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91-480: The treaty specified the disarmament of EAM-ELAS, which, according to records, surrendered within the next few days or weeks 100 artillery pieces of various types, 81 heavy mortars, 138 light mortars, 419 machine guns, 1,412 submachine guns, 713 automatic rifles, 48,973 rifles and pistols, 57 antitank rifles and 17 radios. However, the real numbers were higher, as receipts for weapons were sometimes refused. Panagiotis Koumoukelis relates in 'All That Grief' that he refused

182-716: A "junta of Nazi collaborators". Some members of the Security Battalions were recognized during the Greek military junta of 1967-74 by law as "resistance fighters against the Axis", but this decision was cancelled after the fall of the regime. Recruits to the Security battalion swore under the following oath: I swear by God this sacred oath, that I will obey absolutely the orders of the Supreme Commander of

273-717: 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. At the beginning the government had only a few policemen and gendarmes, some militia units, the 3rd Greek Mountain Brigade —distinguished at the Gothic Line offensive in Italy , which, however, lacked heavy weapons — and the royalist group Organization X, also known as " Chítes ", which

364-625: A ceasefire in exchange for the ELAS's withdrawal from its positions at Patras and Thessaloniki and its demobilization in the Peloponnese. The communist guerrillas, led by Siantos, evacuated the capital taking thousands of hostages. During their retreat to central Greece, many of them died from the cold or hardships. ELAS took hostages in order to dissuade the RAF from attacking it during its retreat. About 13,000 members of EAM-ELAS were also arrested by

455-574: A message for the government-in-exile that the Security Battalions were a "patriotic organisation" committed to the "national struggle" against communism, and that when Greece was liberated, they would reveal their true loyalty was to the king. The idea of a "Greek bridge" in the form of the Security Battalions that would lead to an Anglo-American-German alliance against the Soviet Union was vigorously opposed by SS- Standartenführer Walter Blume , who still believed that Germany on its own would defeat

546-572: A political comeback, and most of the Hellenic Army officers recruited into the Security Battalions in April 1943 were republicans who were in some way associated with Pangalos. The National Schism between royalists and republicans was still going strong in the 1940s, with considerable tensions between royalist politicians such as Rallis and republicans like Pangalos. Pangalos, a Greek nationalist, resented Greece's semi-colonial relationship to

637-518: A proclamation calling for the dissolution of ELAS. Command of ELAS was the KKE's greatest source of strength, and the KKE leader Siantos decided that the demand for ELAS's dissolution must be resisted. Tito's influence may have played some role in ELAS's resistance to disarmament. Tito was outwardly loyal to Stalin but had come to power through his own means and believed that the communists in Greece should do

728-526: A receipt for his gun and that since he could not produce his receipt, he was tortured by members of the Security Battalions. Ultimately, the promises enshrined in the Treaty of Varkiza were not upheld. The main problem was that the treaty gave amnesty only for political reasons, but many of the actions by communists during the Dekemvriana were viewed as nonpolitical. After the signing of the treaty, there

819-502: A request the British government granted. At the same time, the Cairo government also asked that the British and American air forces stop dropping propaganda leaflets over Greece warning that all of the Security Battalions were going to be tried for treason and war crimes after the liberation, as this discouraged recruitment by the Security Battalions which the government was planning to use to fight against EAM once it returned to Greece. In

910-462: A source of conflict within both EAM and ELAS. Following Stalin's instructions, the KKE leadership tried to avoid a confrontation with the Papandreou government. Most ELAS members saw the British as liberators despite some KKE leaders, such as Andreas Tzimas and Aris Velouchiotis . Tzimas was in touch with Yugoslav Communist leader Josip Broz Tito , and he disagreed with ELAS's cooperation with

1001-516: A special personality Nikolaos Plastiras for the government. It failed because the EAM-ELAS demands were considered excessive. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union remained passive about developments in Greece. True to the informal Percentages agreement struck between Stalin and Churchill that placed Greece in the British sphere of influence , the Soviet delegation in Greece did not encourage or discourage

