The battle of Trebeshin, January 1941

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Greek Soldiers at Trebeshin, above the Cleisoura straights

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General Hugo Cavallero with Italian soldiers

Trebeshin, January 1941
The Apotheosis

Trebeshin; a huge mountain complex. Spread of 26 km/16 miles. Heights 1285, 1620, 1923. Toward the south, the Aoos river. In the opposite direction, the Ludjerica mountain. Between them, the Cleisoura straights. The road to Vlore. Trebeshin; its view is awe-inspiring.
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The Italians occupied it to intercept the Greek advance. They had assessed its crucial strategic significance. Their entire 25th Army Corps-4 Infantry divisions in total and one of blackshirts-had been deployed on it. With independent Alpini battalions. With Mountain and Field Artillery. With complete air superiority. 18 Regiments in all. The Greek Army HQ suggests that we should capture Trebeshin, to hold the front. The Epirus Command, orders the B' Corps (I, XI, XV Division) and one regiment from the V Cretan Division (10 Regiments in all) to attack the Italian positions.
In January, one battalion from the 36th IR, manages to step on a small part of the mountain chain. Due to the blizzard, it moves eastwards. The Italians avail themselves of the fresh alpini units advance and recapture the ridge. With combine attacks on Cleisoura, they aim at the capturing of the road to Vlore and ofcourse to Greece. The B' Corps stood up and fought obstinate. The determinant of the Greek success in this encounter, was the HQ's decision to throw into the battle, in a critical moment, in the sector seen as inaccessible or unapproachable by other units, the 14th "Chania" Infantry Regiment of the V Cretan Division, not for a static defence posture, but rather to launch an offensive and capture the most unconquerable peak.
The order was given in a polite manner. It was an entreaty more or less, an appeal to the drenched to the skin men:
"Please, when you reach the top, stay there at all costs. God be with you. I will be following you."
(Colonel Nikolaos Spendos, the youngest-40 years old-superior officer and the bravest of the brave).
Heroism, craze and despair. Self-sacrificies, hopelessness, defiance of death. I've seen and experienced the limits of human stamina, I've wittnessed the last gasp of my comrades. I could do nothing. I tried to help but I could nothing, not even seal their dead eyes. My fingers were frozen. If the two were to fight, who would win? The enemy or the cold?
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Greek advance to Trebeshin

Imagine, to try to dig a trench on the thick ice, or to climb a couple of metres up to to the slope and then, when the mortar or the artillery shell explodes, the force of the explosion thrust topple you over down the slope. And again to struggle to your feet and continue to climb up the slope. Hunger, thirst, sleet. Frostbites, frozen feet and breath. And yet, we reached the top. The Italians had abandoned it. The night came. A few lucky men and fewer those who outlived the freezing night. Waking the dead cold. Now it's dawn, we can see the sun. We are gathering the machine guns and ammunition and the grenades left by the Italians
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The Command Post of the Italian 53 Infantry Regiment of the SFORZESCA Division set at the altitude of 500m/1640 feet

We tried to be invisible to the Italian eye. They were near. We decided to lie in ambush. The machine guns are ready that same moment when we saw the Italians begin an assault. They could never have thought that on the opposite brae face, the Greeks were expecting them.
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It was unimaginable to them, that it was humanly possible to climb up the mountain under such a blizzard. They kept coming to us almost the entire morning, without ever thinking of what was waiting for them at the top. They are so near now, we can hear their voices. "Whoever shoots without my command, I will kill him!" I said.
"But they're coming, they're near, they're hundreds of them!" one of my men replied. They are now about 20m away from us. I was pointing my beretta at the two impatient men of my unit, Markos Hatzidakes and Markos Doukakes...I mean my threat! The Italians by now, are 3-5m away. "Fire", I shouted...
Within the next moments, the snow white slope changed to black and red. It was the beginning of the end for the Italians...
"Fix bayonet!"...
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..our Captain, Artemios Kourtesses, a cheerful man from Corfu, fell just after the first yards...I met him wear two wooden legs a few years later.
Reservist Lt. Nikolaos Katzourakes, was bleeding to death after the battle. We layed him down inside the dugout to die. He survived the war.
Reservist 2nd Lt. Petros Varoudakes, badly wounded, kept leading his men in the fight, despite his severe injury. He survived the war.
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Nobody can describe the apotheosis of the Cretan soul, the deeds of heroism unthought-of, of the 11th Company of the 14th Regiment of the V Cretan Division.

Hesiod Tsingos,
Reservist 2nd Lieutenant and Platoon leader,
of the 11th Company, of the 14th Regiment, of the V Cretan Division*.
Gold Medal for Valour recipient

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Italian POWs after the battle of Trebeshin

*V Cretan Division, from January 1-29, 1941, lost 3,350 men (KIA, MIA and wounded, mostly from frostbites)

The battle of Trebeshin, January 1941 [Archive] - Military Photos

 

Excellent post JC!
Thank you for putting it up here.

Django