The Greek landing force, commanded by Colonel Nikolaos Delagrammatikas, was quickly able to seize the eastern coastal plain and the town of Chios, but the Ottoman garrison was well equipped and supplied, and managed to withdraw to the mountainous interior.

[1] The island of Chios had been ruled by the Ottoman Empire since 1566, when it was seized from the tributary Genoese Maona company as a recompense for the failure to capture Malta the previous year.

[11][12] As a result, the Greeks delayed moving against Chios and Lesbos until operations were concluded on the main front in Macedonia and forces could be spared for a serious assault.

[10] Patris sailed separately to Mytilene, in Lesbos, where it was joined by the cruiser squadron under Ioannis Damianos, before meeting the other two ships off Chios in the morning of 24 November [O.S.

[10] Damianos then ordered his ships to perform a demonstration of force off Chios town, before two Greek officers handed an ultimatum to the local Ottoman commander, requesting his surrender within three hours.

[10][12] As the Ottomans rejected the ultimatum, at 15:12 the Greek forces (3rd Battalion/1st Regiment and fleet marines) started landing in the area of Kontari some 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) north of Chios town.

The Ottomans had taken positions at the coast and provided fierce resistance to the landing attempt, but they were forced to retreat upon nightfall into the island's interior due to the strength of the Greek naval bombardment.

In addition, reinforcements arrived in the form of a reserve infantry battalion and an Evzone company, but as their training was incomplete, Delagrammatikas for the moment chose to maintain the blockade of the Ottomans, now reduced to the central, mountainous portions of Chios.

[20][19] The assault began at 07:00, with the main thrust in the centre, from Vrontados to the Aipos heights, comprising a force of four battalions, the Evzone company, and 12 artillery pieces, led by Delagrammatikas himself.

[21] The combined effect of the Greek attack was that the Ottoman forces found themselves virtually encircled in the area of Anavatos, leaving them no option but unconditional surrender, which was completed on the next day.

[23][15] The fate of the Aegean islands captured by Greece during the First Balkan War was the subject of prolonged diplomatic negotiations, as the Ottomans initially refused to cede them.

Finally, in the Treaty of London, the fate of the islands was placed in the hands of the Great Powers, who in the event would cede them to Greece in February 1914, apart from the two closest to the Dardanelles, Imbros and Tenedos.