Heart of Athena MTO (id:#62625)

(ASL Journal #11 ID: J174)   [next]   [previous]

Athens, Greece 1944-12-07 (4 others)

Overview:

By 1944, the two major resistance movements in occupied Greece, EDES and EAM-ELAS, each saw the other to be their great enemy. They both saw the Germans were going to be defeated and were a temporary threat. For the communists, the British represented their major obstacle. The Axis withdrawal, before the exiled government could return to the country, created a power vacuum. The government-in-exile, now led by the prominent liberal George Papandreou, moved to Italy, in preparation for its return to Greece. Under the Caserta Agreement of September 1944, all resistance forces in Greece were to be placed under the command of a British officer, General Ronald Scobie. On December 1, Scobie issued a proclamation calling for the dissolution of the ELAS. Thus started "Dekemvrianá" (Greek: Δεκεμβριανά, "the December events"), a 37-day period of full-scale fighting in Athens between EAM fighters and smaller parts of ELAS, and the forces of the British army and the government.

Defender: Partisans (1st ELAS Regiment)  

Errata (source)