When the Italians hit the battleship Elly off Tinos, the government ordered three drafts to be mobilised. Although there were some troop up on the border with the A, T, and S, which they used to call specialised troops.

In the meantime, they told us to present ourselves for duty on the first of September in Chalikida. So, we presented ourselves for duty in Chalkida, they gave us uniforms, they gave us a gun and we did a bit of drill and some physical exercise, mostly cross-country marches. Cross-country so we’d have stamina should there be a war. And we went up and down all the mountains around Chalkida.

Time passed, and along came September 27, 28 through till October 1, when we saw some things going on at Regimental Headquarters which we didn’t like the look of. We asked the officers, but they wouldn’t fill us in…not a thing would they tell us. On the night of September 30, they fed us something or other, and at about 10 in the evening we suddenly heard a bugle call. "Get up!" and we got up and lined up outside. "Get dressed and pick up your rations…we’re going on night time manoeuvres." But instead of manoeuvres, we found a train waiting for us at Chalkida station… with those wagons with "Horses 8, Men 40" written on the side…"Get in!"

So we get in and the train sets off. We got to Larisa. But they didn’t open up the wagons so we could get out and have a look round. Day was breaking.

From there, we continued on our way and got to Florina. When we arrived up there the local military was there to welcome us, and to sort us into groups. Some of us were assigned as stretcher bearers, others to transportation units and various other auxiliary services…because we were almost all Navy men. We weren’t infantry and they didn’t want to put us in the front line.

I ended up in Regimental Transportation.. We stayed there for three or four days, and then we set off on foot for the border and Krystalopigi. We got to Krystalopigi, turned right out of the village, and found ourselves in a village called Sfika. The village was on a plateau, and the farmers had planted potatoes in the fields around the village. We didn’t leave a single one behind us. They pulled them up and roast them over open fires at night.

And in the meantime, on the eve of our planned attack, they put on a play for us, and gave us rum and other stuff they’d give you back then. We presented ourselves there, watched the show, had a drop to drink…and I bumped into a guy who I’d worked with in Euvoia - a sergeant he was now. "Hi there, Vlassi", he says, "So you’re here, are you?" "I am". 'What’s up, Panagiotis?" "I’m fine. And you?" "Fine." The show went on until three or three thirty. We were all off our faces on the rum, and around four, four thirty we hear our first artillery, and it was near our territory. I see my friend the sergeant, and he’s coming towards me, saying, "Vlassis, let’s kiss goodbye!" "What’s up?", I said. "Let me give you my address, and you give me yours, and if anything happens, we can write." "OK, Panagiotis", I told him, and I gave him my address – which he knew already.

And we started. The captain called us, the bugle sounded, and we went to present ourselves, and they gave each of us a bandage, a little box with a bandage in it and a capsule of iodine, and a packet of cigarettes. And the captain says, "Go to your tents, and when the bugle calls come back here." And we did go back to our tents – well, if you could call them tents…they were just a sheet of canvas held up by our rifles. And at around 8 in the morning we set off and got to a village called Kota to get some food.

When we were there we saw about 50 Italian planes flying back from a bombing raid. They bombed the village, too, and hit two or three kids down there. We took cover and went back to camp, and they told us there "take those supplies – bullets and the like they were - and take them to the front line."

The front line was on a hill called Varva. Our boys were gathered there ready to attack. We went and loaded up our mules with bullets, hand grenades and the rest of it. When we got up there, the recruits were very unsettled to find themselves in the front line, but they hadn’t seen any action yet. And that evening, we launched our offensive. And our boys crossed the border. Within two days we found ourselves in a village called Trem, and from there we moved on to a second village called Verniki.

We stayed there for about 10 days, and from there, once the army had advanced and got as far as Ivan and Morava - to the foothills of those two mountains - we moved forward as far as Pinglista, which was a village, a big village. A wealthy village. Which meant that the army had ransacked the place as it passed through, because all armies are the same…lets not tell lies and pretend that we’re any different. No, all armies are the same. The situation you find yourself in hardens you.

And we stayed there for about ten days.

Then there was the attack on Morava and Ivan, and our forces advanced and took Koritsa on November 22. On the 23^rd or 24^th they told us, "We’re moving on". So we kept on advancing, and the weather was now bad every single day – it did nothing but rain. We advanced, went through the centre of Koritsa, and from there on in it started to rain so heavily – from Koritsa on – that you couldn’t see where you were going.

