The island of Kefalonia and its capital Argostoli. Greece 1944

The island of Kefalonia and its capital Argostoli. Greece 1944

I acquired this previously unknown archive of negatives at a flea market in England. The archive contained 27 images of 120 mm film images, all of which were shot with a square-format camera. All the negatives were in a yellow envelope issued by the Salapatas photo studio in Tripolis (Arcadia), located in the central part of the Peloponnese peninsula, 129 kilometers southwest of Athens, at an altitude of 655 meters above sea level.

The photographer served in the British Army, but unfortunately, it is not possible to determine his identity. The photographer captured the end of the Nazi occupation of Greece and the liberation of the Ionian Islands, particularly the island of Kefalonia and its capital, Argostoli, in these photographs.

The Ionian Islands are a group of seven islands: Corfu, Paxos, Lefkada, Kefalonia, Ithaca, Zakynthos, and Kythira. In the 1800s, the islands were under British protectorat and transferred to Greek administration in 1862. When World War II began, Italy invaded Greece in October 1940. However, the invasion was halted when the Greek army pushed the Italian army back into Albania. This forced Germany, an ally of Fascist Italy, to alter its military plans in the north and come to Italy's aid. The combined forces engaged Greek troops in April 1941, and by mid-May, Greece was occupied by the Nazis. On April 30, 1941, a small contingent of Italian troops took the island of Kefalonia, and on May 1, they took Ithaca. While Germany occupied important cities such as Athens and Thessaloniki, Bulgaria controlled the eastern part of the country, and Italy controlled most of the Peloponnese Peninsula, including the Ionian Islands.

Following the complete occupation of Greece, the Italians governed the Ionian Islands separately from the rest of Greece. The 33rd Infantry Division "Acqui" and the navy comprised about 12,000 troops. During the occupation, the Italians planned to annex the islands several times, but they were unsuccessful due to pressure from King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and the Germans. The Germans feared further alienation of the Greek population, which was already strongly opposed to Bulgarian annexation.

On September 14, 1943, after the fall of fascism in Italy, the Nazis bombed Corfu. The Italians surrendered, and the Germans occupied Corfu and the rest of the Ionian Islands. In Kefalonia, General Antonio Gandin, commander of the 12,000-strong Italian division, decided to resist the Germans, who were trying to disarm his troops by force. The battle lasted from September 13 to 22, and the Italians were defeated. Following the Italian surrender, the German army killed approximately 5,000 Italian prisoners of war, marking one of the most serious war crimes committed by the Nazis. According to a local Kefalonia website, survivors reported that executions were carried out in front of the Greek population in the harbor of Argostoli on September 23, 1943. A memorial was later erected on a hill above Argostoli in tribute to the Italian soldiers of the "Acqui" Division. The inscription on the monument reads:
To the soldiers of the "Acqui" division marine garrison led by officers on the island have given in voluntary for the fight against the nazi attacker cases from September 15 to 26, 1943
Died in combat: 65 officers, 1250 soldiers
Executed: 155 officers, 5000 soldiers
Missing at sea: 3000 soldiers

In early June of 1944, while the Allies bombed Corfu to distract attention from the Normandy landings, the Gestapo rounded up the city's Jews and imprisoned them temporarily in the old fortress. On June 10, they were sent to Auschwitz, where only a few survived.

At the end of August 1944, German troops began evacuating the city to Argostoli. They mined the docks and transferred supplies to the port areas. Security in the city had already been handed over to the Greek police and Italians under German command. By September 14, 1944, the Germans had finally left Kefalonia. Between mid- and late September, local ELAS resistance groups entered Argostoli and took control. The partisans arrived with Greek and Soviet flags. Local residents refer to this period as the "third occupation." Everyone was waiting for the British to arrive and bring about the "final liberation."

Following the retreat of German forces, British troops returned to mainland Greece as a result of Operation "Manna" in October 1944. Key operations included landing troops in the Megara area on October 4 and in Athens and Piraeus from October 14 to 16. These operations supported the return of the Greek government in exile. On October 14, 1944, the British Royal Marines finally liberated the Ionian Islands, including Kefalonia.

This archive contains photographs from this period, showing the island under Allied control and the Greek military receiving new British uniforms and weapons. The photographs also include shots taken in Kefalonia's capital, Argostoli. The photographer captured the central Valliou Square and the Panagis Valliou monument, which was built in honor of the Kefalonian national benefactor Panagis Valliou (1814–1902); the Greek Orthodox Church of St. Spyridon; a view of the Byzantine Agios Georgios (St. George) fortress; and, of course, the city's port and waterfront. Although the port of Argostoli was small, it was used by small boats, fishing vessels, and large passenger ships. Due to the shallow water in the port, the latter moored away from the pier, and special boatmen transported people and cargo to and from the city. The photographer also took many pictures of the island's coastline, including a view of the fortress island of Bourtzi in the bay of Nafplion.

This archive only depicts a small part of the difficult history of the Greek people, as the war did not end for this country after the British liberated the islands and the mainland. A civil war followed (1946-1949), in which the Greek government and its army (supported by Great Britain and the United States) fought the Communist Party of Greece and its armed forces (supported by the USSR, Yugoslavia, Albania, and Bulgaria). The war resulted in about 30,000 deaths.