Battle of Spilia

Battle of Spilia
Part of Cyprus Emergency
Date11 or 12 December 1955
Location
Cyprus
Result EOKA victory
Belligerents
EOKA

United Kingdom British Empire

Commanders and leaders
Georgios Grivas
Grigoris Afxentiou		 unknown
Strength
12 EOKA[2] 85-700[3][4]
Casualties and losses
None 50 casualties[5]

The Battle of Spilia is the name given in Greek Cypriot sources to an engagement of the Cyprus Emergency that took place in the neighbourhood of the Cypriot village of Spilia on either 11 or 12 December 1955.[6][7] The engagement involved approximately 12 members of Georgios Grivas’s EOKA group and a 40 man detachment of the 45 Commando Royal Marines.[7] In British military sources this is known as part of a wider operation known as ‘Foxhunter’ that was tasked with breaking up the EOKA presence in the Troodos mountains and capturing EOKA leader Georgios Grivas.[8]

Grivas’ memoirs describe the event as a disaster for the British in which a small band of EOKA fighters took on a large ambushing force of British soldiers. He claims that he heard after the fact that there were at least 50 casualties although British sources claim ‘two slightly wounded’. Grivas claims Lieutenant Colonel Tailyour was killed in action even though Tailyour went on to serve as Commandant General Royal Marines dying in 1979.[7][9]

British sources state that a Greek man was arrested in the vicinity carrying a rifle and cordex fuses and gave Grivas’ location away during interrogation. A patrol then set off in search of the hideout. Grivas and his men managed to escape and Britain sustained multiple casualties.[10][11] The engagement resulted in Grivas’s escape but with the cave destroyed.[12]

Greek sources claim that during the battle British units from the north and ones from the south, unable to see in the fog and in the belief that they were surrounded by EOKA fighters, engaged each other in an eight-hour firefight involving airstrikes, artillery bombardments, and heavy weapons. This firefight caused 250 casualties, including 127 deaths, 102 injuries, and 21 missing, which, if true, would make it the deadliest friendly fire incident of the war.[13]

  1. ^ "Paratroopers from Guards Parachute Coy on Operation Foxhunter, Cyprus, 1956 | ParaData".
  2. ^ "Η θρυλική μάχη στα Σπήλια. Ο ηρωικός Γρηγόρης Αυξεντίου στήνει παγίδα θανάτου στους Βρετανούς, που μπερδεύονται και αλληλοεξοντώνονται!". Μήχανη του Χρώνου. 12 December 2014.
  3. ^ https://greekcitytimes.com/2020/04/01/on-this-day-in-1955-ethniki-organosis-kyprion-agoniston-was-founded/ [bare URL]
  4. ^ "Greatest Battles in the History of Cyprus". 25 April 2017.
  5. ^ "The Battle of Spilia 12 December 1955".
  6. ^ Foley, Charles. The Memoirs of General Grivas. p. 54.
  7. ^ a b c Simmons, Mark (2015). The British and Cyprus: An Outpost of Empire to Sovereign Bases, 1978-1974. The History Press. ISBN 9780750965811.
  8. ^ French, D. Fighting EOKA: The British Counter-Insurgency Campaign on Cyprus, 1955-1959, pp.88-9
  9. ^ "Norman Hastings Tailyour". Commando Veterans Archive. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  10. ^ "How did 400 men fight the British Empire? The insurgency tactics of EOKA". in-cyprus.philenews.com. 6 February 2024. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
  11. ^ "The Battle of Spilia 12 December 1955".
  12. ^ "ΕΟΚΑ Hideouts – Σπήλια-Κουρδάλι/Spilia-Kourdali". Retrieved 6 February 2024.
  13. ^ "How did 400 men fight the British Empire? The insurgency tactics of EOKA". in-cyprus.philenews.com. Archived from the original on 24 September 2020. Retrieved 21 March 2022.