Dimitrios Itsios (April 5, 1906 – April 6, 1941)

Dimitrios Itsios (April 5, 1906 – April 6, 1941)

From Ano Poroia in Serres, Macedonia, he was a Greek Army Officer during WW2.

A Sergeant, he was head of a 5 man crew ordered to defend a pillbox on Mt Mpelles from the approaching German Army, near his home town of Ano Poroia. The pillbox was part of the Metaxas Line, a series of fortifications built on the Greek-Bulgarian border.

The initial objective given to Itsios and his crew, was to merely provide cover fire so that Greek troops could retreat safely from the area, but Dimitrios Itsios and his crew did much more than that.

Led by Itsios, they emptied all of their rounds of ammunition (over 33,000 bullets) into the German invaders and not only did they provide cover fire, they managed to kill 232 German soldiers in the process.

At this point, Dimitrios Itsios ordered his 4 comrades to stand down and escape, 2 of them being locals however, decided to stay with him.

After Itsios had run out of ammunition and had given up his weapon, German General Sorner demanded to know who had led the operation against them, Itsios stepped forward and revealed himself to be the leader.

General Sorner then ordered his men to draw their weapons and Dimitrios Itsios was shot in the head, murdered in cold blood after he surrendered, one of the many war crimes committed by the German NAZIs during WW2.