Winston Churchill came to Athens on Christmas Day to mediate.A couple of ELAS snipers hiding in a school a few hundred yards away from the British Embassy took a few pot shots at him as he got out of an armoured vehicle which had brought him from the airport.Next day, when he attended a meeting of all parties, the ELAS representative walked in wearing a military-style uniform with crossed bandoleers across his chest, and carrying two pistols.Churchill turned to his interpreter and said quietly: "Tell him to leave his toys outside, or I fly back to London immediately, to spend Christmas properly with my family."1945: On the 1st of January Archbishop Damaskinos was appointed Regent.(It had been agreed that the King should not return to Greece until his position had been clarified by a plebiscite).Plastiras replaced Papandreou as Prime Minister.After the Varkiza agreement the guerrilla war (or civil war) was officially brought to an end.
Years later in a broadcast, Chris Woodhouse summarised what theS.O.E.mission to Greece had achieved.
1.It had provided the technical expertise, such as the handling of explosives, without which the major sabotage successes would have been impossible.
2.It had provided the tactical planning and supplied the communications which successfully harnessed the courage of the Greeks to the strategic requirements of the Allied commanders.3.Most important of all, in the long run, it assured that no armed force in occupied Greece would gain a monopoly of power on the day of liberation.The final aim of the mission was to leave the Greeks with a free choice at the end of the war - a choice between a Monarchy, a Republic or even a Communist regime if they wanted it.But the recent dramatic events in the closing months of 1989 in Poland, the U.S.S.R., Hungary, the East German Democratic Republic, Czechoslovakia and finally Romania have provedthat the last choice would have been an unwise one if the Greeks had also opted for Communism.
1946: Following a plebiscite King George II returned to Greece at the end of September and appointed Panayis Tsaldaris as his Prime Minister.
When I returned to Athens in October 1944 on H.H.M.S.AVEROF I had been appointed Radio Monitoring Officer of the Anglo-Greek Information Service (A.G.I.S.) with a staff of about 25 W/T operators and typists to assist me.My unit was a section of the Press Department of the British Embassy.I think the choice of title was a rather unfortunate mistake.The English words `information' and `intelligence' have only one equivalent word in Greek pliroforiesq.And most Greeks hold peculiar views about the C.I.A.and the British Intelligence Service.So here I was strutting about in the uniform of a war correspondent bearing the flashes`I.S.', the butt of many a joke from my friends who accused me of being a master spy.My boss, Colonel Johnson, who had been the British Council representative in Greece prior to the outbreak of war in 1939, came to my office one morning and told me that he had heard a rumour that King George of the Hellenes, who was then in London, was going to broadcast in the Greek service of the B.B.C.I replied I had heard nothing, but would try and find out if the rumour was true.As he left my office I glanced at my watch; it was 11 o'clock in the morning, 9 o'clock in London.I telephoned the General Manager of Cable & Wireless, Mr Briggs, who was a personal friend.I told him I wanted to make use of his facilities to ask an urgent question of the B.B.C.in London.He replied, "Tell McTaggert" (the engineer in charge of the Central Telegraph Office) "that I said he should help you in any way possible.""Mac", I said over the telephone, "would you get one of your operators to ring the B.B.C.in Bush House (from where the World Service originates) and ask them if they have any plans for a broadcast by King George of the Hellenes." I immediately tuned one of my receivers to the frequency of the London telegraph link, which was carrying high speed morse traffic.In a short while the tape was stopped and an operator, using a hand key, asked my question slowly in plain language, and then the tape was put on again.I waited anxiously for about five minutes.Again thetape was stopped, a single letter `R' (for received) was sent by hand, and traffic returned to normal.My telephone rang; it was McTaggert."Nothing doing, old boy.The B.B.C.have no plans for such a broadcast." I thanked him and looked at my watch.It was 11.25, just 25 minutes had elapsed.I called my boss and told him the answer to his question."How do you know?", he asked."I asked the B.B.C., sir." "You what?", he shouted at me."Don't you know there's a war on? I'm coming to see you." He stormed into my office and demanded an explanation, so I told him what I had done."Good God, what is this going to cost us?"."Nothing at all, sir.There is no provision for anything like that in the operating procedure"."Then I must write a letter to Cable & Wireless to thank them." I thought to myself, why don't you write a letter to Norman and thank him for having friends in the right places.But I kept my mouth shut.
