Noose – Chapter 8

Noose – Chapter 8

Twelfth Day (January 4th, 1948) in the struggle for General Markos’s throne.

1.

During the morning of the twelfth day, we were awakened by strong explosions that took place in another part of town. It was dawn, January 4th, 1948 and I was sitting on some wood beams that smelled like freshly cut pine. Our red flag, which we had hung in the main square since the first days of our arrival, was now gone and in its place hung a great big, scary looking NOOSE. The noose was made of thick rope and, being blown by the strong wind, it swung from side to side. Over on the hills I could see government army soldiers moving. They had occupied the heights around Konitsa and were preparing to attack the city. They had us surrounded and through the fog they flew “Spitfire” fighter planes which poured bursts of gunfire on our positions. The airplanes slowly shrank as they flew away, seeming as though they were disappearing into the sun – leaving behind only their thunderous sound which slowly fell silent, and, as quick as lightning, they would again return and descend over our heads to spill more bursts of gunfire and drop more deadly bombs. There was long silence. At that moment Colonel Sofianos Iliadis arrived at the front line with his security people. He was concerned about the situation and was not sure what was happening so he wanted to investigate everything himself. He had no confidence in the others and was looking nervous. His goal was to remove even the smallest risk of acquiring the last strongholds of the government army. After many inspections, and with no room for the slightest of error, he came to his conclusion. He said: “I am a soldier and it is not easy for me to share my insecurities with you but I need to tell you that we have lost the battle. It was natural because it never is easy to capture and defend a city with only a single regiment composed of newly mobilized villagers. Today will be a day of life or death. Protect yourselves. Today it will not be easy to escape our enemy’s retaliatory attacks. If we were realistic about our planned strategy, we would not have allowed such big promises to be made.”