between your teeth, my bread will still be there. All this in Ayisofiá, before they burned it down. She was from KastrÃ. From the Farmasónis family. Not Farmasónis. Kaloútsis. Farmasónis was her motherâs name. Kaloútsis. Anyway, they caught her, they took her somewhere, I donât know where. They said to Orthokostá. And they slashed her up afterward, poor thing. They say she put up a fight, we werenât there to see. Fought for her life. But they beat her down.
âIn the detention camp they told me, If you see them taking folks out that door, you know theyâre taking them to be executed. The monastery had two doors. They took Penelope out that same door.
âShe had the flu, thatâs exactly what they said. And Pikinós got her up out of bed and took her in. Because she might have given shelter to someone there. And they left. They went and burned down the whole village, those rebels. And the people got out, they went across from there.
Chapter 29
I went back to TrÃpolis and I reported to Lýras. A verbal report on what I saw during my one and only leave of absence. All that sordidness. In Ayios Pétros the men from Máni and the men from Corinth almost killed each other. We had a battalion of men from Corinth. Theyâd swiped someoneâs watch, and he went and asked for it. He was the uncle or the grandfather of an officer. And he asked for the watch, and the watch was found. In the meantime they began fighting in the main square of Ayios Pétros. With the ELAS rebels right there above us. Right above us. Just looking for a chance to cut us up. I went and explained everything to Lýras. He tells me, All this can you please report it in writing, everything, from the time you went to Astros, whatever you saw? I went and wrote up a report. What the general picture was, the unruliness and the corruption. The sordidness. A situation you couldnât control. Because of course various other forces were coming into play. A strange group of people, the down-and-out. Some of them embittered, others on the run, others, like the men from Máni, who have it in their blood, for example. At any rate. The Allied landing came soon afterward, and Kanellópoulos disembarked in the Peloponnese.
Chapter 30
How many were we? We hadnât been issued any arms yet. We were in TrÃpolis. And they told us, There are rebels in Voúrvoura. Well they gave us arms, since we were from KastrÃ. Just the basics, to get ourselves to Voúrvoura. A whole lot of us, I canât remember. VasÃlis PapayiorghÃou, me, Petrákos, Antónis Biniáris, Miltiádis Mantás, Arapóyiannis.
âArapóyiannis?
âStávros. From Koútrifa. A machine-gun operator. We went to Voúrvoura. First we went to Koútrifa. We had information that the rebels had taken Arapóyiannisâs wife. But she had gone into hiding, they didnât find her. And they burned down his house. From there we went to Voúrvoura. We spent the night there. We found the rebels inside a small church. I think in AyÃa ParaskevÃ, across from the village. Some of our men got into position once they went up there. We had some men from Ayios Pétros with us, in our platoon. Someone named Fourtoúnis, another man named Lykoúras.
âWho was your leader?
âOur leader was Nikólas Petrákos. I think Liás Vémos was too. As second lieutenant. I donât remember. But I do remember that I was the machine-gun ammo-belt loader. Stávros Arapóyiannis was the operator.
âHow old were you then?
âEighteen. We got them out of there. Out of the church, but they got away from us. We didnât get close enough in time to surround them. They heard us coming. Someone fired a shot inside the village, they realized what was up. And they cleared out.
âWere there many of them?
âAbout eight of them. Ten. But they got away. Then we regrouped,
âIn the detention camp they told me, If you see them taking folks out that door, you know theyâre taking them to be executed. The monastery had two doors. They took Penelope out that same door.
âShe had the flu, thatâs exactly what they said. And Pikinós got her up out of bed and took her in. Because she might have given shelter to someone there. And they left. They went and burned down the whole village, those rebels. And the people got out, they went across from there.
Chapter 29
I went back to TrÃpolis and I reported to Lýras. A verbal report on what I saw during my one and only leave of absence. All that sordidness. In Ayios Pétros the men from Máni and the men from Corinth almost killed each other. We had a battalion of men from Corinth. Theyâd swiped someoneâs watch, and he went and asked for it. He was the uncle or the grandfather of an officer. And he asked for the watch, and the watch was found. In the meantime they began fighting in the main square of Ayios Pétros. With the ELAS rebels right there above us. Right above us. Just looking for a chance to cut us up. I went and explained everything to Lýras. He tells me, All this can you please report it in writing, everything, from the time you went to Astros, whatever you saw? I went and wrote up a report. What the general picture was, the unruliness and the corruption. The sordidness. A situation you couldnât control. Because of course various other forces were coming into play. A strange group of people, the down-and-out. Some of them embittered, others on the run, others, like the men from Máni, who have it in their blood, for example. At any rate. The Allied landing came soon afterward, and Kanellópoulos disembarked in the Peloponnese.
Chapter 30
How many were we? We hadnât been issued any arms yet. We were in TrÃpolis. And they told us, There are rebels in Voúrvoura. Well they gave us arms, since we were from KastrÃ. Just the basics, to get ourselves to Voúrvoura. A whole lot of us, I canât remember. VasÃlis PapayiorghÃou, me, Petrákos, Antónis Biniáris, Miltiádis Mantás, Arapóyiannis.
âArapóyiannis?
âStávros. From Koútrifa. A machine-gun operator. We went to Voúrvoura. First we went to Koútrifa. We had information that the rebels had taken Arapóyiannisâs wife. But she had gone into hiding, they didnât find her. And they burned down his house. From there we went to Voúrvoura. We spent the night there. We found the rebels inside a small church. I think in AyÃa ParaskevÃ, across from the village. Some of our men got into position once they went up there. We had some men from Ayios Pétros with us, in our platoon. Someone named Fourtoúnis, another man named Lykoúras.
âWho was your leader?
âOur leader was Nikólas Petrákos. I think Liás Vémos was too. As second lieutenant. I donât remember. But I do remember that I was the machine-gun ammo-belt loader. Stávros Arapóyiannis was the operator.
âHow old were you then?
âEighteen. We got them out of there. Out of the church, but they got away from us. We didnât get close enough in time to surround them. They heard us coming. Someone fired a shot inside the village, they realized what was up. And they cleared out.
âWere there many of them?
âAbout eight of them. Ten. But they got away. Then we regrouped,
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