We stumbled onto a plain, and there was a village ahead of us – Kafetzes it was called - and we went into the village and pitched camp there. In the morning we counted our mules, and found that we’d lost about 15 or 20 of them in the terrible weather. We stayed in the village for about 10 days and from there set off walking again to a mountainous area called Ano Gortska and Kato Gortska.

They were two villages with about 5 houses in each. We stopped there for another 10 days, and from there we’d take food and ammunition to the front line. In the meantime, one evening it was, we see a battalion heading towards us under Colonel Tsigante. We met, but we didn’t have any cigarettes or anything because we were in the mountains and there was no way we could get any supplies. And the man took a packet of cigarettes out of his pocket – a colonel this was – and shared them out among us there and then…well, what he had, anyway…and we had a laugh and made a joke or two because we only got a drag each. Anyway, the officers were all fine men…I can’t say otherwise. Whoever they were, they loved their soldiers, they felt for them and would help them in any way they could whenever they could. They were good people.

So, from there we advanced and moved on to another village called Pangria. We stayed about 15 days in Pangria, and then we went down a bit towards Kleisoura…and towards Valabani’s Inn where our general supplies were. And we loaded up the food and stuff and took it to the front line.

Even though the battalions on the front line had their own transport units, we were there, too… let’s say in an auxiliary role. Anyway, one morning – it must have been 8 or 9 o’clock – the sky suddenly went dark with planes flying overhead…there must have been 50 or 60 of them – how can you remember how many? And they’d started dropping shells every so many metres…as if they wanted to make a pattern on the ground they were flying over. And they flew over us, and we scattered. Our captain kept telling us to keep our distance from one another during the day… two or three together was all right, but the planes shouldn’t find us all gathered together…and to stay away from the tents, so the planes couldn’t find us and gun us down. So it was a bombing run, and they bombed a house where the owner had hid corn in the roof. And, of course, it was blown all over the place. We had nothing to eat, so we went and picked it up – from the mud where it had fallen – rubbed it like this and ate it. What could you do? That’s what hunger does to you.

Then the captain tells us, "Get away from here now…" - and we’d lost our animals…we had none of our 50 or so pack animals – "…and go to Frasari. Go to Frasari to get some full magazines, some hand grenades, and some bullets."

And we set off, we climbed up the mountain - was it called Mori? I don’t remember. So we climbed up to the top of the mountain, but we came to a halt as we neared the peak because it was icy up there, and the mountainside was steep…but we cut steps out of the ice up there with our bayonets and managed to get up and over and reach Frasari.

And when we got to Frasari – it was our central supply depot – we set off to get hold of some loaves because we didn’t have any, but there were none to be had. And we – I was with another two lads from Kimi – searched far and wide. Now, I had an automatic lighter – the ships used to call in at Mantoudi on their way from Japan, and one time they’d brought these automatic lighters back with them – and I swapped it with the quartermaster there for a loaf or two so we could get some food inside us. My other friend didn’t miss his chance…he whipped a loaf or two…and the guy we’d given the lighter to said, "Open up your knapsacks", and he threw in the crumbs that were left in the sacks. And remember that sacks were hairy things back then, but who cared about hairs, this, that or the other? Even though I was fussy, I didn’t give a damn and ate the lot, hairs and all. And we loaded up the crates of ammunition and then it was the trudge back to Pangria.

When we got back, it was Christmas Eve. The supply line had been severed completely. There was nothing at all. Just hunger and nothing else. Seeing as it was Christmas, our captain gave us each a piece of bread – that big (very small). A piece of bread and a piece of halvah – the same size as communion bread. And a tin of salmon, a little thing this high and this wide with a fish in it – a little fishy. And those were the only supplies we had for 15 days – fifteen days! - and those two loaves we got from Frasari. That was it.

Hunger, poverty, and we were bare-foot. Lots of soldiers felt so cold they put water in their helmets and warmed it up and then put their feet in it to warm them up and that’s how they got frostbite. That’s how it gets you. Anyone with a bit more sense realised what a disastrous thing this was to do and walked up and down, backwards and forwards at night, and some of the soldiers in the trenches would do the same thing – up and down – so they wouldn’t freeze. Do you see? So the blood circulated.

