Liberation of Elassona
With the outbreak of the war, on the morning of 5 October 1912, the Army of Thessaly began its advance northward. It relatively easily captured the Ottoman border outposts and moved toward Elassona and Deskati, while the Ottoman forces had organized their defensive line at the Sarantaporos Pass.
The city of Elassona was liberated on 6 October 1912, becoming the first Greek city to be liberated at the beginning of the First Balkan War. Newspaper front pages of the time conveyed the message of the commander Panagiotis Danglis:
“Elassona has been captured by the Greek Army. The Crown Prince directed the battle. The ambitious successor, George, has received his baptism of fire.”
The journalist Giorgos Ventiris vividly describes the first day of the operations:
“Before Elassona the Turks resisted stubbornly. The Greek soldiers and many officers were seeing battle for the first time. At first they wavered, but the younger officers urged them forward. The Crown Prince directed the battle from the firing line. The Turks withdrew in disorder toward Sarantaporos.”
(Military Review, 4 (2012), pp. 7–63)
In 1939, the Prefect of Larissa attended the first major celebration of the anniversary of Elassona’s liberation. He himself had taken part in the battle as an army officer. Let us allow him, in his own words, as he addressed the people of Elassona in 1939, to recount his experience:
“Dear Friends,
I am exceedingly happy because, after twenty-seven whole years, God has granted me the privilege of setting foot once again upon these lands which, more than a quarter of a century ago, attracted the attention of all Greeks beyond Melouna Pass.
I had the fortune, twenty-seven years ago, to be counted among the officers of the army that followed the legendary Horseman, the late King Constantine I of Greece, in his heroic advance from the heights of Melouna.
With deep emotion I remember the thrill that seized us when, from the opposite heights of ‘Skomba,’ we first beheld Elassona. There we had positioned our artillery, which was not required to act during the first phase of operations but later fought heroically at Sarantaporos.
Yet this is not the moment for a historical review. Memories have carried me on a nostalgic journey into the world of the past—the world of a beautiful dream that came true and today stands as a living reality.
When one has lived the life of a soldier, been baptized in the fire of war, and given one’s best to so sacred a cause, one never forgets, no matter how many years pass, the great milestones of one’s life.
Elassona constituted such a milestone—not only in my own life, but in the life of our nation.
When in 1912 we climbed toward the ridges of Melouna, we said: If we take Elassona, nothing will stop us anywhere. And indeed, nothing stopped us.
The ‘Son of the Eagle’ took flight from those heights, and full of enthusiasm we foll.owed him in his swift advance—to Sarantaporos, to Kresna, to Thessaloniki, and to Ioannina.
It was a miracle. But that miracle occurred thanks to our national unity, embodied by the commanding King. Our devotion to him and our faith in his creative spirit were the principal factors of our great victory.
Those among you who were older—and who fought alongside him—will remember the confidence with which we looked to him. The soldiers would say: ‘When we have King Constantine, we shall always win victories.’ And indeed, that is what happened.
I emphasize this so that you may understand—and especially so that the young may understand—the importance of the spiritual unity of a people and the wonders that can arise from it.
Today I am happy to say that, after twenty years of dreadful civil strife and tragic internal trials, the Greek people, under the sceptre of King George II of Greece, are once again united, as they were then. Hatreds and the wild passions of the unhappy past no longer torment them.
And today we also possess something more: we have a government not partisan, but national, headed by Ioannis Metaxas.
Therefore the Greek people can once again accomplish wonders—and they surely will.
When, a week ago, the local authorities invited me to attend today’s celebration, they asked me to honor the anniversary of the liberation of Elassona. They explained that this celebration carries a symbolic character. Today we commemorate liberation from foreign rule and corruption.
Indeed, Elassona, like all Greek cities and villages, now feels the meaning of freedom. The tyranny of the party boss no longer exists. All Greeks are now favored equally by the State. They are equal before the laws, and no one’s rights are violated.
You know to whom this change is owed: to the Fourth of August and to Ioannis Metaxas.”
Source: Eleftheria (Larissa newspaper), Issue 5679 (Year 17), Tuesday, 10 October 193 9.
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