proclaim Thessalonica capital of the Kingdom of Serbia, the Committee of National Defence on 17 August 1916 decided to mount their coup d'état. The representative of the Cretan Gendarmerie on this Committee was Captain D. Kokkalas. The decision was taken after General Sarrail threatened to nominate a Serbian prefect in Thessalonica and despite the possible objections of Venizelos. Afterwards the Committee of National Defence issued two proclamations, to the population and to the army. Lieutenant-Colonel Konstantinos Mazarakis tried without success to convince the 11th Artillery Battalion to take part in the coup. But all army units remained loyal to the legal government and only individual officers and soldiers took part in the coup, mostly men from units of the IV Army Corps who had felt the humiliation of surrendering Greek lands to the Bulgarians without a fight. The Cretan Gendarmerie, however, managed to overcome the loyal forces in Thessaloniki and to initiate the coup. Many of the Gendarmerie officers were already insiders in the conspiracy. After the declaration of the Committee of National Defence, the first Gendarmerie unit to revolt was the Second Company of Gendarmerie that was attached to the army, commanded by Second Lieutenant Emmanuel Tsakonas. This was followed by other companies of Cretan Gendarmerie, including the First Company (First Class Captain Evangelos Sarris), the Second Company (Captain Pavlides), and HQ Company (Major Panousopoulos). All officers and gendarmes of the Cretan Gendarmerie participated voluntarily at the coup. Even the Italian Lieutenant Farughi, still serving with the Gendarmerie, participated at the coup. Cavalry Lieutenant-Colonel Zymvrakakis, who was a member of the National Defence Committee, undertook the leadership of the coup and led the troops to the general headquarters of the Allied forces. There he announced to General Sarraill that they wished to put themselves under his orders. The British officer Price C. Ward in his book The Story Of The Salonica Army wrote: "General Sarrail accepted their offer since he already had the habit of accepting Greek volunteers from the moment Bulgarians had entered Greece." The only organised units that participated at the coup were the Cretan Gendarmerie and the volunteer battalion that was already under French orders. Alexandros Zannas, a member of the National Defence committee, wrote that "the situation was curious. We (the rebels) had occupied the city of Thessaloniki (17 August 1916) based only on the forces of the Cretan Gendarmerie." Athinogenis, the prefect of Thessaloniki,