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1092-512: A speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate, Senator Lee Metcalf called the new government "a military regime of collaborators and Nazi sympathizers who are receiving American aid". In another speech before the Senate on 16 November 1971, Metcalf listed the members of the Greek junta who had served in the Security Battalions, and denounced the administration of Richard Nixon for supporting what he called

1183-539: A speech to mark Hitler's birthday, on 20 April 1944 before the officers of the Security Battalions, Schimana announced that the most dividing line in the world was between communism vs. anticommunism , and predicted that the "Grand Alliance" against Germany would soon fall apart. Schimana predicted that both the United Kingdom and the United States would soon realize that the alliance with the Soviet Union

1274-621: Is already a serious threat in the Mediterranean". Stott was not arrested by the Germans and allowed to leave Athens for Cairo with the message that Germany wanted to work with Britain. In the last stages of World War II, many Nazi leaders, such as the Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler, believed that the alliance of Britain and the Soviet Union would not last, and inevitably the British would have to ally with

1365-526: Is to retain her in the British sphere of influence, and...a Russian-dominated Greece would not be in accordance with British strategy in the Eastern Mediterranean"- that the British were willing to push the Cairo government to ally with any anti-communist force in Greece. The belief that the British supported the Security Battalions and that the king would pardon all of the men who served in them further encouraged royalist officers to join. In

1456-746: The Axis would win the war. The core of the Battalions consisted of men of the Royal Guard ( Evzones , so the name tsoliádes ). The Security Battalions were initially only a small force, and only began to grow after Italy signed an armistice with the Allies in September 1943. After the armistice, German forces seized the parts of Greece that been occupied by the Italians. In the confusion caused by

1547-487: The Axis occupation of Greece during World War II in order to support the German occupation troops. The Battalions were founded in 1943 by the government of Ioannis Rallis . The Rallis cabinet passed the law raising the Security Battalions on 7 April 1943. The driving force behind raising the Security Battalions was the former dictator, General Theodoros Pangalos , who saw the Security Battalions as his means of making

1638-987: The ELAS , stationed in Athens, the KKE and the OPLA from one side and from the other side, the Greek Government  [ el ] , some parts of the Hellenic Royal Army , the Hellenic Gendarmerie , the Cities Police , the Organization X , among others and also the British Army . Regardless of the tensions between the left and the right, in May 1944 it had been roughly agreed in

1729-548: The House of Commons . To prove his peacemaking intentions to the public, Churchill went to Athens with Field Marshal Harold Alexander , Anthony Eden and Harold Macmillan on Christmas Day (25 December), to preside over a conference to bring about a settlement, in which Soviet representatives (Popov) also participated. The conference was to take place in the Hotel Grande Bretagne. Later, it became known that there

1820-627: The Lebanon Conference that all non-collaborationist factions would participate in a Government of National Unity ; eventually 6 out of 24 ministers were appointed by EAM. Additionally, a few weeks before the withdrawal of the German troops in October 1944, it had been reaffirmed in the Caserta Agreement that all collaborationist forces would be tried and punished accordingly; and that all resistance forces would participate in

1911-576: The Reich against the Soviet Union. Broadly speaking, there were two tendencies on the German side in the last years of the war. Some of the Nazi leaders were like Himmler, who, influenced by his intelligence chief Walter Schellenberg, tried to engage in various stratagems to break up the "Grand Alliance," such as his offer in 1944 to stop deporting Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz if the United States were to give Germany 50,000 trucks that would only be used to supply

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2002-604: The Security Battalions [REDACTED] EDES (in Epirus ) [REDACTED] United Kingdom [REDACTED] EAM War The Dekemvriana ( Greek : Δεκεμβριανά , "December events") refers to a series of clashes fought during World War II in Athens from 3 December 1944 to 11 January 1945. The conflict was the culmination of months of tension between the left-wing EAM , some parts of its military arm,

2093-855: The white terror period that ensued after the Varkiza Agreement that dismantled ELAS . Many ex-members continued carrying out atrocities against the DSE during the Greek Civil War . During the Civil War, Security Battalions veteran officers organized themselves in a secret group known as the Holy Bond of Greek Officers, which from 1947 onward was subsidized by the Central Intelligence Agency as one of Greece's principle "democratic" (i.e. anti-communist) groups. After