After that we advanced as far as Gaiza. The road opened up after Gaiza and we went down to Valabani’s Inn. Our trips to the Inn meant we could supply everyone. In the meantime, my horse had frozen to death, and I’d go – let’s say voluntarily – to carry a sack or two back. Seven of us had gone there one night, and I sat there waiting for them as they loaded up their animals. And while I was waiting there, this guy comes up to me and says, "Hey, Vlassi. Could you hold my horse for me?" "Why not?", says I. He hands over his mule and goes off to find his mates. I lose no time, give the mule a kick and hit the road back to camp. I went a little way by myself, waited for my mates, and then we all went back together. What’s more, the mule was carrying a load of hardtack…so we shared it out among the whole company, and we got through like that.

There’s another thing I’d like to tell you…Something I found really strange was that English planes would fly over and drop flyers saying, "We’re at your side. Fight and we’re with you. Southern Italy and Sicily are yours." And every one of us who saw them thought the same thing – none of us could understand: "What’s Italy got to do with us? It’s the English that’ve got Cyprus, and then there’s Eastern Thrace and Constantinople, that was once the capital of the Byzantine Empire, and all the rest of it. What sort of game’s this they’re playing?" No, we couldn’t stomach that at all. And we could see that they weren’t treating us fairly. That’s to say, we’d see them – they’d come over on what was supposed to be a trip and then they’d leave. Do you see?

And my friend the sergeant, who I told you about at the beginning, told me something else which really got us curious…"Listen up, Vlassi.", he says, "We’re lucky we’re on the Western Front. The Germans are sure to attack the Eastern Front come spring. There’s no way Germany and Russia are going to stick to their agreement. No way!" And we were lucky because we could deal with the Italians, because they weren’t as tough as the Germans. So, there was no way we’d believe everything we were told.

After that we set off towards Ano Moumbesi. Trebesina was on our left, and to the North were Mount Tomori and the place where the fuel dump was – I’ll remember its name in a minute. And there opposite us were the Tria Avga. The Italians started bombarding us day and night. Continually. They didn’t stop for even a minute. And on March 1^st especially, the fighting was so heavy you thought the ground was going to disappear from under your feet. What a bombardment! And the Italians had good artillery, while we were stuck with the Daglis 5 and 7 inch guns that Daglis had perfected back in 1917. And we didn’t have any machine guns, we had the old ones instead…from the war of 1920. Our weaponry was as good as useless...and you saw the Italians firing away – rat, tat, tat! But what we noticed about our animals was that once the shell dropped, they jumped forward. Do you see? They changed direction. How can I put it? It was as if they were being pushed forward by some force – I don’t know. What can I say? And that saved us on many occasions.

I remember one time… we were on our way back from somewhere, and we were coming up to our camp when we came to a little stream with a drop of water in it. There was no way my mule would go down into it. No way. Two of us got down and pulled it from the front…but without success. And the others say, "We can’t wait till your mule feels like co-operating to get past you. Stay and do whatever you want!" So I took the road above the river and went up and up and up. When I came to a rise, I cut back down and reached camp. What I want to say is that I have no idea what could have happened to me but there was no way the mule would go on…it went the way it wanted to go, and that way brought me back to camp.

Anyway, I got back to camp and we’re in a shack there with, I think, a corrugated iron roof, and the Italians are firing at us with a machine gun and lobbing in shells, as well. And a whizz bang lands just outside the shack, and there was a soldier outside…and it rips his pocket off, cuts clean through his sword belt and drops onto his foot without harming him in any way! – there wasn’t a mark on him!

And we went down to Valabani’s Inn to stock up on supplies. On our way down, I see a guy with who knows how many wounds – he was wrapped up like an Egyptian mummy. "I’m happy to be going back", he said. "How can you be happy?", we said, "You’re a cripple" – I mean the lice, the hunger, the hardships, all of that, you just couldn’t stand it. You couldn’t take it. You went like this and caught 10 lice. Do it again, and there’d be another ten. Wherever you touched there’d be lice. I mean we didn’t have a thing. We didn’t have any other clothes to change into, nothing. Our pants were ripped from here down. There was nothing. How can I put it…God knows how we stood it, how we stood it and got back in good shape. God alone knows, and I really mean that, because I could put up with a lot back then…a hell of a lot. I wasn’t scared of the cold, I wasn’t scared of anything. I didn’t even think about the cold.

