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Moments of History: The Battle of Saint Theodore

George Gorezis*

e-mail : ggorezis@yahoo.gr

website    : gore.wordpress.on

The descendants of the Chams living in Albania have declared June 27, the day of the liberation of Paramythia Thesprotia from the German Chams, as a day of alleged genocide, and annually hold noisy gatherings on the border with Thesprotia. Every year at the beginning of June, an event dedicated to the memory of the victims of the "genocide" of Chamouria is held by the extreme and anti-Greek party PDIU, which systematically promotes Ankara's agenda in the country. This provocative event is held with the tolerance of the presidium of the parliament and the Rama government, which often "caress" the ears of the nationalists for vote-getting reasons. And all this while they know that in this way they are abusing and falsifying history, which has recorded that their ancestors were war criminals, who escaped being referred to the Nuremberg Tribunal, where they should have been tried, along with their Nazi collaborators.

In the early summer of 1944, the situation in Thesprotia changed. The National Groups of Greek Insurgents (E.O.E.A.) of the National Democratic Hellenic League (EDES) occupied Paramythia on June 27, 1944, and reoccupied Parga on June 29. In both Paramythia and Parga, measures were taken to punish the Muslims who had committed murders and arson, and to protect women and children from the wrath of the Greek population – 43 were sentenced to death by the military court and executed – and approximately 600 women and children found protection, food and care in a concentration camp in Paramythia.

The armed Muslim forces, executing orders from the German Command, established a battle line on heights West and Northwest of Paramythia and North of Parga, engaging in raids, robberies and murders within the area occupied by the rebels. A proclamation was sent to them calling on them to cease collaborating with the Germans and to lay down their arms, but they did not respond.

Information brought the armed Muslims collaborating with the Germans to prepare an attack to recapture Paramythia. To secure the city, the 2nd Battalion of the 16th Regiment was advanced from June 27 to the Strait of Agion Theodoroi Selianis, a location approximately 4 kilometers from Paramythia, to block the Menina - Paramythia road. The Battalion was ordered with the 5th Company under Ewelpis Christopoulos Christos on the right, the 6th Company under Lieutenant Grivakos Petros on the left (location KOKKINA CHOMATA), and the 2nd Machinery Company under the then Ewelpis Panagiotakopoulos Gerasimos in Paramythia.

All the guerillas of the Battalion were from the area, and were fiercely opposed to the Muslims, whom they considered the butchers of the Hellenism of Thesprotia. The men of the 5th Company came mainly from the villages of Prodromi, Veliani and Karioti, and most of them were veteran guerillas of the Prodromi chieftain (Lieutenant of the EOEA) Georgios Konstantinos (Kotsio-Nikolas), a brave and fearless warrior. The 6th Company included guerillas from the villages of Zervochori (chieftain Konstantinos), Agora-Hoika chieftain Foto-Liolios), the Fanari area (chieftain Ntouskos), Prodromi (chieftain Tsitsos Christos).

The attack by the armed Muslims took place at 0530 hours on 30 June on the road from Menina to Agioi Theodoroi. Two German cars towing a 47 mm cannon and a mortar full of shells were in front. About ten cars full of Germans (a force of about 250 men) and about 100 Muslims, many on horseback, were spotted waiting at the "Kefalovryso" position, exactly where the plane tree and the spring were.

The guerrillas opened fire on the enemy from a distance of 300 meters, and the Germans on the vehicles dismounted and the battle began. The positions of the men of the 6th Company were very precarious, because the location was flat and exposed to enemy fire. Despite this, the guerrillas showed good spirits and held their positions. While the positions of the 5th Company were more advantageous only on their right, where the rocky screens that covered the guerrillas.

For more than half an hour, the Germans and Muslims were pinned down in the trenches by the active fire of the guerrillas, despite the superiority of their fire, which was also reinforced by heavy mortar fire. A heavy machine gun of the 5th Company, which had been positioned to its right and in a cleft in the rock, was mowing down the entire area between the marsh and the battlements of the Zoubani hill in which the battle was being fought, and was making the enemy's advance impossible. This machine gun, a spoil of the Prodromite guerrillas from their previous battles with the German-Italians, was operated by the guerrilla Christos Tsitsos. He was promoted to sergeant for his heroism during this battle.

The Germans then deployed an artillery battery of four guns to the Neochori field and began to fire vigorously. They pointed the machine gun and fired continuously at it.

The guerrilla fire came to reinforce two mortars of Italian origin from the Battalion's Machinery Company, of which only one was able to be moved by hand to a suitable position, on the right of the 5th Company, in order to attack the enemy artillery. At that moment, however, the Battalion commander spotted from the phalanx's observation post about ten German cars moving from Menina to Agioi Theodoroi, to reinforce the battle. The cars parked at the plane tree at Kefalovrysos (the black man's plane tree), and the Germans began to occupy battle positions. The commander of the Machinery Company was ordered to transfer the mortar fire to the plane tree, which was done with absolute precision. After a while, the Germans retreated in disarray and at a run on the carriage road towards Menina.

Immediately the 5th and 6th Companies launch an attack against the retreating Germans. Scenes of indescribable heroism of the guerrillas take place. The 5th Company captures prisoners and is led far beyond Kefalovrysos. The 6th Company advances parallel to the lake swamp and attacks the Germans near Skoupitsa, who flee.

The battle of Agioi Theodoroi was the first battle fought in a lowland area by the guerrilla groups. The unparalleled heroism of the experienced men of the II/16th Battalion wrote pages of glory and heroism that shone throughout Greece. Its importance was enormous, because it prevented the recapture of Paramythia and the entire region by the Germans and the armed Muslims collaborating with them.

The Battalion had one dead, the guerilla of the 5th Company Kontos Sotirios, and 5 wounded, the guerillas Siochos Panagiotis, Papadopoulos Nikolaos, Dimitriou Fotios, Tachia Vasilios and Sakandemi Ioannis. In Kefalovrysos, below the plane tree, 30 German dead were found after the end of the battle. Another 6 dead Germans were collected from the rest of the battlefield. The Germans also had 42 wounded.

On the battlefield, the guerrillas captured 2 cars, 1 anti-tank gun, 1 mortar, 2 radios, 5 machine guns, 10 cattle, and 35 Mauser rifles as loot.

After the battle, the General Headquarters of the E.O.E.A. decided, with the consent of the allied mission, to completely clear the area south of Kalamata, with an operation lasting from 4 to 11 August, and closely monitored by the officers of the allied mission. The Muslims succeeded in withdrawing the entire civilian population, retreated north of Kalamata, and indulged in new massacres and looting of the Greek population. They completely destroyed the villages of Kastri, Parapotamos, Mavroudi, Agios Vlasios. On 17 August, the Battle of Menina took place, where the entire German garrison and a large number of Muslims were exterminated. Among the 180 prisoners captured were 43 Muslims from Thesprotia, who were assigned to the German army.

After the liberation, the Special Court of Dosilogoi of Ioannina issued more than 1700 convictions for the crimes of the Chams and the convicted were stripped of their citizenship and their property confiscated. The European and Greek jurisprudence on the dosilogoi of World War II rejected their appeals from time to time.-

Aids

"War Report" of the Hellenic Air Force General Headquarters, Nikolopoulos P., Director of Operations.

"Archives of National Resistance", General Staff Publications, 1998, edited by a committee of senior officers under the chairmanship of the undersigned.

"National Resistance 1941-45", by Lieutenant General Georgios Gorezis, 1999, Dodoni Publications.

 *George Gorezis is a Major General (ret.), columnist, and author. He comes from Paramythia.