THE END OF OPERATIONS AND RETREATTO ALBANIA

THE END OF OPERATIONS AND RETREATTO ALBANIA

Defence of Vicho

The 132nd Brigade of DAG was involved in the battle for Trakja (Thrace) in eastern Macedonia in July 1949. During the fighting against government forces near the villages Tralkino and Mandradzik, a unit commander and lieutenant from Banitsa, Gele Metodi Apchev, was killed.

On 4 July 1949, government forces, composed of three infantry brigades supported by artillery and air power, began a massive attack on the DAG units on Kajmakchalan. The partisans responded with force; however, due to their previous large losses, after four days they were forced to retreat to Karakamen and Pajak mountains where the ill and wounded soldiers were transferred across the border to Yugoslavia. The tragic demise of DAG had begun.

After occupying this territory, the government forces made preparations for a large-scale attack on the liberated territory of Vicho Mountain and western Macedonia.

On 9 July 1949 at 5 a.m., a general offensive and the decisive battle for Vicho began. It started with an air attack on DAG units all along the mountain range from the Yugoslav border and the village of Buf, all the way to the Sorovich-Kostur highway in the south and the Albanian border in the west. The planes flew in formation in Lerin, Rupishta and Kozhani. The DAG units were separated into different sectors in order

to defend the liberated territory. The first sector was in the area of the Greek-Yugoslav border, from Buf-Pisoder-Bela Voda and was defended by the 14th Brigade.

The second sector, from Lundzer to Lisets, was defended by the 10th Division. Lundzer was defended by one detachment and one battalion of the 14th Brigade and one battalion of the 102nd Brigade. Polenata was defended by one battalion of the 18th Brigade and one battalion at Smora-Kula and Shtrkovo and one battalion at Breza-Glava and Tora. A detachment of the 18th Brigade made up the reserve units.

The sub-sector Boro-Jamata was defended by one stationary battalion, one detachment, three combat vehicles, two infantry cannons, and three anti-tank guns.

Lisets Mountain was defended by one battalion of the 102nd Brigade with two cannons, one anti-tank gun of 75 mm and three anti-aircraft guns.

The third sector, consisting of ten divisions for the area at elevation 1226 from Chuchera to Frankovitsa, was assigned to the 103rd Brigade. The 105th Brigade was stationed from Ribotina to Greka. The officers’ training school was in Besfina and two squads were stationed in V’mbel. The reserve artillery consisted of six artillery pieces used on mountains, six field cannons and six anti-tank guns. The headquarters of the commanders of the Vicho detachments and of the Supreme Military Council were situated in the village of Vineni, Prespa.

One battalion of the 18th Brigade, which was defending the hill called Polenata at the elevation of 1685m was attacked by government forces on 10 August 1949. For seventeen hours in a life-or-death battle, the battalion fought bravely and selflessly because this area was an important strategic point. Almost all the warriors were killed trying to protect this important strategic point. Only three soldiers survived to describe this bloody battle. The soldiers fought to the last bullet.

As part of this battalion, two soldiers from the village of Banitsa gave their lives: Mihail Dine Pavlov and Lieutenant Blazhe Metodi Katronov, platoon commander who had finished officer training at the DAG headquarters.

On 11 August 1949, during the battles for the defence of Lisets elevation, Lazo Ilo Dafov, together with many others, was killed. He was a lieutenant and platoon commander, and had finished the officers’ training school at DAG headquarters.

During the battles against the monarcho-fascists at the village Rzhbi, Prespa, the soldier Kitse Apchev of Banitsa was killed. Regarding these battles, Captain Vangelis Parahristu-Farmakos, an intelligence officer from General Staff, said:

“I knew that the time had come for all of us to go to the front line. I was given a unit of 134 battle-hardened partisans, and I led them through Pisoderi and Bela Voda towards the village of German. We fell into a human slaughterhouse. Every modern weapon an army could use except the atomic bomb were thrown at us on the morning of 14 August. We were running out of men, and in the end, only around 40 were left alive. We wanted to reach Afrika, (a territory between Mala and Golema Prespa and the Albanian border) with a quick march. Near a place called Kulata, two tanks blocked our path, one of them ended up in the lake, but the other was wedged on the bridge like a flaming coal bunker.Thiswasa fiery hellfor us. Wecouldn’t goforward, and we were behind the other units. I ordered a retreat, which was also a deadly move. We attempted to draw near the Yugoslav border, contrary to the orders of the Supreme Military Council and Zachariadis. This would lead to a charge of “surrender into the hands of the Greek military authorities,” however as an intelligence officer, I knew that this was a lie and due to Zachariadis’s hatred towards that country.

