NATIONAL PEOPLE'S LIBERATION ARMY (GREECE)

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'Greek People's Liberation Army' (, ''Ellinikos Laïkos Apeleftherotikos Stratos''), abbreviated to ELAS) was the military arm of the left-wing National Liberation Front (EAM) during the period of the Greek Resistance until February of 1945.

Contents

Birth of ELAS

Consolidation of strength

Gorgopotamos

From 1942 to 1943: the turning point

The "Mountain Government"

Antagonism with other resistance groups — first phase of the Civil War

List of important ELAS battles

List of famous ELAS guerillas

Birth of ELAS

After Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union with the initiation of Operation Barbarossa (June 22, 1941 —with most of Greece having fallen under Axis occupation since April and the Battle of Crete having ended on June 1-
The Greek Communist Party (KKE) was the first communist party to call for national resistance (documented in two letters by Nikolaos Zachariadis and Central Committee decisions) in 1940. The duty was heavier from the moment that Hitler ivaded in USSR. And together with minor parties of the Left formed a political structure called the National Liberation Front. They were joined by other, center-left or non-politicised Greek resistance militants.
ELAS initiated actions against the German and Italian forces of occupation in Greece on 7 June 1942. Aris Velouchiotis with a small group of 10-15 guerrillas entered the village of Domnista in Evrytania and proclaimed in front of the surprised villagers that they had set off to "''start the war against the forces of Axis and their local collaborators''".
Velouchiotis at first was addressed to the traditional "listes" (mountain living bandits, armed against police and state) like Karalivanos, in order to create a small group of experts in guerilla fighting and survival in the harsh mountain conditions. Later, when ELAS (a name that sounds like Hellas; Greece) grew bigger, was addressing to farmers and village people in a very simple way: a uniformed officer (usually a low-rank officer of the Hellenic Army) visited a village, asked for the presence of the village priest and addressed to the people said "ELAS needs you" (a pun on the similar sounding words "Hellas" and ELAS).

Consolidation of strength

Gorgopotamos

The a night in September 1942, a small group of British SOE officers parachuted into Greece near Mt. Giona. This group, led by Brigadier Eddie Myers, had been tasked to blow up one of three bridges (Gorgopotamos, Papadia or Asopos) of the country's main railway line, and to get the two main, but competing, guerrilla groups of ELAS and EDES to cooperate.
After much deliberation, the Gorgopotamos bridge was chosen due to the difficulty of making repairs to the structure. But, for the mission to succeed, it was important to meet the guerrillas. Dimos Karalivanos, an ELAS guerrilla, was the first guerrilla the British found. At the end of October a second group of British officers was parachuted into the Greek mountains. Their leaders were Themis Marinos and Colonel Christopher Woodhouse. Their mission was to locate the guerrillas of EDES and their leader Napoleon Zervas, who were friendlier to the British Headquarters of the Middle-East than the ELAS, and co-operate with them. The resulting mission was a challenge for the two guerrilla groups, EDES and ELAS. Finally, they agreed to collaborate. British did not favour the participation of ELAS, because it was a pro-communist group, but the forces of ELAS were larger and better organised, and without their participation, the mission was likely to fail. So, in a rare and unique event, ELAS and EDES-EOEA joined forces.
On November 14, the 12 British saboteurs, the forces of ELAS (150 men) and those of EDES (60-65 men) met in the village Viniani in Evrytania and the operation started. Ten days later, the forces were at Gorgopotamos. On the night of November 25, at 23:00, the guerrillas started the attack against the Italian garrison. The Italians were startled, and after little resistance, they were defeated. After the defeat of the Italians, the saboteurs set the explosives. ELAS forces also had placed ambushes on the routes towards the bridge, to block the approach of Italian reinforcements. The explosion occurred at 03:00. Afterwards, the guerrillas' forces returned to Viniani, to celebrate the success of the mission.
The destruction of the Gorgopotamos bridge was, along with the Norwegian heavy water sabotage in Rjukan, one of the two biggest guerrilla acts in occupied Europe. The blowing up of the bridge disrupted the German transportation of ammunition via Greece to Rommel's forces for several weeks, taking place at a time where the German forces in North Africa, retreating after the defeat of El Alamein, were in absolute necessity of provisions.

