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The tell-tale busts at Greece’s first WW2 battlefield

The busts of lieutenant Alexandros Diakos and colonel Konstantinos Davakis tell the stories of Greece’s glorious fight against fascism, but also of their own tragic fate.

By Desolation Road

July 9^th, 2020

Standing on the peak of Profitis Ilias, at 1,718 meters on Mount Smolikas, the busts of two officers of the Greek Army tell the tales of the first days of Greece’s glorious struggle to fight fascism, but also of the two mens’ tragic fate - in a landscape where every valley, meadow, glade, peak and col once formed the country’s first World War II battlefield.

The peak of Profitis Ilias, near the village of Fourka on the northern border of Western Greece, was one of the first points of conflict after the invasion of Mussolini’s Italy in Greece on October 28, 1940. In the course of two weeks, during the Battle of Pindos range, the Greek forces successfully defended the border line from the Italian ‘Julia’ Division, which was significantly superior in number of soldiers.

The tell-tale busts at Greece’s first WW2 battlefield

One of the two busts is of Lieutenant Alexandros Diakos. Diakos went down in history as the first Greek Army officer to fall in battle, in WW2. Having traveled to the front from his birthplace, the remote island of Halki in the Dodecanese, at the age of 29 Alexandros Diakos in the morning of November 1, 1940 was bleeding out in the hands of a soldier of his Corps. The bullets of an Italian machine gun had just pierced his body, as he stood up and gave orders to his soldiers on the front line to attack and recapture the strategically critical Tsouka hill.

When the conflict concluded, with the repulsion of the Italians, the body of Diakos -together with all the other fallen Greek soldiers- was transported by the residents of nearby Zouzouli to the village’s piazza. A few hours later, with all due respect and emotion, they were all buried in the cemetery of Zouzouli, next to the graves of the villagers’ ancestors. Post mortem, the Greek army promoted Diakos to Captain.

The second bust in Profitis Ilias is of Colonel Konstantinos Davakis. The then 46-year-old Davakis, born in Laconia, Peloponnese, was the leader of the Greek forces of the Pindos Detachment. He commanded 2,000 men, with which he had to defend Smolikas' critical frontier against the 10,800 men of the 3rd Julia Alpinist Division.

The tell-tale busts at Greece’s first WW2 battlefield

Davakis' line of defense was 35 kilometers long and initially his strategy was defensive - he even chose a retreating maneuver, until he received reinforcements from the Greek headquarters of Western Macedonia. When the reinforcements (the 1st Greek Division) arrived, on November 1st, Davakis counterattacked, ordering his captains and lieutenants to successively recapture the lost hills. One of the hills was Tsouka, and one of the lieutenants was Athanasios Diakos.

The next day he recaptured the hill of Profitis Ilias, the Tambouri peak and the village of Fourka. But, as Greek forces continued their advance to repel the Italians, Davakis did not come out unscathed. On the sixth day of the fighting, he was shot in the chest, and was taken unconscious to the village of Eptachori. His injury did not kill him, but forced him to leave the front due to complications caused by an old chest disease.

The tell-tale busts at Greece’s first WW2 battlefield

By November 13, the Greek army had repulsed the Julia Division back to the northern Greek borders. This would be followed by the expulsion of Mussolini's forces deep into Albanian territory, and finally their defeat. Nevertheless, Greece would pass into Italian hands a few months later: in April 1941, Nazi Germany invaded and conquered Greece, leaving much of it to the control of its Italian allies.

As a result, in December 1942, the Italian occupying forces in Greece managed to locate and arrest Konstantinos Davakis, on charges of participating in a resistance organization. The fate they reserved for him was the incarceration in a concentration camp, in Europe.

However, the ship that transported Davakis to Italy was torpedoed by a submarine of the Allies, and the Colonel drowned in the icy waters of the Adriatic Sea. His body was collected, and was buried in the Albanian port of Avlona. After the war, his remains were transported to Athens.

On the hill of Profitis Ilias, on July 20 every year, following the doxology for the Prophet in the homonymous chapel, the Greek army and the villagers of the area place wreaths on the busts of Alexandros Diakos and Konstantinos Davakis. Through them, of course, they pay tribute to all the dead of the battle of Pindos.

The tell-tale busts at Greece’s first WW2 battlefield

The tell-tale busts at Greece’s first WW2 battlefield

The tell-tale busts at Greece’s first WW2 battlefield

The tell-tale busts at Greece’s first WW2 battlefield

The tell-tale busts at Greece’s first WW2 battlefield

The tell-tale busts at Greece’s first WW2 battlefield

The tell-tale busts at Greece’s first WW2 battlefield

Footnotes

Text & photography Copyright: Panos Diamantis 2012-'15

FootNotes

Text & photography Copyright: Panos Diamantis 2012-'15

© 2026 Desolation Road

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