Even before World War II was over, the Communist guerrillas had begun to consolidate control of the countryside, with the main objective of undermining and destroying the Greek internal security battalions, the gendarmerie. Initially, the guerrilla andartes obtained most of their arms from the Italians–who had surrendered in September 1943–and then from the retreating Germans. The guerrillas even used German, Italian, British, Australian and New Zealand soldiers, deserters from various armies that were in Greece, as instructors. Such was the confused situation in the country toward the end of the war, in fact, that observers reported seeing Axis and Allied deserters sitting together in outdoor cafes in Athens while military police patrols zipped past, intent on greater problems.

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With the Greek government unable to control a deteriorating situation, fighting between the two main enemies, the EAM and EDES, began in Athens on December 3, 1944, with EAM artillery hitting British headquarters with its first shots. A Communist secret police force name OPLA fanned out into the city, knocking on doors and killing thousands of real and suspected enemies of the party. In three weeks, OPLA executed an estimated 13,500 Greeks, twice the number of their own countrymen killed during the three years of German occupation.

According to the most reliable accounts, the EAM/ELAS units had about 40,00men and women organized into two ‘armies’: Army South, commanded by Siantos and Mandakas, about 18,000 combatants in three divisions; and Army North, commanded by Saraphis and Aris, about 23,000 combatants in five divisions. Undermanned and out gunned themselves, the British could do little to help the national Greek government, which, going from one crisis to another, seemed to churn ineffectually.

For six weeks, a bloody struggle took place until the British, who had been encouraged by a surprise Christmas Day visit to Athens by Winston Churchill, managed to push back the rebels. Although EAM/ELAS had driven Zervas and his EDES off the mainland to the island of Corfu, the Communists had been humbled by their failure to take Athens. ELAS guerrillas now withdrew 100 miles from the city. Foolishly, they refused to release about 16,000 civilian hostages they had rounded up, a strategy that greatly reduced ELAS’s popularity in the countryside an allowed the government forces to regain large area. The truce that ended the fighting in January 1945 did not arrive soon enough to prevent the deaths of 25,000 Greeks in what later became known as the first phase of the Greek Civil War.

With promises of government reforms, many of the Communist groups disbanded, and ELAS even surrendered a large quantity of its arms. many Red guerrillas, however, refused to disarm and took off to the hills. Some fled across the borders of neighboring countries, vowing to return. For a few months at least, the situation looked better.

That was not to last long. The determination of hard-core Communists to control the country now combined with an atmosphere of mutual distrust and hatred. At the same time, government policies remained shortsighted–for example, the government allowed paramilitary terrorist units such as Grivas’ X group to ‘clean up’ ELAS elements in the cities in such a ruthless manner that thousands joined the rebel army. All such factors contributed to undermining and eventually breaking down the truce.

In December 1945, the Communists reorganized the scattered insurgents into a secret army, which filtered across the border in to Yugoslavia and Albania and established training camps.

Near the town of Bulkes, Yugoslavia, just to the north of Belgrade, the Communists also established a ‘model community’ based on the purist Stalinist orthodoxy. Here, life revolved around five-man cells. In an atmosphere filled with fear and mistrust, the slightest questioning of camp discipline was considered treason. It reached such absurd, Kafkaesque proportions that not even a trip to the outhouse could take place without the entire cell going along, with the most unreliable men positioned in the middle.

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