Panagiotis Danglis (; – 9 March 1924) was a Hellenic Army general and politician. He is particularly notable for his invention of the Schneider-Danglis mountain gun, his service as chief of staff in the Balkan Wars and his participation in the Triumvirate of the Provisional Government of National Defence during World War I.
Life
Origin and early life
Panagiotis Danglis was born in Atalanti on 17 November 1853, where his father was serving in an infantry battalion. His family was of Souliot origin, speaking the Soulotic dialect of Albanian at home, and had a long and distinguished history: Panagiotis was named after his grandfather, Giotis Danglis, a Souliot chieftain who had begun serving under Napoleon during the second French occupation of the Ionian Islands, and had become a general during the Greek War of Independence. His son, Georgios Danglis (1809–1896), was born in exile in Corfu, entered the Hellenic Army in 1828 in time to fight in the last campaigns of the War of Independence, and after a long career rose to the rank of major general. Panagiotis Danglis was the fourth child of his parents, but only the oldest, his sister Christina, born in 1843, had survived infancy. His two older brothers died early, as did many of his younger siblings, apart from another sister, Polyxeni, born in 1858.
During his first years, he followed his father around the various garrison towns in Central Greece. In 1857–1860 the family stayed at Stylida, where Danglis first went into school. In 1860–1862 the family moved to the capital, Athens, where Danglis attended a private school. After participating in the suppression of the failed Nafplion revolt against King Otto in early 1862, Danglis' father was promoted to major and the family moved to Agrinio. From this small provincial town Danglis experienced the tumultuous events of Otto's ouster, the arrival of King George I in 1863, the union of the Ionian islands with Greece, and the outbreak of the Cretan Revolution of 1866–1869. In September 1867 he returned to Athens to attend the first class of high school in the prestigious Varvakeion high school, staying with his maternal grandmother, and his unmarried aunt. Danglis completed the second and third classes of high school at Missolonghi, spending the summers with his family at Agrinio. Although successfully promoted to the fourth class, in July 1870 he decided to enter the Hellenic Military Academy. With the agreement of his father, he returned to Athens on 23 August. After passing the entrance examinations in early September, he enrolled as a cadet on 6 November. During that summer, Danglis also composed a novel, titled "Penelope", which was published in Athens in 1871.
Early military career
Training at the Academy
Danglis enrolled in the Army Academy at a crucial juncture: the institution had been badly neglected in the previous years, and only 13 students were attending it when Danglis entered it. His class of 31 cadets, and the reform of its curriculum by the then Minister for Military Affairs, Lt. Colonel Charalambos Zymvrakakis, breathed new life into it. Danglis was a distinguished student. He graduated to the second and third years in third place (only 17 of his class graduated to the second year), and received his first promotion, to Corporal, in 1872. He then scored first in his class during all subsequent the exams, except for scoring second during the general theoretical exams between the fifth and sixth classes. Promoted to Sergeant Major in 1874, he and his classmates of the senior year began enjoying the social life of Athens. Danglis graduated from the Academy in August 1877 top of his class, and was commissioned as Ensign of Artillery, like most of his colleagues. The artillery, recently enlarged due to a possible Greek participation in the ongoing Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78, was facing extreme shortages in qualified officers at the time.
The undeclared war of 1878 and its aftermath
Danglis began his service at the 1st Artillery Regiment in Athens, amidst a heady atmosphere of war preparations. On 26 October he was posted to the 6th Mountain Battery, recently equipped with new Krupp guns. The battery moved from Athens to Lamia, close to the then border with the Ottoman Empire, in November. Popular enthusiasm ran high, especially after the Russian army overcame the stubborn Ottoman resistance at the Siege of Plevna—much admired by Danglis in his notes—and advanced towards Constantinople. Revolutionary movements broke out in Crete and Epirus, while the Greek government under Alexandros Koumoundouros finally edged towards entry into the war to safeguard Greek territorial claims and interests.