THE HELLENIC CULTURAL CENTER OF THE SOUTHWEST

P R E S E N T S

THE HILLTOPS 731 AND 714

The Greek Stalingrad of the First Victory 

HOW ORDINARY PEOPLE TURN INTO HEROES: SPRING of 1941. Mussolini prepared a last offensive against the Greek positions in North Epirus. His troops had to cross the defensive positions of the Greek army. The epicenter of this offensive is the hills 731 and 714. Their hilltops dominate the road to the Greek-Albanian border.  However, the assault fails despite the heavy artillery barrage that shortened the hill nr. 731 by six meters. The small Greek battalion manned with soldiers mostly from Thessaly withstood the barrage and repelled the ferocious Italian assaults. This is one of the most moving and proud incidents of WWII on the Greco-Albanian front. We will cover the Italian Spring 1941  offensive following G. Blytas' book "The First Victory" and other sources and we will commemorate our friend and fellow historian George Blytas.