In Memoriam: Grigoris Afxentiou - 3 March 1957

I will fight and fall like a Greek
(Grigoris Afxentiou in a letter to his wife, Vasiliki)



Photo Credit

Grigoris Afxentiou is the pre-eminent hero of the EOKA struggle 1955-1959 to liberate Cyprus from British colonial rule in an effort to unite the island with Greece. Afxentiou was born in the village of Lysi, Famagusta district, (now under Turkish occupation) on 22 February 1928 and killed in the Battle of Machairas on 3 March 1957.

After a four-year stint in Greece, initially as literature student at Athens University but unable to afford the fees then serving in the military as a lieutenant on the Greek-Bulgarian border, Afxentiou returned to Cyprus in 1952, where he worked with his father in the fields and then as a taxi driver.

When EOKA was formed in 1955, Afxentiou was one of the first to enlist and because of his military background, charisma and boldness, quickly gained the trust of EOKA’s leader, Giorgos Grivas, who made him his second in command.

Afxentiou led attacks on British installations on the island, such as the power company and the broadcasting corporation, and was responsible for training EOKA recruits in weapons' use, bombmaking techniques and guerrilla warfare. The British put a bounty of £5,000 on his head.

In December 1955, the British surrounded the EOKA hierarchy, including Grivas and Afxentiou, in the Troodos mountains, near the village of Spilia. Grivas split his men into two groups, with his group fighting the British ascending the north side of the mountain, while Afxentiou took command of the second group fighting the British ascending the south side.

All the while engaging the enemy, the Greek forces retreated to the summit of the mountain and, in heavy fog, managed to escape to the west, leaving the confused British, thinking they’d come across EOKA and not each other, to shell and fight among themselves. Grivas claimed that during the Battle of Spilia the British suffered 50 casualties; the British say they had three.

For the next year, Afxentiou, constantly on the move, often disguised, continued to direct and conduct operations from hideouts in the Troodos mountains, and at the beginning of 1957 found himself holed up near Machairas monastery, south of Nicosia.

On 3 March 1957, British troops from the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, Royal Northumberland Fusiliers and the Grenadier Guards acting on a tip-off surrounded Afxentiou and his four comrades in their hideout, and called for the men to surrender. Afxentiou ordered his men to leave to fight another day but insisted he had to stay. ‘I will fight and die,’ he told them. ‘I have to die,’ he said and repeated this four times.

With Afxentiou alone now, the British stormed the hideout, but Afxentiou held them at bay. They lobbed hand grenades into the shelter, but the wounded Afxentiou wouldn’t give up and continued to fight. The British sent in one of Afxentiou’s comrades, Avgoustinos Efstathiou, to persuade Afxentiou to surrender, but Efstathiou decided to stay and fight with his leader.

Eventually, after resistance that lasted 10 hours and after all conventional methods had failed, the British poured petrol into the hideout to burn out the EOKA men. Afxentiou once again persuaded Efstathiou to leave but still wouldn’t surrender himself. A charge was attached and the hideout blown up in an explosion that reverberated throughout the mountains.

The intensity of the flames made it impossible for the British to approach the hideout and it wasn’t until the following morning that the British were able to get inside, where they found Afxentiou’s burnt body and next to it a sub-machine gun, revolvers, grenades and a copy of Kazantzakis’ Christ Recrucified, given to Afxentiou by the Abbot of Machairas.

 

 

The clip is from a Cyprus TV documentary on the EOKA hero Grigoris Afxentiou. It shows newsreel footage from the Battle of Macheras, the capture of Avgoustis Efstathiou and the death of Afxentiou.

   

The Greek National Anthem

SOURCE: Hellenic Antidote

 

Comments

[Constantinos T]

After all, it was Winston Churchill himself who said that heroes fight like Greeks long before the EOKA struggle. The Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, Royal Northumberland Fusiliers and the Grenadier Guards should have known better before fighting against a Greek hero like Grigoris. I guess they were completely unable to put up with Grigoris' self-denial for his country, this is why they came up with the ...easy solution: pour petrol on the hideout and burn out the great hero. Such a miserable act of cowardice!

[Laura]

I am a British anti-colonialist citizen - this is why my heart aches when I hear of such terrible acts of cruelty performed by British colonialists against other nations. No wonder you are so proud of your hero's self-sacrifice.

[Sophia]

Great tribute!! Heroes never die! Του αντρειωμένου ο θάνατος, θάνατος δε λογιέται!

[Lakis Ioannou]

Grigoris has proved the world that dying for your country's freedom is not a sacrifice but an honor!

[Alexia M]

I am very impressed with this story. A young man in his early thirties gives up his life for his country's love. But what really touched my heart was the interview on the video with the old lady in black who talked about Grigori's mother. His mother said that she lost her son for her country and that her country was welcome to her son. And then she said: Now I will do my duty. And she started to cry....

[Jeff]

Doing things for others and rarely stopping to think about yourself, going above and beyond, like Grigori - that's heroism. As a kid, I saw the Disney characters in movies and thought of their great feats as something I would like to achieve someday. Then I realized as I grew up that I would always love the movies, but those weren’t the kind of heroic acts I hoped to do in my life. Heroism is leading and guiding the way, even in danger. It’s doing what’s right, even when no one is looking at you, or patting you on the back....

[Karolina]

As a Greek, living away from home, I am deeply touched and very proud of a hero I had never heard of before. Having watched the video and read your post, I can only pay my final respects to Grigoris - a brave man, a fearless man who has made us Greeks so proud. May he rest in peace.

[Jean-Paul Bouvier]

Je m'incline devant la grandeur et l'abnégation de cet homme.

[Stefania]

Great heroes never die. Grigoris will always remain alive in the hearts of the Greek Cypriots. Thanks for this great tribute, Anastasia.