The battle of Hill 731

Yesterday, Greece celebrated the "No" day. For the record, at dawn of 28th of October, 1940, the Italians sent an ultimatum, demanding large pieces of land to be given to Italy in order to establish naval bases in order to operate against the British in the Aegean sea. The Greek Prime Minister, Ioannis Metaxas, refused.

Many people know what happened later. The Italian army attacked, and Greece had to defend. But one thing that many people don't know about, is the infamous Hill 731. On this hill, Italian and Greek soldiers fought one of the bloodiest battles.




Hill 731 is located approximately 20 km north of Kleisoura. It was one of the strongest points the Hellenic army had captured during the winter period of the war. It was the key to the whole defense line at the Albanian central sector. The fact that this hill was in Greek hands, condemned any Italian attempt to break the defense line. The Italian attack started March 9th, 1941, with heavy artillery, mortar and air bombardment on the Greek defenses.


Photo : Italian troops attack to the "haunted" hill





Operation "Primavera", also known as Spring Offensive, was Italy's last attempt to break the Greek defense lines and conquer Greece, who had alread pushed the Italian forces back to Albania and were currently holding 1/3 of the country. The operation lasted from 9 to 16 March 1941.




The operation was to be directed and observed by Mussolini, who arrived in Tirana on 2 March 1941; Italian radio announced that Mussolini lead the Italian attack. The offensive began on 9 March, under General Carlo Geloso and started with heavy bombardment of Greek positions by artillery and aircraft. Eleven infantry divisions attacked with the support of the 131st Armoured Division Centauro. A heavy artillery barrage and air bombardment; on the main sector, held by the Greek 1st Division, over 100,000 shells were dropped on a 6 km (3.7 mi) front. Despite repeated assaults and heavy shelling, the positions of 1st Division held during 9–10 March. The attack was mainly directed against the 1st, 2nd, 5th, 11th, 15th and 17th divisions of the Greek army and was followed by repeated infantry assaults between the rivers Osum and Vjosë, an area dominated by Mount Trebeshinë.

On 14 March, Italian General Ugo Cavallero, realizing that the attacks had failed, advised Mussolini to stop the offensive. Fierce fighting occurred on height 731, which was assaulted by the Italians at least 18 times. Attacks, preceded by heavy artillery bombardments, followed daily until 24 March, the last day of the Italian offensive, without achieving any result. The Greek forces maintained an active defence, which included counter-attacks and systematic exploitation of advantageous terrain. Decisive factors in the Greek success were that Greek artillery was not neutralized and the high morale of the Greek troops.

On Hill 731 fought men of the 5th regiment, 1st Infantry Division, who were born in the cities of Karditsa and Trikala. Their commander was Major Dimitrios Kaslas. The unit fought until the night of March 12/13, when they were replaced by the 19th Regiment, 6th Infantry Division of Serres. Kaslas' unit was replaced by Captain Koutridis' battalion, which fought till the end of the operations. Those small units had to face the Italian 8th Army Corp with 4 divisions and 2 Melanochitones battalions.

The casualties for the Hellenic army were 125 men dead, 28 missing and 425 injured, while the Italian army had 1000 dead and 3000 injured.




Due to heavy bombardment, the hill is now 5 meters shorter (it's called Hill 726). It is estimated that 100.000 artillery rounds fell on the hill.

Many people named the hill, the new Thermopyles. It was a true challenge for the soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division to hold their positions against such an overwhelming force.