[2] These efforts entailed the establishment of four infantry divisions to be recruited in the areas controlled by the government (Crete, the Aegean islands, and Macedonia).

[3] The Serres Division (Μεραρχία Σερρῶν), under Colonel Nikolaos Christodoulou, was the first division to be formed, as it could draw on the limited forces already available to the Provisional Government: the remnants of the disbanded IV Army Corps who had fled the Bulgarian advance and the Corps' capitulation to Thasos.

The division's manpower was completed by volunteers, both from within Greece and from Greek communities abroad (Constantinople, Asia Minor, Thrace, and the Dodecanese), as well as recruits mobilized—sometimes by force—by the Provisional Government.

[6] The 2nd Serres Regiment (2ο Σύνταγμα Σερρῶν) under Major Charalambos Tseroulis formed two of its battalions from the 18th Regiment's men, as well as taking over the "National Defence Battalion" (Τάγμα Ἐθνικῆς Ἀμύνης) that had already been deployed on the front in the Strymon River sector.

Its formation was delayed, and it was not until the end of the year that the entire division assembled to the south of Boymitsa.