On This Day in History: March 4

The Battle of Fardykambos

AUDIO VERSION HERE

Fardykambos. Far-dee-kaaaam-bos. FARDYKAMBOS! I’ll fardy your kambos. That’s what the Greek Resistance did. They fardyed the kambos of some fascist Italian fucknuggets and had those lickers of Hitlerian boots waving the white flags so hard it set seagulls a-tumble. You know, because of the breeze from—never mind.

--On This Day in History Shit Went Down: March 4, 1943--

Technically the Italians weren’t Nazis, but in World War II they were allied with Nazis, so . . . fucking Nazis. Not much attention is paid to Greece during that war, but shit did go down. They were occupied by the Axis (the bad guys) and because people didn’t like Nazis, Greece had a resistance. In fact, the Greek Resistance was one of the strongest of all such groups fighting those Nazi pus nuts in the entire war. Because fuck Nazis.

March 4, 1943 began the Battle of Fardykambos, and some badass Greeks fucked some infected-testicle Nazi shit up. It’s important to note that the Greek Resistance was not a monolith, but rather comprised of several different groups with myriad political alignments. They were, however, united in their opinion that Nazis suck and needed to die. The main movement was the communist-aligned National Liberation Front, but their acronym is EAM because Greek, and the battle began with the ambushing of an Italian transport column. The nearby Italian garrison sent reinforcements to affect a rescue, and a full-on fight broke out between Italian forces and the EAM.

Guess what happened then? Fucking way cool shit is what happened. The sounds of the battle were heard by the local populace, and people said “Hey! They’re killing fucking Nazis. I want to kill some fucking Nazis too! Let’s go help them kill fucking Nazis!” Okay yeah, they weren’t for-real Nazis, but they fought in alliance with Hitler so close enough. Fuck them up.

And fuck them up they did. Even the rival resistance groups from the right-wing end of the political spectrum got in on the fun. The battle grew from the location of the ambush into a general uprising, with the larger fight taking place at Fardykambos against the Italian garrison lasting another two days. By the end of it, people from across the land flocked toward the battle, wanting to get in on the killing of the oppressors who brutally occupied their land for the previous two years.

In the battles, only four Greeks lost their lives, but close to 100 Italians were killed and over 500 screamed “Please stop killing us!” and were taken prisoner. The victory created a critical liberation zone for Greece that initiated a steady withdrawal of the invading fascists from the peninsula.

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