Anyway, it was a captain from Serres that saved me. He saw me and the state of my boots…there was nothing from here on, nothing at the front, the heel was on top and we’d wrapped them up with bits of sacking on the top…and he said, "I’m going to get you some boots now." And we went to the quartermaster’s store – where they had the boots and I don’t know what else. There were some boots with the supplies the English had dropped, but listen to this!…they were all for left feet. And the soles let the rain in in five seconds flat…in other words, the leather hadn’t even been tanned. I think the idea was to wipe us out more quickly rather than helping us. And he got me some boots, and we kept going back and forth…that was our job.

And one morning the captain says to us, "You’re going to Premeti. You’re going to Premeti to pick up some parcels your parents have sent and some other stuff "

So we went to Premeti, but by the time we got there, the Italians had already gone and bombarded the place. But on the way, we found out that Germany had attacked. Germany had attacked, and we went back empty-handed. "Patience", the captain said, "Patience."

And then it was time to withdraw. We stuck together as far as the border, but then scattered. I happened to find myself in a village called Ano Revani, outside Kalpaki, with another two lads, and they held us there, and wouldn’t let us go on…because the Germans were hammering Florina and were on their way down to Ioannina. When Kalpaki fell later on, they let us continue on our way. And we went on and got to Ioannina where our supply base was. It was chaos there. The villagers had fallen on it like a pack of wolves and so had the soldiers, and between them they’d torn the place to pieces. Someone would take one thing, another something else…everyone took whatever they fancied.

And from there we set off on foot, begging along the way…for bread and nothing else. A little bread. And we went past Metsova and we climbed up into Pindus on foot. We climbed over Pindus and got to Kalambaka, and it was there, just outside Kalambaka, that we found the Germans. They held us there for three days…they wouldn't let us through. Why? Because they hadn’t taken Lamia yet…and the battle was raging down there. We stayed there for three days without any food – we were in a terrible state - and when they let us go, we went into Kalambaka…but even if we’d had money to buy something, there was nothing to buy.

And from there we continued on foot and with no food in our bellies, and we’d go from person to person and ask them for a piece of bread. We got to Trikala, supposedly to take the train to Volos, and from there, who knows, maybe to Farsala to get the other train. It was chaos there. We found something to eat, some lentils and some beans…or rather, we bought them with the last of our money. We’d thrown our guns away by then. And we cooked up a little food.

We went on, but when we got near Lamia, we didn’t go through the town…instead we went through Kaitsa and Dadi…and came down onto the Domokos plain. Then we went through Megali Panagia, and came out well clear of Lamia, and continued on to the narrow strip of land where the battle against the Persians took place.

And there we see a guy with a boat, we shout to him, he comes over, and we ask him to take us across to Euvoia. There were about ten of us. "Can you take us across to Euvoia?" "I’ll take you across for 50 Drachmas each", he says. "Fifty Drachmas." I had some money, and some of the other boys had, too, so we paid him and he took us across. They took us across, and put us ashore at Gialoutra.

And we went to a taverna there, and the guy there says, "We’ll give you something to eat and drink - whatever you like - just don’t come into our houses." "Don’t worry…we don’t want to", we said, because we were crawling with lice. Lice! If you did this you’d catch ten of the buggers. And they gave us something to eat and drink, I don’t remember what, and we went outside and one of us lay down on one pavement, and another on the opposite pavement…we didn’t even have greatcoats or anything…or rather, we only had our greatcoats. If you went like this you touched your bare chest…we’d thrown everything else away. We’d thrown them away because we couldn’t stand the lice. We just couldn’t stand them. Lice like this…Let me tell you we had three different type of lice, three species. "There it is", said my wife when she was boiling the greatcoat…they’d come to the surface and she thought it was the foam, the lather. Lice lie that!

Anyway, in the morning, we needed to go to Mantoudi, but it was a long way away. We went down to the shore in case there was some boat with an engine or anything to take us at least as far as Limni, and from there we could go on foot. There was a guy down there, but it was all, "I don’t have this" and "I don’t have that"…so it was shank’s pony for us.

And we walked as far as Rovies, just outside Limni, where we found a guy from our village who welcomed us, and gave us some food and something to drink. And we set off from there. It’s 24 kilometres. Do you know how long we did it in? Four hours! We did it in 4 hours. Despite the hunger, despite the misery, despite the…Night was falling when we got to Mantoudi. We bumped into a guy from the village, and he said, "Don’t take the road, because there are Germans around – they might arrest you." So we waded through the river - there was this much water in it - and we got across and went on our way…and arrived at the village.

