The Dodecanese Regiment

When the Greek/Italian war started on October 28th 1940, the men from the Dodecanese who lived and worked in Athens, scientists, students, manual workers, from all walks of life, asked the Government to allow them to volunteer to serve in the national Army. They did not fear the fact that they were de facto Italian citizens (the Dodecanese at this time were still under Italian rule) and that the Italians might shoot them as traitors if they were captured. Nor the fact that their families would remain under Italian rule in the Dodecanese. The government agreed with their request. In the event, 1665 men signed on, including 62 men from Olympos. The army added some more from other islands and they went for a swift period of training.

When the Greek government sent the Dodecanese Regiment to the front in April 1941, the Germans were already in Thessaloniki and the regiment bravely stopped any further advance and held the line. But the Germans surrounded them and, against their wishes, they were ordered to withdraw. Very soon, organisation collapsed and men found themselves walking back in small groups, by side roads and footpaths, to avoid the Germans. But there were deaths and injuries on the way and the Olymbites who reached Piraeus, sought work and a means of surviving under German occupation.

Note: Giorgos Halkias at the time was a student at Athens University and had volunteered for the Dodecanese Regiment.

At the beginning of April 1941, the Germans attacked the Greek frontier. The Dodecanese Regiment held its position but the Germans, with more troops and superior weapons, surrounded them and they were forced to withdraw. So we abandoned everything except our weapons and, walking in single file because of the danger of mines, we set off to the south. We reached Kozany. I suffered with problems with my left foot which became swollen with the cold. So I fell behind. The rest of the regiment then walked to the west but we could not manage the distance so we continued south. We got to Karditsa at the same time as the German tanks entered the city. We walked all night to escape the enemy. We hoped that in Lianokladi station we might catch a train to Athens. But when we got close, we could see the station was afire! And the bridges were all cut.

We held on to each other, hand in hand, fifteen men from Olympos, in order to pass the river Sperhios. I was exhausted and sick. If some shepherds had not taken pity on me I would have left my bones in that place. They sympathised that I was a student who had joined the army. They filled my water bottle with milk, those good people, and so I survived. Like the rest, I was barefoot. I wrapped my feet in rags but they were destroyed like my boots. And I used a tent pole to walk with. Fortunately we did not get lice because we managed to keep ourselves clean. I remember one night, I felt so much joy, sleeping in an animal shelter with the smell of hay. I imagined that I was in Avlona, sleeping in the alona ^note. I finally returned to Athens and continued my studies.

That terrible winter of 1941/1942, when the cold and hunger combined killed many people in Athens, I was trying to study for my degree, without electric heating, without my books, using only my notes. But I finally got a first class degree in Theology!