In horseshoe formation, we forty-odd surviving partisans went towards the village of German. Those six kilometres werethelongestroadinmylife.Thefifteen-hourordealand the unbelievable massacre, which went from firearms to bayonets and knives, was a living hell for all of us. It was carnage, a slaughterhouse, a horror that I still carry with me, sights that still leave me no peace even today after 30 years.

We gathered by the reeds on the lakeshore between Golema and Mala Prespa, disorganized and wounded fighters, all of us shocked by the deaths. At the spot called Markova Noga, another 170 fighters and 23 wounded joined us, all from DAG’s broken units. The enemy gave us no peace. Douglas airplanes flew over us, releasing around 1,000 paratroopers. We dealt with the paratroopers in a gruesome way. We killed most of them while they were still in the air. When we arrived at the Yugoslav border, we came across a border patrol and a guardhouse. They immediately accepted the wounded and sent them to aid stations”

The government forces’ general offensive to destroy DAG’s units started on 9 August 1949, on Vicho Mountain, and finished on 17 August with victory for the monarcho-fascists. The last partisan units were chased across the border into Albania. It was the end of the campaign for Vicho. Around 800 partisans were left dead on the battlefield and 600 were captured, in the Prespa region alone.

The other units of DAG (the 10th and 11th Divisions), after the catastrophic defeat on Vicho, were transferred to Gramos Mountain. According to the surviving soldiers and officers, the defining battle took place on 14 August 1949 at Kulata, between the big and small lakes of Prespa, so the government forces could cross the bridge to Mala Prespa.

The Battle for Gramos

After the defeat of DAG’s units on Vicho, on 20 August 1949, the Politburo of CPG’s Central Committee held a meeting in which it analysed the failure to defend Vicho.

Amid a lot of finger-pointing, the leadership of the 11th Division was specifically accused of deploying the partisans poorly and conducting the battle badly. Some personnel changes were made to the command staff, and it was concluded that the mistakes of Vicho should not be repeated with the defence of Gramos Mountain.

On 23 August 1949, it was clear that the government forces were preparing foran attack.On 24 August1949,probing sortieswere carried out on separate sectors of Gramos Mountain to test the strength and positions of DAG. The full offensive started on 26 August 1949 with attacks from all sides by all possible means that the government forces had, both by land and in the air.

All the partisans in the unit of Lieutenant and Platoon Commander BorisTaseOlevofBanitsa perished in thisbattle.They selflessly fought for 24 hours, trying at all cost to keep their position on that hill which had strategic importance. However, under the pressure of the government forces supported with aerial bombardment. they did not succeed. Olev fell victim alongside his comrades. The hill of Goritsa was conquered.

Sustaining many casualties,the partisan unitswere forced to retreat towards the territory of the People’s Social Republic of Albania. It was the end of the battle for Gramos and it was the total destruction of DAG’s forces. On 29 August 1949 all partisan units retreated, leaving behind thousands of dead or captured partisans.

Communique of the General Staff of DAG

On the evening of 29 August 1949, the General Staff of DAG issued a communique that the units of DAG retreated from Greek territory since they had accomplished their task of inflicting losses on the enemy. It was the end of the Civil War led by the CPG, EAM, NOF, and DAG, the celebrated Democratic Army of Greece.

In October 1949, at the 6th plenum of the CPG Central Committee in the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania, the current situation and the work of the Politburo of the CPG Central Committee were analysed. The decision to have the DAG units retreat to Albania was assessed as correct and timely.

On 15 October 1949, the provisional democratic government issued a proclamation threatening the monarcho-fascist government.

After DAG’s defeat and retreat to Albania, the Macedonian people in Aegean Macedonia faced a difficult period, with many more trials and tribulations. Thousands of families left their homes from the (formerly) liberated and semi-liberated territories which had been abandoned by DAG’s forces. Fleeing for their lives, they crossed into the neighbouring brotherhood socialist countries, especially Yugoslavia. Around 35,000 Macedonians left their homes and stepped over into Yugoslavia, that is to say, into the Socialist Republic of Macedonia.

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