I was engaged – I wasn’t married yet – and my brother had left, because he’d been mobilised, too. There were five of us brothers in the army, and we were all in auxiliary services…two were nurses, one was a chauffeur – they’d taken him with his car. And my cousin’s husband had been mobilised, and my youngest brother who was in the draft of ’40.

I got to my village and my in-laws welcomed me into their home, and I stayed there. And lots of things happened after that.

The Italians arrived and did what they wanted to, and we tried to resist however we could. But the Italians were always softer. The Germans were worse. Something happened just after the Italians arrived. I was with a guy called Georgios Soulas, a lawyer. And as we were walking along, one of the Italians comes up to me and hits me over the head. Now, everyone carried crooks in Mantoudi at the time…so he clobbers me, and I went like this, and Georgios says, "Don’t move, Vlassi, because…" "OK, Georgios, I won’t say a thing." And none of us said anything…

In the meantime, the Germans came to Greece. The Germans were tough bastards…really tough. One of them came round to my father-in-law’s house and asked for eggs. I kept my cool and said, "Eggs, Russia!." "Oh, no, no Russia, Russia kaput! Kaput!" And I said, "Russia, eggs!", and he says, "No, no kaput." He looks at the number of the house – number 10 it was – and says, "I’ll get you." There were two of them, one Austrian and one Bavarian.

As he was leaving, he says….an order’s come for them to go to Russia. And they set off for Russia in the middle of the night. The other one – the Austrian – stayed behind and would walk past the house every morning, look at me and laugh. And he’d say, "The other guy…Russia…eggs. Russia…eggs." And we’d laugh. Although they were invaders, the guys in Mantoudi weren’t very hard. They were soft.

And we had a radio there and a steam engine…an upright engine which burnt wood. They’d connected it to a generator and we used that to power the radio. And one of the guys had a radio and we listened to the news and found out what was going on in the world.

One morning, we see that the people opposite have blown the whistle on us, and that the Italians were heading straight for us. We quickly took the motor and connected it to the band saw we used to cut wood, so it would look like we were cutting wood, do you see? So they came in, and the other guy who’s workshop we’re in suddenly yells, "The safety valve!"…there was a valve underneath, and if you opened it the machine would let out a lot of steam and smoke. And that’s what we did, so it would look as if something had gone wrong and the others inside could do what they had to without being disturbed. And that’s how we got away with it.

The carabinieri went inside, and one of them says, "We want you to make us a yataghan." "We’ll make you a yataghan." "And a spring with a bell on the end." Because they were afraid of the partisans. They wanted to tie it up there, to the door, so that the tiniest movement would make the bell ring so they’d all hear. Well, we had to make them for them. So we made them, and it wasn’t the last thing we had to make them by a long chalk.

And the day came when the war ended. The Italians surrendered, and we handed the entire Italian regiment in Mantoudi over to the partisans. And they helped them get across to the mainland. One of them - a captain - stayed behind to fight with our partisans.

And that’s what the war was like. We suffered a lot, but what’s the point in mulling over it. Two or three planes crashed near Mantoudi during the Occupation. We stripped them down, scattered the remains, and took the guns. The partisans got the Germans - they captured and executed them all. It was…how can I put it?

On the one hand, you could see the misery all around you. And we couldn’t take that, I couldn’t stand it. There was this little boy who’d come round to the house every morning. And he’d say, "Auntie, be kind, and give us an olive, just one little olive." Do you know what hunger’s like? Because people were starving in the villages, too, not only in Athens like they say. Because there were people who didn’t have any land or a house, or anything.

And that’s why I say war’s got just the one face - it looks the same whichever way you look at it. I don’t want to see another war, and not only me - I don’t want my children or my grandchildren to see it, either. Why should they have to see such horror, such a war, such a catastrophe? Why should you have to ask yourself what something is, why you’re knocking it down, why you’re burning it, why you’re destroying it. Remember that village I told you about - Frasari - well, we took off all their roofs, took out their window frames, and burnt their floorboards and their doors to get through the winter? There wasn’t…there isn’t good and bad in war, it’s all the same. You do what you can to save your hide and nothing else. Not a thing.

And that’s what I wanted to tell you. I don’t know if you’re satisfied.