Dimitrios Psarros

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dimitrios Psarros (Greek: Δημήτριος Ψαρρός) was a Greek army officer and resistance leader.

Psarros was born in 1893 in the village of Chryso, Phocis. He graduated Greek military school in 1916 and became a Second Lieutenant in the artillery.

Psarros first saw action in the Balkan Wars as a volunteer. He also took part in World War I, the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War and the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922) where, thanks to his bravery, his men were able to pass into Greece from Asia Minor without many casualties. Following that war, he furthered his studies in France and taught in the Greek Military Academy while rising to the rank of colonel.

Psarros took part in the 1935 Venizelist plot and attempted coup d'état and, after its failure, was dismissed from the Hellenic Army. When Greece entered World War II, he sought re-appointment into the armed forces but was refused by the Ioannis Metaxas dictatorship.

Following the collapse of the front, during the German occupation, Psarros attempted to organise a resistance group in Amfissa with the help of Lt. Andreas Mitalas. Next, he went to Macedonia and organised armed groups there to fight the Bulgarians, who had followed the Germans into Greece, occupied much of northern Greece and had set their sights on permanent annexation. The Axis occupation of Greece during World War II would last from May, 1941 to October, 1944

Psarros returned to southern Greece and founded the resistance group EKKA along with politician Georgios Kartalis, officers Dimitrios Karachristos, Dimitrios Georgantas and others. The organisation's aims were to fight the Wehrmacht occupation forces as long as the occupation lasted and, after liberation, work for social change. EKKA had followers and were active mainly in Central Greece but on Easter Monday, April 17, 1944, were attacked by the Communist forces of ELAS who sought to have a monopoly in the political future of Greece after liberation. Psarros was captured, shot, stabbed and killed. His body lay unburied for several days before it was interred at the local cemetery.