GREEK COMMUNIST REBELS ROUTED (AUGUST 1949)

GREEK COMMUNIST REBELS ROUTED (AUGUST 1949)

On 19 January 1949 King Paul of the Hellenes signed a decree appointing General Alexander Papagos Commander in Chief of the Royal Armed forces and promoting him to Field-Marshal, a rank never previously held in Greece except nominally by the sovereign.

Shortly afterwards an event of profound significance for the Kingdom of Greece took place in Yugoslavia. Marshal Tito's independent policy had already brought Yugoslavia's expulsion from the Cominform a year earlier, and the relations with the Soviet Union and the satellites of the eastern bloc had progressively deteriorated almost to breaking point. In a speech at Pula on 10 July 1949, Marshal Tito now announced that Yugoslavia was closing her frontier with the Kingdom of Greece. This meant that the Greek Communist guerrillas were being deprived of their main channel of arms and supplies and were being denied access to their main training center's such as Bulkes , while at the same time Greek Government forces Hitherto deployed along the 150-mile border with Yugoslavia could now be released for operations elsewhere.

The effects of these developments were not long in making themselves felt. After a week’s hard fighting Greek Government forces dislodged the guerrillas from all their strongholds in the Kaimaktchalan range on the Yugoslav frontier, inflicting heavy casualties and forcing the remainder to flee into Yugoslavia - whence, under Tito’s new ruling, they could no longer re-enter Greece. On 6 August Government troops launched a major offensive in the Grammos range on the Albanian frontier, and on 10 August another further north against the main rebel strongholds in the Mt Vitsi and Lake Prespa area, where nearly eight thousand guerrillas held fortified positions; by 16 August all organized Resistance in this last area had ceased. On 23 August Mt Beles, the main rebel stronghold on the Bulgarian frontier, was occupied in a four-day battle. King Paul of the Hellenes and US General James Van Fleet arrived in the area to witness the final battle. The Grammos offensive was renewed on 25 August, extensive use being made of recently-delivered American Helldiver aircraft, and by 30 August complete Government control had been established over the whole area.

0n 2 September the Greek General Staff announced that not more than five thousand guerrillas remained on Greek soil: the guerrilla war was over. On the same day King Paul sent the following personal letter to Field-Marshal Papagos:

0n the occasion of the great victory of the Armed Forces,
I wish to extend to you my warmest congratulations.
The confidence placed in you by myself and by the Greek
people has once again been fully justified.
Under much more unfavorable conditions, you have carried
on the work and the traditions of my father.
The nation rightly expresses its gratitude to you and to the men who
fought under your inspired leadership.

It is the custom in Greece for the King to issue a proclamation to the people on New Year’s Day. The text is usually prepared in collaboration between the Prime Minister and the King’s Private Secretary, on general lines indicated by the King, but in 1950 Paul decided to draft the message himself. It ran as follow:

Hellenes,
I send you all my warmest good wishes for the New Year.
My life and my thoughts are dedicated to my people, and I feel the joys and the sorrows and the hopes of you all as if they were my own.
May god forgive me when l say that I am a happy King, because my happiness springs from the hearts of my people.
On Greek Independence Day nearly two years ago I declared our country to be in peril.
A year ago I asked the nation to declare 1949 the Year of Victory.
Today I am proud and grateful to my people that they have once again performed a miracle and made 1949 indeed the Year of Victory.

The guerrilla war lasted a little over three years and cost the country many lives and much destruction. In the armed forces, 1,032 officers and 11,745 other ranks were killed, in addition to

4,527 officers and men missing; the wounded numbered 2,313 officers and 35,419 other ranks. Civilian casualties were also heavy: 4,289 (including 165 priests) were executed by the Communists, and 931 were killed by land mines. Material losses included large numbers of livestock and the destruction of 915 road and railway bridges, the burning of 80 railway stations, and the complete destruction of 24,626 dwellings, 15,139 farm buildings, 50 churches and 139 schools, as well as the partial destruction of another 22,000
houses.