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When Greece was attacked by the Nazi hordes, it was in April 1941. The breakwater of this attack was the Rupel’s fortress located on the Greek-Bulgarian border. There, golden moments in the history of the country would be written. Heroes were born there.
Ordinary people who until a few days ago were equals among equals, suddenly became giants who stood firm against their invincible, until now, war machine. Hitler.
At those times, on those soils, men like “Major George Douratsos” were “born”. Like Captain Alexandros Kyriakidis. Like Sergeant Dimitrios Itsios.
They all stood in front of the beast, looked him in the eye and fought with incredible bravery until they heroically fell. The battle they fought, after all, was uneven. And that’s what makes them heroes. They knew they would fall. They knew they would be euthanized. Before that, however, they would make the enemy pay dearly for invading the country.
Rupel’s heroic fortress
Rupel belonged to the so-called “Silk lineAnd it was a medium-sized project, with lightweight liners for shelter and material storage. It had a perimeter of 2-3 kilometers for better protection of the canyons. During the First World War, Rupel was occupied by German-Bulgarian forces.
The Fortress remained until the end of the war, the subject of fortification was raised to a more solid base in the 1930s. It extends to a front of 2,500 m. and included 123 active canopies, the development of the underground spaces was 1,849 m2, while the transport galleries amounted to 4,251 m, the total area was 6,100 m. and the total guard was 1,397 men. Its construction cost was 111,540,000 drachmas.
The fortification included the following active canopies:
- Machine guns 4 single, 18 double
- Shotguns 2
- Anti-tank guns 1 single, 2 double
- Anti-aircraft guns 2
- Dumpers 3 single, 1 double
- Observatories 22 individual, 1 double
- Projector Covers 3
- Optical Stations 2
Major George Douratsos and Captain Alexandros Kyriakidis
However, the strong alone cannot repel any attacks. They need brave souls to sacrifice their lives and write their names in history. In Rupel’s case, these defenders didn’t hesitate for a moment.
The first of them was Major G. Douratsos, who on the morning of April 6, 1941, along with his few and bereaved men, faced an entire regiment of the Wehrmacht. For three days the enemy is at a distance of less than 400 meters and his air force hit the fortification position of the Greeks.
On April 9, the bombardment is even more intense. But Douratsos does not give in to his demand Nazi capitular responds that “the strong are not surrendered but busy.” A few days later the Germans realize that it is not possible to pass through this fort and so they make a complete detour. The Nazis had already reached Thessaloniki when Douratsos and his men surrendered. Not as losers but as winners and with the enemy giving them the honors they deserve.
A similar heroic story is that of Captain Alexandros Kyriakidis, who preferred to sacrifice himself rather than let the German Stukas cross his line without accepting fire. On April 7, 1941, the captain and his men manned an artillery unit on Karakitok Hill. Suddenly the sky was filled with stucco and Kyriakidis ordered to open fire on them. His soldiers begged him not to target the Nazi planes, but he remained motionless. Naturally, a few minutes later, the Lutfafe airship realized its position, which then literally leveled it.
One sergeant, 38,000 bullets, a heroic story
When, after heroic resistance to the Nazi hordes, the Greek army realized that it was time to withdraw, some had to take on the difficult task of covering up. One of those who undertook this extremely difficult task was Sergeant Dimitrios Itsios who, along with five soldiers, lined up to guard the modern Thermopylae on the P8 machine gun on the beautiful Beles hillside above Ano Poria, Serres.
Not a moment crossed the minds of Itsi and his men to surrender. They were determined to fight to the end. Their objective was to cover the withdrawal of the Greek troops as much as possible. This was the only order the sergeant had and then he and his men would have to find the time and the way to withdraw.
However, this they would never do. They were determined to stay there and provide cover for the retreat until they ran out of ammunition. And that’s what they did. Itsios, when he saw that the situation was irreversible, ordered his men to leave. All three did. The other two, who were also his roommates, chose to stay with him until the end.
The machine gun fired by the three men received successive waves of attacks from planes, infantry divisions and artillery guns, but none of them took a step back. In all, Itsios and his men fired around 38,000 rounds at the Germans, forcing them to pay a heavy price. Although the figures vary from case to case, some 250 Nazis are killed by the fire of the three Greeks, including a Wehrmacht lieutenant colonel.
Itsios and his men surrendered only when they ran out of ammunition. Survivors of this battle say that due to the projectiles that had fallen to the ground, the door of the machine gun coming out of it could not be opened!
Surrender and execution which is a war crime
When the ammunition ran out, Itsios had no choice. He put down the machine gun to negotiate the surrender of himself and his two men. However, the Nazi leader, General Sorner, was in no mood to do so. He approached Itzio and asked him to look around to see what he had done. Then followed the following dialogue between them that continues to this day with several variations but with the spirit always the same:
General Sorner: Where is your officer?
Sergeant Itsios: No i’m in charge
General Sorner: Your;
Sergeant Itsios: yes
General Sorner: Congratulations, with your resistance you revived the spirit of your ancestors
Sergeant Itsios: I did my duty
General Sorner: And now I have to do my own thing. It cost me more than two hundred men.
The general then drew his pistol (or ordered an epilogue, according to another version), and executed Itio in cold blood with a bullet to the temple, after honoring him first. The heroic sergeant only managed to ask “why” without receiving an answer.
The murder of Itsi (not the dialogue) is recorded in the war report of the Order of Major 111/70 (PZ) Nikolaos Nousakis, which was presented to the General Staff. The son of the murdered sergeant had revealed that there are two photos showing his dead father and German soldiers on top of him. From the two photos, it appears that Itzios had been shot point-blank and in the temple.
Since Itsios had surrendered, he was protected by international treaties, making his execution essentially his first recorded war crime in Greece. Second World War.
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