September 1943 , British forces moved into the Italian - occupied , but Greek - inhabited Dodecanese islands . Section I of the Sacred Band was dropped by air to the Greek island of Samos on 30 October , while sections II and III moved there on fishing boats . With the failure of the campaign after the battle of Leros , however , Samos was evacuated , and the men of the Sacred Band withdrew to the Middle East . In February 1944 , it was put under the command of the British Raiding Forces . On February 7 , Section I moved for combat operations to the islands of the northern Aegean sea ( Samos , Psara , Lesvos , Chios ) , while Section II moved to the Dodecanese with the same purpose . In April 1944 , the Sacred Band was expanded to regimental size , with a strength of around 1 , 000 men . This reflected the unit ' s effectiveness , and , from a British standpoint , political reliability in the face of mounting political tensions among the Greek forces in exile . The " Dekemvriana " , end of war and disbandment of the unit . After the Greek mainland was liberated ( October 1944 ) , the Sacred Band returned to Greece , where strains were becoming evident in the relationship of George Papandreou ' s British - backed national unity government and the leftist National Liberation Front ( EAM ) , which controlled most of the Greek countryside . The crucial issue was the disarmament of the guerrilla forces and the formation of a new national army out of members of both the exiled armed forces and the guerrillas of ELAS and EDES . However , the Papandreou government wished to retain the Sacred Band and the 3rd Greek " Rimini " Mountain Brigade intact : faced with the far larger guerilla army of uncertain political intent , Papandreou and the British wished to keep these units and make them the core of the new army . Disbanding them would mean that their members would become individual recruits in a possibly EAM - dominated people ' s army . This tension eventually spilled over into the " Dekemvriana " events in Athens , where the Sacred Band fought against ELAS forces . Throughout October 1944 , and then again from February 1945 , after the fighting in Athens had ended , the Sacred Band continued operating against the remaining German garrisons in the islands of the Aegean Sea until the war ' s end in May 1945 . In June , the unit returned to Egypt prior to its disbandment , which took place in a ceremony in Athens , on 7 August 1945 . During the ceremony the unit ' s flag was awarded with Greece ' s highest military awards , the Commander ' s Cross of the Cross of Valour and the War Cross First Class . The unit ' s casualties throughout its existence amounted to 25 dead , 56 wounded , 3 missing and 29 taken prisoner . In the Greek Army , some of the Sacred Band ' s traditions are carried on by the Mountain Raiding Companies ( LOK ) , founded in 1946 . British connections . As a unit operating under British direction , the Sacred Squadron and Regiment had British officers attached . Some were figures well known in military or other circles . Translations of the unit name . Understandably , there is considerable variation in the translation of the unit ' s name into other European languages . It is perhaps most commonly referred to by British historians as the Sacred Brigade , even though it never reached anywhere near brigade strength , and occasionally as the Sacred Company , Sacred Squadron or Sacred Battalion . French military historians tend to refer to it as " Le Regiment Sacré " . In contemporary Greek military parlance , a " lochos " is a company , but the unit ' s full strength was much closer to that of a regular infantry regiment .