2184-439: The "Big Three" alliance of the Soviet Union, the United States and the United Kingdom. Blume saw Britain as much an enemy as the Soviet Union, and he was much closer to republican officers like Pangalos than to royalist officers like Dertilis. Blume used his influence to try to promote republican officers over royalist officers in the Security Battalions, and after Dertilis gave his speech in May 1944 boasting about his contacts with

2275-703: The British and handed over to the Greek authorities. The new government of Plastiras and the Communist Party signed in February 1945 the Treaty of Varkiza in an effort of accord. On 25 January 1945, a mass grave of about 200 people was found in Athens. Examiners estimated the bodies to be a month to six weeks old, which aligns with the period of the ELAS occupation of the area. None of the 200 were executed via gunshot, instead having been executed with hatchets, blunt instruments, or by stoning. Participants with

2366-467: The British commander Woodhouse insisted that it was uncertain whether the first shots were fired by the police or the demonstrators. LIFE photographer Dmitri Kessel, who witnessed the shooting, reported that the "police fired without provocation". More than 28 demonstrators were killed, and 148 were injured. This signalled the beginning of the Dekemvriana ( Greek : Δεκεμβριανά , "December event s "),

2457-434: The British forces in Greece, in contrast to his attitude towards EAM, whom he dismissed as mere "bandits", treated the Security Battalions as a legitimate military force. The British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had a very favorable view of the Security Battalions, saying, "It seems to me that the collaborators in Greece in many cases did the best they could to shelter the Greek population from German oppression". When he

2548-666: The British forces. The issue of disarming the resistance organizations was a cause of friction between the Papandreou government and its EAM members. Advised by British ambassador Reginald Leeper , Papandreou demanded the disarmament of all armed forces apart from the Sacred Band and the III Mountain Brigade , which were formed following the suppression of the April 1944 Egypt mutiny , and two equal numbered corps of ELAS and EDES that would take part in operations against

2639-534: The Cairo government, as many EAM members believed the king after his return to Greece would pardon all of the Security Battalions, and enlist them to fight on his behalf. Mazower reported that many of the documents relating to the Stott mission at the Public Record Office are still closed to historians. Mazower argued on the basis of one declassified document, stating "our long term policy towards Greece

2730-467: The Cairo government, he ordered his arrest under the grounds that Dertilis was a British spy. Dertilis was sent to Vienna to be interrogated by the Gestapo while Blume had the Athens headquarters of the Security Battalions searched for evidence of contacts with Britain and the Cairo government. Rallis was furious at Blume's action and asked Schimana to dismiss him. Blume, who had a fearsome reputation as

2821-540: The Caserta Agreement, all Greek forces were under the Allied command of Scobie. On 1 December 1944, the Greek government of "National Unity" under Georgios Papandreou and Lt. General Scobie (British head of the Allied forces in Greece at that time) announced an ultimatum for the general disarmament of all guerrilla forces by 10 December, excluding those allied to the government (the 3rd Greek Mountain Brigade and

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2912-406: The Civil War, and during the persecution of the communists during the 1950s and '60s in Greece, many of the brutal military personnel of the exile islands accused of tortures were ex-members of the Security Battalions. Finally, the leader of the Greek junta of the 1970s, Georgios Papadopoulos , had also been accused of being a member of the Security Battalions, but without definite proof. One of

3003-525: The EAM come to power. The German military governor of the Balkans, General Alexander Löhr , in a message to Berlin stated that his policy was to ensure "that the anti-communist part of the Greek population be fully utilised, revealing itself openly and obliged to display an undisguised hostility towards the communist side". The main role of the Security Battalions was to fight against ELAS. Their aggregate force

3094-404: The EAM's ambitions. The delegation's chief gained the nickname "sphinx" among local Communist officers for not giving any clues about Soviet intentions. Pravda did not mention the clashes at all. By early January, EAM forces had lost the battle. Despite Churchill's intervention, Papandreou resigned and was replaced by Lieutenant General Nikolaos Plastiras . On 15 January 1945, Scobie agreed to

