Battle of Meligalas

Battle of Meligalas
Part of the Greek Resistance
Date 13–15 September 1944 Location Meligalas, Messenia, Greece 37°13′23″N 21°57′14″E / 37.22306°N 21.95389°E / 37.22306; 21.95389 Result ELAS victory Execution of prisoners by ELAS and local peasants
Belligerents
ELAS	Security Battalions
Commanders and leaders
Giannis Michalopoulos [el] Tasos Anastasopoulos Kostas Basakidis [el]	Dimitris Perrotis  Dionysios Papadopoulos (WIA) (POW) Nikos Theofanous Panagiotis Benos †
Units involved
9th and 8th ELAS Regiments, elements of 11th Regiment, 9th Brigade staff, Reserve ELAS, Mavroskoufides [el][1]	Meligalas garrison
Strength
about 1,200	about 1,000
Casualties and losses
over 150 dead, 250 wounded[2]	see below
class=notpageimage| Location within Greece

The Battle of Meligalas (Greek: Μάχη του Μελιγαλά, romanized: Machi tou Meligala) took place at Meligalas in Messenia in southwestern Greece, on 13–15 September 1944, between the Greek Resistance forces of the Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS) and the collaborationist Security Battalions.

During the Axis occupation of Greece, ELAS partisan forces began operating in the Peloponnese from 1942, and in 1943 began to establish their control over the area. To confront them, the German occupation authorities formed the Security Battalions, which took part not only in anti-guerrilla operations but also in mass reprisals against the local civilian population. With the liberation of Greece drawing near in 1944, the Security Battalions were increasingly targeted by ELAS.

Following the withdrawal of German forces from the Peloponnese in September 1944, a part of the collaborationist forces in Kalamata withdrew to Meligalas, where a force of about 1,000 Battalionists gathered. There they were quickly surrounded by ELAS detachments, some 1,200 strong. After a three-day battle, the ELAS partisans broke through the fortifications and entered the town. The ELAS victory was followed by a massacre, during which prisoners and civilians were executed near a well. The number of executed people is variously estimated at between 700 and 1,100 on different counts. After news of the massacre spread, the leadership of ELAS and of its political parent group, the National Liberation Front (EAM) took steps to ensure a peaceful transition of power in most of the country, limiting reprisal occurrences.

During the post-war period and following the Greek Civil War, the ruling right-wing establishment immortalized the Meligalas massacre as evidence of communist brutality, and memorialized the victims as patriotic heroes. Following the Metapolitefsi, the official support of this commemoration ceased. The massacre continues to be commemorated by the descendants of the Battalionists and their ideological sympathizers in the far right and remains a point of reference and an antifascist rallying cry for the far-left in Greece.