Pavlos M. Kasapis, a World War II veteran and EOKA fighter, passed away at the age of 103.
Mr. Pavlos, from Lythrodonta, and his twin brother Kostas were two of the 12,192 soldiers of the Cyprus Volunteer Force, which was formed in 1940 to oppose Adolf Hitler’s plans, and he had spoken to Alpha about how he enlisted.
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“Our priest had no idea at all. We did it in secret. We gave the community leader a selini, and he issued us a certificate stating that we were 18 years old. And the Englishman showed our priest the paper, and he burst into tears and left.”
“We figured we’d be back in a few months; we didn’t expect it to take five and a half years,” he had said. He was trained in Egypt, and from there, along with hundreds of other Cypriots, they went to what is now the Syria-Lebanon border, where some of the fiercest battles between the Germans and the Allied Forces took place.
“We’d unload the ammunition at ten o’clock at night and get started. From artillery shells to hand grenades. We were very afraid of the mortars—they were the most dangerous weapon. Were you in danger of being killed? Yes, it was a big deal.”
And toward the end of World War II, he was transferred to Europe and fought in Italy. In fact, he was present at one of the greatest battles in world history, the one at Monte Cassino, just outside Rome, where one of the most decisive steps toward victory over Hitler’s forces took place.
“From there to Cassino. It was a very difficult front. When we got there, we saw bodies. Unburied. They were shelling us, and we were in danger of being killed at any moment. We held out for three months. The final battle took place. They doused them with gasoline, and those who survived raised their hands in surrender.”
And that’s how Mr. Pavlos, along with the other survivors, returned to Cyprus at the end of the war in 1945.
As he himself had said, the aspiration of that era was none other than union with Greece, and since the British—who until then had been allies in the fight against Hitler—were unwilling to grant self-determination to the Greeks of Cyprus, he and the others eventually joined EOKA.
In fact, he spent a year and a half in prison alongside other fighters.
When he met Auxentiou
Before his imprisonment, he had already fought alongside several EOKA heroes, such as Stylianos Lena Handiotis, and before a battle, he had also met Grigoris Avxentiou, who was posing as a monk at the time, without realizing who he was.
“He asked me questions. Whether we had an organization in the village, how many members we had. I told him I wasn’t allowed to tell him because he was a monk. I saw him laugh and put his hand over his mouth. It was Avxentiou.”
His funeral will be held on Saturday, August 8, at 10 a.m. at the Church of Saint Therapon in Lythrodonta.