3185-720: The EAM-ELAS side included among others Kostas Axelos , Iannis Xenakis , Manolis Glezos , Apostolos Santas , Mikis Theodorakis , Memos Makris Aimilios Veakis , Dimitris Partsalidis , Helene Ahrweiler and Nikos Koundouros . Participants with the government/British side included Anastasios Peponis , Stylianos Pattakos , Konstantinos Ventiris and Panagiotis Spiliotopoulos . Security Battalions The Security Battalions ( Greek : Τάγματα Ασφαλείας , romanized :  Tagmata Asfaleias , derisively known as Germanotsoliades (Γερμανοτσολιάδες, meaning "German tsoliás ") or Tagmatasfalites (Ταγματασφαλίτες)) were Greek collaborationist paramilitary groups, formed during

3276-415: The Germans (still occupying Crete), such as the constitution of a National Guard under government control. EAM, believing that it would leave the guerrillas of ELAS defenseless against anticommunist militias, submitted an alternative plan of total and simultaneous disarmament. Papandreou rejected this plan, causing EAM's ministers to resign from the government on 2 December. On 1 December, Scobie had issued

3367-453: The Germans became more generous in arming the Security Battalions. The growth in ELAS, which was now far better armed than it was before the armistice, alarmed many conservative Greek officers, including the royalists, who joined the Security Battalions as a way of defending the "bourgeois world". Despite their distaste for republicans like Pangalos, for many royalist officers the defense of the prewar status quo against EAM came to override even

3458-470: The Germans even when the occupation was crumbling. Their last mission was to engage in combat against ELAS and keep them away from the main routes, to secure the safe exit of the German troops from Greece. What the Greek people hated about the Battalions, even more than their collaborationist nature, was their total lack of control over their members. For example, after a battle in the hamlet of Attali in Evvia,

3549-492: The Germans that he met with Hermann Neubacher of the Auswärtiges Amt , who played a key role in governing the Balkans. Accordingly, to Neubacher's account of the meeting, Stott told him: "This war should end in the common struggle by the Allies and German forces against Bolshevism ". Neubacher's account also stated that Stott apologised for Britain supplying EAM with arms, and that he believed "communist infiltration

3640-650: The Germans". In total, very few of their members were tried and convicted of collaborationism . For instance, their creator and quisling Prime Minister of Greece, Rallis, was sentenced to life imprisonment for treason and died in prison in 1946, but he was acquitted for his involvement with the Security Battalions. After the defeat of the EAM in Dekemvriana, the Security Battalion members continued to hunt down left, communist, and anti-royalist civilians during

3731-434: The Greek army, led by then-Lieutenant General Thrasyvoulos Tsakalotos . By then, the Germans were in full retreat, and most of Greece's territory had already been liberated by Greek partisans. On 13 October, British troops entered Athens and Papandreou and his ministers followed six days later. King George II stayed in Cairo because Papandreou had promised that the future of the monarchy would be decided by referendum. There

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3822-527: The National Schism. One provincial governor, that of the Patras district, told an audience of Wehrmacht officers in February 1944: "Hellenism is by heritage and tradition opposed to the communist world-view. Annihilate communism!" The governor announced that he was now recruiting for the Security Battalions in his district, saying he'd prefer that Greece be permanently occupied by Germany than that

3913-588: The Sacred Band) and also a part of EDES and ELAS that would be used in Allied operations in Crete and the Dodecanese (still under German occupation), if it was necessary. As a result, on 2 December, six ministers of the EAM, most of whom were KKE members, resigned from their positions in the "National Unity" government. The EAM called for a general strike and a demonstration in front of the Greek parliament for

4004-670: The Security Battalions arrested disabled veterans of the Greco-Italian war , brutally beating them with their own crutches and artificial limbs. The men of the Security Battalions were poorly disciplined and much given to looting and rape. Even collaborationist officials of the Hellenic State complained that the Security Battalions were a force for disorder rather than order, who stole whatever they wanted, raped any man or woman they wanted, and killed whomever they pleased. The Security Battalions killed indiscriminately, as it

