Flushing the Hares

At last it was clear that the Greek government army meant business. Heartened by U.S. aid and military advice, spurred by U.S. demands to get going, the government had sent three divisions--30,000 troops--after 4,000 guerrillas holed up in the pineclad mountains of south central Greece. Said Lieut. General Stylianos Kitrilakis, deputy chief of staff: "We have flushed the hares. Now we must hunt them down and kill them."

The fighting area was a rough quadrangle between the Lamia-Karpenissi highway and the Gulf of Corinth. It straddled the government supply route from Athens to the north, which has suffered repeatedly from mine-laying and hijacking forays. Through this area also the rebels have smuggled Markos agents, arms and supplies across the gulf to their comrades in the Peloponnesos.

Escape in the Fog. For the three-pronged pincer operation, one division had been furtively shipped from Salonika to Lamia by sea. Pushing up the steep trails, the troops abandoned their jeeps and trucks in favor of mules. Dogs smelled out rebels hiding in caves, many of which were cleaned out in bayonet fights. One cornered Red tossed a grenade into a campfire, killing several government soldiers as well as himself.

Greek warships patrolled the gulf coast, shelling rebel positions on shore. On clear days the Greek air force--Spitfires and Harvard trainers--helped out with strafing and reconnaissance. By last week spearheads of the three ground-force divisions had made contact across the craggy battle area. But catching the hares was not so easy as flushing them. In lowering, misty weather, about half the Markos forces escaped into the Pindus mountains. The fogs, however, enabled many Greeks who were fighting with Markos against their will to desert and surrender.

One ginger-haired deserter of 19, who was allowed to join a government commando unit, told of rebel propaganda efforts to keep up morale. "We were told," he said, "that we would soon be getting air support from 'friendly democracies,' and also artillery so that we could come down from the hills and drive fascists out of the towns." The guerrillas' winter stocks of food and arms were nearly gone (in some places they were eating their mules), but their officers kept saying that Soviet planes would soon drop supplies. Said a deserter who brought his mortar, his mother and four brothers to government-held Karpenissi: "We were told that in the water it is dry" (a Greek colloquialism: we were told nonsense).

Dancing & Goat Thieves. Two giggling girl deserters described the Markos school for female guerrillas: "At dawn we did Swedish drill. After the first meal we had shooting practice and lessons how to read and write, and all about politics. In the evening we were taught Athenian dancing --foxtrot and tango--by a captured army officer. Before the evening meal we learned singing." The favorite song, entitled Here's Health to You, 0 Markos Mine, ran thus:

Never never give up my tommygun,

0 my dear little Markos,

The day will come along

When you will give us freedom.

Here's health to you, 0 Markos mine

As I embrace you closer.

When the government forces captured Krikollo, the hungry children were afraid at first to accept food. They had been told to beware of poisoned "Truman food." The villagers feared that the bandits would come back. One man was taking his family and everything he could pile on his donkey to Karpenissi. His aged mother howled for haste. "We must go before nightfall," she cried. "The woods are still full of goat thieves."

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