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Collaboration, 1941 - 1944

II Evzone Battalion Service Certificate

Picture
Service certificate of the II Evzone Battalion, stationed in Nafpaktos. The text reads:


II Nafpaktos Evzone Battalion

                                                                                                                Certificate
​
I, the signing Infantry Major Georgios Kapetzonis, Commanding Officer of the aforementioned Battalion, certify that Infantry Major Andreas Farsaris has served in the Security Battalions since December 1, 1943 and in the Battalion commanded by me until September 31, 1944, when he followed the Battalion to the concentration camp of Araxos until the present day. The aforementioned Major is led by Nationalistic Ideals - and has also displayed an Outstanding Conduct, having supported the work undertaken by us against the anarchist elements acting in Greece.

                                                                                                                                                                                                Araxos, November 1944
                                                                                                                                                                                  The Commanding Officer of the Battalion
                                                                                                                                                                                                         (signature)


The CO of the Battalion, Major Kapetzonis, initially served in the 5/42 Regiment, led by the Resistance organization EKKA. At the same time he was a member of the "Military Hierarchy", led by Alexandros Papagos and objected to a possible cooperation with ELAS, by creating an anticommunist core within the unit. After the clashes which led to the destruction of the Regiment by ELAS in April 1944, Kapetzonis retreated alongside with about 100 men to the Corinthian Gulf, where they surrendered to the Germans and later joined the Evzone Regiment of Patras. According to another certificate, which was offered for sale to the collectors' market by the same source, Major Farsaris also served in this formation.

Kapetzonis arrived in Nafpaktos in July 1944, commanding a Company of the Patras Regiment, in order to reinforce the recently raised Nafpaktos Battalion, which had already had its first battles with the forces of ELAS, alongside with two more Companies transferred from Agrinio. Kapetzonis took over command of the reorganized Battalion and improved the defensive positions of the town. In the following period a series of small scale battles and skirmishes took place, with the Battalion being encircled.

After the retreat of the Germans from the area on September 12, 1944, the Collaborators joined the newly instituted National Army on September 15 and were transported with small boats to the Peloponnese three days later, after an agreement with ELAS. There, they were confined in the Barracks of Araxos. The certificate was issued during this period, a few days before the Battle of Athens, when the men of the Security Battalions were released from captivity.
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