4095-593: The Security Battalions into their area. The mountainous terrain of Greece favored the andartes, together with the fact that the Wehrmacht was by 1944 fully committed elsewhere in Europe, led to the policy of "total terror" being employed. Sometimes, the Security Battalions engaged in targeted killings, as one Security Battalion death squad in Volos killed 50 local EAM members over the course of March 1944. More typical

4186-454: The Security Battalions that 35-40% of them believed that the governments of Britain and the United States secretly approved of them fighting for Germany. A member of the Security Battalions wrote in 1944: "Our leaders gave us lectures and tell us that we are chasing the Andartes of EAM/ELAS and that way we are going to avoid Communism; and that the leaders of the Security Battalions act after

4277-438: The Security Battalions' royalist officers, Major-General Vasilios Dertilis, in a recruiting speech in May 1944 to a group of his fellow royalists, stated that the denunciations of the Security Battalions by the radio station of the Cairo government were just for "show", and that in fact both the British and the king secretly supported the Security Battalions. In May 1944, a secret emissary representing Dertilis arrived in Cairo with

4368-564: The Security Battalions, he ensured his followers were given key command positions. They were supported by extreme right and Nazi sympathisers, but also by some centrist politicians who were concerned about the dominance of ELAS (the military arm of the communist-dominated National Liberation Front EAM ) as the main body of the Greek resistance. Members of the Security Battalions included ex-army officers, forcefully conscripted soldiers, conservatives, landowners, extreme-right radicals and social outcasts, as well as opportunists who believed that

4459-476: The Security Battalions, if captured, were always summarily executed under the grounds that any member of the Security Battalions was a war criminal. During the war, the Allied-oriented government in exile and the main resistance organizations in Greece decried the Security Battalions for treason multiple times. In November 1943, a British officer, Major Donald Stott , arrived in Athens and contacted

4550-577: The United Kingdom before the Second World War , and he presented the return of the monarchy as a return to subordination to Britain. However, both Rallis and Pangalos were men of the right and strongly opposed the National Liberation Front (EAM) , which gave them some common ground. Pangalos and the clique of republican officers associated with him made it clear that the Security Battalions were meant to fight just as much

4641-548: The Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front . And on the other side was the tendency, strongly encouraged by Hitler himself, to think that if Germany could not win the war, then all of Europe should be destroyed so that the Allies would liberate a wasteland. Given these hopes by some of the German side about the break-up of the "Big Three" alliance, Walter Schimana , the Higher SS Police Chief for Greece, and

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4732-405: The armistice, ELAS took the opportunity to take over many of the Italian armories in Greece, and used the resulting vast haul of Italian weapons against the Germans. With ELAS better armed and the Germans now occupying more of Greece, the Higher SS Police Chief of Greece, Walter Schimana , argued that the Reich needed an auxiliary force to relieve the burden. After the armistice of September 1943,

4823-466: The best known being the Battle of Meligalas in September 1944. After the liberation, the groups were only temporarily disbanded, and were recruited into the Gendarmerie to fight alongside the British and government forces against the EAM / ELAS in the battle of Dekemvriana in Athens. The Security Battalions always surrendered to the British, who usually let them keep the weapons the Germans had supplied them with. General Ronald Scobie , who commanded

4914-483: The centre of Athens, in an area that was ironically called Scobia (Scobie's country) by the guerrillas. The British, alarmed by the initial successes of EAM-ELAS and outnumbered, flew in the 4th Indian Infantry Division from Italy as emergency reinforcements. They also transferred John Hawkesworth from Italy to Athens, as assistant to Scobie, who soon took the general command. Although the British were openly fighting against EAM in Athens, there were no such battles in

5005-407: The collaborationists pillaged the houses of the village, taking away 1,000 oka of oil, five sewing machines, 200 oka of cheese, and 30 complete trousseaux. Sixty mules were needed to carry away the loot. By the end of the occupation their name was synonymous with arbitrary violence and frightful cruelty. An example of this behavior was the pogrom against the disabled in November 1943, when members of

5096-409: The command of a British officer, Lieutenant General Ronald Scobie . According to historian Donny Gluckstein , Scobie sought to delay the German withdrawal in order to prevent ELAS from establishing control of the country. He cites German plenipotentiary Hermann Neubacher for this claim. The British arrived in Greece in October ( Operation Manna ) with the exiled Greek government and some units of

