The Gregoris Afxentiou SAGA

disclosed the secrets of the Organisation to the British. On 21 October Afxentiou handed the Pentadaktylos sector over to Thasos Sofocleous and moved to Troodos as group leader of Pitsilia. He was taken by Kyriacos Matsis and Nitsa Hatzigeorgiou as far as Kakopetria. He was received by Gregoris Gregoras, the group leader of Solea (Davelis). With Christos Tsiartas, Charalambos Kyriakides and Kyriacos Alexandrou as guides, he reached the hideout at Spilia on 29 November 1955. He met with leader Digenis and the group leader of Pitsilia, Renos Kyriakides. The Leader entrusted to Afxentiou the Pitsilia sector and nominated Renos Kyriakides as Group Leader of the guerilla force. On 5 December he blew up the power transformer at Karvounas from where they seized two hunting guns. They were accompanied by Christos Tsiartas, Kyriacos Kokkinos, Georgios Michael and Georgios Loizides – Apostratos, who subsequently turned into an agent of the British. Afxentiou operated under the pseudonyms Zedros, Rigas, Aeas, Aris, Zotos . Accompanied by Christos Permettis he reached the village of Spilia. On 11 December 1955 he played a key role in the Spylia battle, where after the first clash of his men, Charalambos Batarias and Kyriacos Kokkinos with the British troops, after realising the great superiority of the British, ordered them to go and join leader Digenis and the entire group who were waiting at the point of escape and to leave the area. He himself undertook to mislead the British in order to give time to the leader and the whole group to escape to Kakopetria. He subsequently found himself in between two groups of British soldiers and under the cover of the fog fired shots against both sides. He then started tumbling down. Confused, the British started firing at each other and many British soldiers were killed or injured. Afxentiou reached “Strouthkia” and from there he moved to Ayia Irini. He then proceeded to Kannavia, where he slept for three nights in the church. He came in touch with priest Papalexandros who helped him. On Wednesday night, 14 November, with Christos Pirmetis as guide, he reached the outskirts of Saranti village He then continued on his way alone and reached Lagoudera, where he stayed first in the house of Michael Symeonides and then the house of Michalakis Eleftheriou. Some guerillas from the Spilia group met him there and Avgoustis Efstathiou and Ioannis Pavlou (Pipinos) joined them. The group was reconstituted and moved to a hut in the “Petaoulia” locality, where they spent the night on Christmas Day. Guerilla Andreas Antoniades (Keravnos) from Vouni became voluntarily an agent of the British and revealed code words and names to the British. Gregoris grew a beard and assumed the pseudonym of Aris. He also changed the pseudonyms of his comrades. He gave Charalambos Christodoulou the pseudonym Batarias. The group was renewed with more guerillas, Georghios Matsis, Antonakis Antona and Petros Stylianou. They celebrated New Year’s day at Palechori. Half of the group remained in the house of Andreas and Maritsa Karaoli. Afxentiou remained with other comrades in the house of Christoforos Michael Foris. In the house of Andreas Karaolis they constructed the “oven” hideout.