January 13th, 1943
Sparta - General Giraud looks with an eye as black as the clouds which block the sky at the plane that has just landed. In spite of the terrible weather (a thin film of snow covers the runway), General Montgomery is on time for his inauguration as head of the Allied forces in Greece and the Balkans. "Is it Friday?" articulates Giraud. "Er, no general, Wednesday, Wednesday the 13th" replies his aide-de-camp. Then Giraud, still looking at the plane that stopped on the runway: "Well. With what's going on, Friday the 13th would have been more appropriate."
The door of the Stirling specially fitted out for the transport of VIPs opens, and a tide of stars pours onto the runway. There is the entire high command of the Allied forces in the area, hence the incessant fighter patrols over Sparta. The ramps of the airfield have erected an improvised escalator and soon Bernard Law Montgomery frames himself in the door of the aircraft, then advances on the staircase. At that moment, the first notes of God Save the King sound, played by a marching band. Monty stands still, at attention, but still four or five feet higher than the generals who had come to greet him...
When the band falls silent, the Englishman finally deigns to come down from his pedestal and approach the generals, who are lined up in a row, despite the icy gusts of wind that blow a fine sleet in their faces. Three steps away from them, he stops - "He probably thinks I'm too big for his taste," Giraud mumbles to himself - and gives a global salute, two gloved fingers to the cap:
"Well, Gentlemen, nice weather, isn't it ? Do you think we may have a good old cup of tea, in this remote part of the world?" Then the new commander-in-chief jumps into the car that is waiting for him, leaving his staff to pile into a van to follow him.
It is not until Monty has had his good old cup of tea that it is possible to speak to him. Cunningham bravely tries to play the intermediary and, after having greeted Montgomery himself, undertakes to introduce everyone to him. He is going to begin with Giraud, when Monty interrupts him: "Well, who doesn't know General Giraud?" quickly shaking Giraud's hand, then falls like lightning on Dentz: "General Dentz, I presume?" and to question the unfortunate man, red with confusion, on the state of the French forces after their sprint towards Corinth.
While Giraud tries to react and answer for his subordinate, Montgomery turns to an unusual uniform, that of the Yugoslav general Ilija Brašić. Alas! This one speaks fairly good French, but does not know the language of Shakespeare. He has an interpreter with him, but as soon as Monty understood that, linguistically speaking Brašić was on Giraud's side, he stopped being interested. Suspecting (rightly) that the Poles are also French-speaking, wondering about the Greeks, he ends up talking to the chief of ANZAC, General Lavarack: "Hello John! And What language do they speak on your side of the world?"
After a few similar remarks, he plants himself in front of a map of Greece prepared at his demand: "Gentlemen, the Peloponnese is a lovely place, I hear! But I hope you won't mind if we don't spend the rest of the war there. From now on, the mission of this Army Group will be to liberate the whole of Greece, before going to carry the war into enemy territory!"
Giraud is green with rage. But he has already planned his revenge and does not even bat an eye when Montgomery announces the replacement of Cunningham by O'Connor at the head of the 8th Army and suggests that this "reorganization" would soon affect the 2nd Army.
When the generals emerge from the main hall of the Allied HQ, they have to attend a parade in honour of the several officers and soldiers of the various Allied nations who are to be decorated and, often, appointed to a higher rank. Giraud made sure that Dimitri Amilakhvari was the last to pass. The latter was at the same time appointed brigadier general - general-prince Amilakhvari, that should knock Monty's socks off! - and officer of the Legion of Honor (he was already a knight). And while these poor Englishmen are still entangled in Samothrace, Giraud takes pleasure in listing the islands conquered for France (and for Giraud) by the new general: Andros, but also Cephalonia, Ithaca, Lefkada, Corfu, he spares nothing! "It was a handing-over of decorations", will tell Amilakhvari, "but sometimes, it seemed to me that some would have preferred a firing squad, and that they had their idea of who to stick on the wall!"