5187-415: The communists, the British represented their major opponent. By the summer of 1944, the Soviet forces advancing into Romania and towards Yugoslavia meant that the Germans still in the Balkans were at risk of being cut off. In September, Marshal Fyodor Tolbukhin 's armies advanced into Bulgaria , forcing the resignation of the country's pro-Nazi government and the establishment of a pro-Communist regime, and

5278-443: The diplomat Hermann Neubacher welcomed Stott's mission as the beginning of an anti-Soviet Anglo-German alliance. The Geheime Feldpolizei in the Balkans were led by Roman Loos, a career policeman from Austria who was described by the British historian Mark Mazower as a "wily" and "shadowy" figure who closely worked with the SS, and who was never tried for war crimes. Loos became a prominent policeman in Austria after 1945, and at

5369-459: The evening, a peaceful demonstration and funeral procession took place by EAM members. Government forces took no action but the procession was attacked by Chites led by Colonel Grivas, with over 100 dead. Also on 4 December, Papandreou gave his resignation to the British commander, Lt. General Scobie, who rejected it. By 12 December, ΕΑΜ was in control of most of Athens, Piraeus and the suburbs. The government and British forces were confined only in

5460-415: The exception of Epirus where Aris Velouchiotis attacked the forces of Napoleon Zervas . The Dekemvriana ended with the defeat of EAM-ELAS, leading to its disarmament in the Varkiza Agreement which marked the end of ELAS. This first defeat broke the power of EAM. This together with the EAM-instigated "Red Terror", was followed by a period of " White Terror " against the Greek Left, which contributed to

5551-417: The first acts of Papadopoulos's government after the 1967 coup d'état was to change the pension rules to declare that Security Battalion veterans could collect pensions for their services, and that those who had served and were serving in the Greek military could "top up" their pensions by presenting proof to the pension board of their service in the Security Battalions in 1943–44. After the 1967 coup d'état, in

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5642-443: The formation of the new Greek Army , under the command of the British. Yet, on 1 December, the British commander Ronald Scobie ordered the unilateral disarmament of EAM-ELAS. The EAM ministers resigned on the 2nd of December and EAM called for a rally in central Athens on the 3rd, requesting the immediate punishment of the collaborationist Security Battalions and the withdrawal of the "Scobie Order". The rally of some 200,000 people

5733-416: The infrastructure, such as factories, railroads, ports, etc., and furthermore would execute the entire political Greek leadership to reduce the country to complete chaos. Appointing Pangalos as prime minister and letting the Security Battalions run amok were part of Blume's preparations for executing the "Chaos Thesis". On the eve of the liberation, several battles took place between the Battalions and ELAS,

5824-415: The local branch of the Geheime Feldpolizei (German military police). During the course of Stott's extended visit with the GFP, he asked to arrange for the Security Battalions to switch over to serving the Cairo government when it returned to Greece, as Stott asserted to his German hosts that his government did not want EAM to come to power under any conditions. Stott's visit was considered so important by

5915-401: The most extreme and violent of all the SS leaders in Greece, was greatly feared by his other SS officers, including his superior, the Higher SS Police Chief Schimana, and no action was taken against him. The idea that the Security Battalions were secretly supported by the United Kingdom and the United States encouraged them to commit atrocities, as they believed that would not be punished after

6006-429: The next day, 3 December. The demonstration involved at least 200,000 people marching on Panepistimiou Street towards the Syntagma Square . British tanks along with Greek police units had been scattered around the area, blocking the way of the demonstrators. The shootings began when the marchers had arrived at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier , in front of the Royal palace , above Syntagma Square. They originated from

6097-401: The orders of the King with whom they are in contact". Many of the leaders of the Cairo government secretly approved of the Security Battalions as a counterweight to EAM. In June 1944 the Greek government-in-exile asked that the BBC's Greek language service stop denouncing the Security Battalions as traitors under the grounds that these men were going to be useful to the government after the war,