From 1942 to 1943: the turning point

The blowing up of Gorgopotamos bridge favored ELAS. Soon, lots of the inhabitants of the villages of Central Greece became members of ELAS. Furthermore, people sympathised the ELAS guerrillas because they weren't helped by the British in contrast with EDES. When 25 guerrillas deserted from ELAS, Aris Velouchiotis went to Epirus to threaten Napoleon Zervas not to come in touch with them. Later, the 25 deserters were arrested and executed in the village of Sperhiada. The winter of 1942, ELAS groups were formed in other Greek regions, like Thessaly and Macedonia. In Central Greece, Aris Velouchiotis succeeded to form a powerful semi-conventional army which could attack German and Italian forces. Aris became a legendary figure who imposed an iron discipline in ELAS. At the same time, some members of ELAS (Periklis, Tasos Leuterias, Diamantis, Nikiforos, Thiseas, Dimos Karalivanos, Belis) have been discerned during the battles. Aris Velouchiotis formed a group of 30-35 men, called "Mavroskoufides" (the "black berets"), who were his personal guards. During the winter of 1942-1943, new units of ELAS were composed in many regions of Greece. Some areas in the mountains of Central Greece passed from the control of Axis forces to that of ELAS.
At this time, the leadership of KKE told Aris to come in Athens for talks ablut the future of ELAS. In fact, this was a plan to isolate ELAS from its captain, because the leaders of the KKE did not agree with Aris. One reason was that Aris had signed a statement of denunciation of KKE, while jailed and tortured in Corfu by the Ioannis Metaxas dictatorship, which had resulted to his release from prison. KKE wanted to impose communist general Stefanos Sarafis as ELAS' leader , but this didn't happen. Finally the leadership of ELAS had this form: Aris Velouchiotis was its actual leader (captain), Stefanos Sarafis was the military leader and Andreas Tzimas (Vasilis Samariniotis) was the political leader.
This period two events of great importance took place. KKE, after passing great difficulties, succeeded in reorganizing its groups destroyed by Metaxas. Lot of members were recruited and with the help of ELAS, which became the largest partisan army in Greece, KKE became the largest political organization in Greece with almost 100,000 members and supporters. The second great event was the foundation of / United Panhellenic Organization of Youth (EPON) ().
Two years after its foundation, ELAS' military strength had grown from the small group of fighters in Domnitsa to more than 50.000 guerrillas, almost 50.000 reservists and more than 1.500.000 supporters, being one of the largest resistance groups formed in Europe, similar to the French Maquis and the Yugoslavian Partisans.

The "Mountain Government"

Main articles: Political Committee of National Liberation

In 10 March 1944 the EAM-ELAS, now in control of most of the country, established the (''Political Committee of National Liberation'', or PEEA), widely known as the "Mountain Government" (), in effect a third Greek government to rival the collaborationist one in Athens and the government-in-exile in Cairo. Its aims, according to its founding Act, were, "''to intensify the struggle against the conquerors (...) for full national liberation, for the consolidation of the independence and integrity of our country (...) and for the annihilation of domestic fascism and armed traitor formations.''"

Antagonism with other resistance groups — first phase of the Civil War

ELAS became the strongest of all resistance armed organizations, controlling by 1944 three-fifths of the country, and it engaged in battles against all non-communist resistance fighters, besides the para-military forces of the collaborationist government. EAM began to attack the National Republican Greek League (EDES) on unfounded accusations of collaboration with the Germans; the real reason behind the attacks was that, as the outcome of the war was becoming inevitable, EAM-ELAS wanted to secure armed dominance in post-war Greece. This situation led to triangular battles among ELAS, EDES and the Germans. Given the support of the British and the Greek Cairo Government for EDES, these conflicts precipitated a civil war. In October 1943 ELAS launched major attacks against its rivals, particularly EDES, precipitating a civil war across many parts of Greece which continued until February 1944, when the British agents in Greece negotiated a ceasefire (the Plaka agreement) ; ELAS broke the agreement by murdering the EKKA resistance group leader, Dimitrios Psaros.

List of important ELAS battles

ELAS fought against the occupation forces in many battles, which include:

★ The battle of Ryka (40 Italians killed),

★ The battle of Mikro Horio (70 Italians killed),

★ The battle of Gorgopotamos,

★ The battle of Fardycambos.

★ The battle of Saradaporo (155 Germans killed)

★ The battle of Porta (many Italians killed)

List of famous ELAS guerillas

Famous ELAS guerillas included:

★ Aris Velouchiotis (Thanassis Klaras)

★ Stefanos Sarafis

★ Markos Vafiadis

★ Charilaos Florakis

★ Kostoulas Agrafiotis (Nikos Kavretzos)

★ Nikiforos (Dimitrios Dimitriou)

★ Periklis (Giorgos Houliaras)

★ Thanos (Fotis Mastrokostas)

★ Pelopidas (Pandelis Laskos)

★ Diamantis (Yannis Alexandrou)

★ Ahilleas (Lambros Koubouras)

★ Leuteris (Leuteris Tsiliyannis)

★ Lambros (Spiros Bekios)

★ Nakos Belis

★ Dimos Karalivanos

★ Boukouvalas (Dimitrios Tasos)

★ Kozakas (Thomas Pallas)

★ Smolikas (Nikos Xinos)

★ Tasos Lefterias (Vangelis Papadakis)

★ Javellas (Yannis Aggeletos)

★ Ermis (Vasilis Priovolos)

★ Papa-Holevas

★ Papa-Anypomonos (Priest Germanos Dimakos)

★ Gerasimos Avgeropoulos

★ Andreas Zacharopoulos

★ Euripides Bakirtzis

★ Vasilis Samariniotis (Andreas Tzimas)

★ Ektoras (Theodoros Makridis)

★ Thomas (Yannis Hatzipanagiotou)

★ Armatolos (Christos Margaritis)

★ Kavalaris (Yorgos Zaroyannis)

★ Chimarros (Vassilis Ganatsios)

★ Kostas Kalogeros

★ Iannis Xenakis