Operation Washing was the successful destruction of the railway bridge over the Asopos River in Central Greece by four British SOE saboteurs. It took place on 21 June 1943, as part of Operation Animals. [1] The British agents included Geoffery Gordon-Creed and Donald Stott. This was detailed in the book Rogue Male by Roger Field.
The SS Division Hitlerjugend or 12th SS Panzer Division "Hitlerjugend" was a German armoured division of the Waffen-SS during World War II. The majority of its junior enlisted men were drawn from members of the Hitler Youth, while the senior NCOs and officers were from other Waffen-SS divisions. Most of the enlisted men were teenagers, starting from the ages of 16 or even 15.
Kalavryta is a town and a municipality in the mountainous east-central part of the regional unit of Achaea, Greece. The town is located on the right bank of the river Vouraikos, 24 kilometres south of Aigio, 40 km southeast of Patras and 62 km northwest of Tripoli. Notable mountains in the municipality are Mount Erymanthos in the west and Aroania or Chelmos in the southeast. Kalavryta is the southern terminus of the Diakopto-Kalavryta rack railway, built by Italian engineers between 1885 and 1895.
The 1st Mountain Division was an elite formation of the German Wehrmacht during World War II, and is remembered for its involvement in multiple large-scale war crimes. It was created on 9 April 1938 in Garmisch Partenkirchen from the Mountain Brigade which was itself formed on 1 June 1935.
The National Republican Greek League was a major anti-Nazi resistance group formed during the Axis occupation of Greece during World War II.
Geoffrey Edward West Household was a prolific British novelist who specialized in thrillers. He is best known for his novel Rogue Male (1939).
The Kalavryta massacre, or the Holocaust of Kalavryta, was the near-extermination of the male population and the total destruction of the town of Kalavryta, Axis-occupied Greece, by the 117th Jäger Division (Wehrmacht) during World War II, on 13 December 1943.
Army Group E was a German Army Group active during World War II.
Rogue Male, by Geoffrey Household, is a classic thriller novel, published in 1939. The book was reissued in 2007 with an introduction by Victoria Nelson.
The Museum of the Kalavryta Holocaust is a museum in Kalavryta, Greece dedicated to the history of the Massacre of Kalavryta in 1943. The museum contains artifacts of the German occupation of the town and documents the massacre.
Nonacris or Nonakris was a town of ancient Arcadia in the region of Pheneatis northwest of Pheneus, situated in what is now Achaea, southern Greece.
117th Jäger Division was a German infantry division of World War II. The division was formed in April 1943 by the reorganization and redesignation of the 717th Infantry Division. The 717th Division had been formed in April 1941. It was transferred to Yugoslavia in May 1941, to conduct anti-Četnik and anti partisan and Internal security operations.
During the Axis occupation of Greece between 1941 and 1944 parts of the Cham Albanian minority in the Thesprotia prefecture, northwestern Greece, collaborated with the occupation forces. Fascist Italian as well as Nazi German propaganda promised that the region would be awarded to Albania after the end of the war. As a result of this pro-Albanian approach, many Muslim Chams actively supported the Axis operations and committed a number of crimes against the local population both in Greece and Albania. Apart from the formation of a local administration and armed security battalions, a paramilitary organization named Këshilla and a resistance paramilitary group called Balli Kombetar Cam were operating in the region, manned by local Muslim Chams. The results were devastating: many Greek and Albanian citizens lost their lives and a great number of villages were burned and destroyed. It appears that the Mufti and many beys did not approve of the Cham helping the Wehrmacht to burn Greek villages. With the retreat of the Axis forces from Greece in 1944, most of the Cham population fled to Albania and revenge attacks against the remaining Chams were carried out by Greek guerrillas and villagers. When the war ended, special courts on collaboration sentenced 2,106 Chams to death in absentia. However, the war crimes remained unpunished since the criminals had already fled abroad. According to German historian Norbert Frei, the Muslim Cham minority is regarded as the "fourth occupation force" in Greece due to the collaborationist and criminal activities that large parts of the minority committed.
Greek National Road 31 is a national highway of southern Greece. It connects Aigio with Kalavryta.
Hartwig von Ludwiger was a German general in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War II. Ludwiger was responsible for numerous atrocities committed throughout the Balkans. After the war, he was charged with war crimes in Yugoslavia, convicted, and executed.
Günther Tribukait was a German officer in the Wehrmacht during World War II and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. After the war, Tribukait was tried for war crimes in Yugoslavia; he was convicted and executed in 1947.
Karl Hans Maximilian von Le Suire was a German general during World War II who commanded the XXXXIX Mountain Corps. He was responsible for the Massacre of Kalavryta, in Greece.
Major Donald John Stott, DSO & Bar was a New Zealand soldier and military intelligence agent during the Second World War.
The Battle of Meligalas 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.
Mega Spilaio, formally the Monastery of the Dormition of the Theotokos, is a Greek Orthodox monastery in the municipality of Kalavryta, in the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece.
The Battle of Sarantaporos on 21 June 1943 was a successful ambush by the guerrillas of the Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS) against a column of the German 117th Jäger Division. The ambush, carried out as part of Operation Animals, was one of the most successful operations against the Germans during the Axis occupation of Greece.