6188-411: The outbreak of the Greek Civil War in 1946. The clashes of Dekemvriana were among the bloodiest battles in modern Greek history, with a high rate of civilian deaths. By 1944, the two major resistance movements in occupied Greece , EDES and EAM-ELAS , each saw the other as the main adversary. They both recognized the fact that it was only a matter of time before the Germans evacuated the country. For

6279-418: The police Angelos Evert giving the order to open fire on the crowd, by means of a handkerchief waved from the window. The sharpshooters had been given a standing order, according to Farmakis, "Don't fire as they are marching, at least up to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. When they march to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, open fire!" Although there are no accounts hinting that the crowd indeed possessed guns,

6370-409: The rest of the big cities. In certain cases, such as Volos, some RAF units even surrendered equipment to ELAS fighters. It seems that ELAS preferred to avoid an armed confrontation with the British forces initially and later tried to reduce the conflict as much as possible, although poor communication between its many independent units around the country might also have played a role. This might explain

6461-402: The return of King George II as they were EAM, and initially, royalist officers were reluctant to join. Both the Italians and the Germans distrusted the Security Battalions and provided them with only small arms, fearing that Pangalos, a tough, able soldier and a megalomaniac who was widely considered to be "half mad", was not a reliable partner. Though Pangalos did not formally have a position in

6552-419: The same. His influence, however, had not prevented the EAM leadership from putting its forces under Scobie's command a couple of months earlier, in accordance with the Caserta Agreement. Meanwhile, following Georgios Grivas 's instructions, Organization X members had set up outposts in central Athens and resisted EAM for several days until British troops arrived, as their leader had been promised. According to

6643-449: The simultaneous skirmishes with the British, the large-scale ELAS operations against Trotskyists , anarchists and other political dissidents in Athens, and the many contradictory decisions of EAM leaders. Videlicet, the KKE leadership, was supporting a doctrine of "national unity" while eminent members, such as Leonidas Stringos , Theodoros Makridis , and even Georgios Siantos , were creating revolutionary plans. Even more curiously, Tito

6734-454: The spot. Other men who were merely suspected of being sympathetic towards EAM would be taken to Haidari prison, where they were held as hostages, with the German policy being that these men would be executed if there were any more ELAS attacks against them. The bloko was ordered by Blume as part of his strategy of polarization, as he wanted to provoke more violence to justify even more extreme violence on his part. Blume had decided that Rallis

6825-620: The streets, from the building of the General Police Headquarters, from the Parliament ( Vouli ), from the Hotel Grande Bretagne (where international observers had settled), from other governmental buildings and from policemen on the street. Among many testimonies, N. Farmakis, then a fifteen-year-old member of the anti-EAM Organization X participating in the shootings, described that he saw the head of

6916-451: The summer of 1944, the Security Battalions assisted German forces in Athens with the bloko (round-ups). In the blokos , an entire district of Athens, usually one of the poor neighborhoods where EAM was most popular, was sealed off while the occupying forces and the Security Battalions rounded up the entire male population of the district. Informers wearing hoods to hide their identities would point out suspected EAM members, who were shot on

7007-578: The time of his retirement in 1962 was serving as the Austrian liaison officer for Interpol. Stott was in radio contact with the SOE headquarters in Cairo during his time as a guest of the Geheime Feldpolizei , reporting to Brigadier Keble. After Stott's meeting was exposed, he was disallowed as a "rogue" agent and reprimanded while Keble was fired. Stott's visit inflamed the suspicions of EAM of

7098-610: The war. EAM reported that many of the men serving in the Security Battalions were claiming that "they are serving the interests of England with her consent". After raiding the village of Pili in July 1944 looking for EAM members, the local Security Battalion told the villagers: "Next time we will come back with the English." One agent of the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) reported after interviewing captured members of

7189-406: The withdrawal of Bulgarian troops from Greek Macedonia . 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

7280-412: Was German policy to cow the population of Greece into total submission by encouraging the Security Battalions to kill at random. Most of the people killed by the Security Battalions were not andartes or even associated with the andartes . Instead, they were killed at random to instill an atmosphere of fear in Greece, so people would not want the andartes to operate in their area, lest that would bring

7371-476: Was a plan by the EAM to blow up the building, aiming to kill the participants, which was finally cancelled. Instead the conference took place in Phaliro, on the cruiser Ajax . From the Greek side Siantos, Partsalidis, Mantakas and Sofianopoulos took part for EAM and Regent Damaskinos, Papandreou, Panagiotis Kanellopoulos , Sofoulis, Kafantaris, Dimitris Maximos, Stefanos Stefanopoulos, Gonatas, Tsaldaris and as

7462-525: Was accused by EAM of collaborating with the Nazis. Consequently, the British intervened in support of the Greek government, deploying artillery and aircraft to reinforce their position as the battle approached its last stages. In the early morning hours of 4 December, ELAS reservists began operations in the Athens–Piraeus area, attacking Grivas' Organization X forces and many police stations with success. In

7553-492: Was at most 22,000 men, divided into 9 ' evzonic ' and 22 'voluntary' battalions, under the command of SS Lieutenant-General Walter Schimana . Although the plan was to expand them all over the occupied Greek territories, their main theater of action was in eastern Central Greece and the Peloponnese . At that time, ELAS had already gained control over 1/3 of continental Greece. The Security Battalions remained faithful to

7644-512: Was both the KKE's key sponsor and a key British ally, owing his physical and political survival in 1944 to British assistance. This outbreak of fighting between Allied forces and an anti-German European resistance movement while the war in Europe was still being fought was a serious political problem for Churchill's coalition government in Britain and caused much protest in the British press and

7735-468: Was criticized by Labour MPs in the House of Commons for employing the Security Battalions to fight on the British side against EAM in the Dekemvriana , Churchill replied: "The Security Battalions came into existence to protect the Greek villagers from the depredations of some of those who, under the guise of being saviours of their country, were living upon the inhabitants and doing very little fighting against

7826-414: Was insufficiently pliant, and was intriguing to replace him with Pangalos. From Blume's viewpoint, having Athens reduced to chaos would show the need to sack Rallis, who was close to a nervous breakdown in the summer of 1944, and replace him with the stronger Pangalos. Ultimately, Blume was planning to carry out the "Chaos Thesis," under which the Germans, before withdrawing from Greece, would destroy all of

7917-492: Was little to prevent ELAS from taking full control of the country. With the German withdrawal, ELAS units had taken control of the countryside and most of the cities. However, they did not take full control because the KKE leadership was instructed by the Soviet Union not to precipitate a crisis that could jeopardize Allied unity and put Stalin's larger postwar objectives at risk. Unlike their leaders, ELAS's fighters and rank-and-file were not aware of these instructions, and it became

8008-464: Was not in their best interests, and that the Anglo-Americans would switch sides to ally themselves with Germany. Referring to the Stott mission, Schimana argued to his audience that Britain approved of the Security Battalions, and it was only just a matter of time before British, Greek and German soldiers would all be fighting side by side against the Soviet Union and those loyal to it. One of

8099-626: Was shot at by the Greek Police and Gendarmerie, leaving 28 protesters dead and 148 wounded. These killings ushered a full-blown armed confrontation between EAM and the Government forces at first (which included the Security Battalions), and during the second half of December, between EAM and the British military forces. The clashes were limited to Athens, while elsewhere in Greece the situation remained tense but peaceful, with

8190-453: Was the executions in the same month of 100 people shot at random as retaliation for the assassination by ELAS of General Franz Krech . When members of the Security Battalions were assassinated by ELAS, the Security Battalions tended to lash out by massacring any Greeks who just happened to be in the vicinity. The andartes would usually spare captured policemen or gendarmes, unless they had been involved in killing fellow Greeks, but members of

8281-571: Was widespread persecution of communists and former EAM members and supporters over the next two years. This period, immediately prior to the outbreak of the Greek Civil War , was known as the White Terror . The Communist Party of Greece remained legal during the Greek Civil War until 27 December 1947. Dekemvriana Kingdom of Greece victory [REDACTED] Kingdom of Greece [REDACTED] ΡΕΑΝ [REDACTED] RAN [REDACTED] Organization X Ex-members of

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