Historical story

1940:When a commando group occupied Agathonisi

An incident that is not particularly well known took place a few days after the start of the Greco-Italian war. While the battles in the mountains of Pindos were in full swing, on the evening of November 17, 1940, a small group of "commandos" landed on the islet of Agathonisi, which was, like all the Dodecanese, under Italian occupation since 1912.

The leader of the group, the initiator and financier of the project was a doctor from Karpathos, Vassos Vergis, who took this action expressing his passion for the liberation of the Dodecanese, which had been under Italian occupation since 1912 without the slightest help.

With 18 "volunteer-commandos" Vassos Vergis set off in a boat from neighboring Samos on the evening of November 17 and arrived at Agathonisi at dawn. The group consisted mainly of residents of Samos and Karpathos

There was a gendarmerie station on the island with seven "carabinieri" and a group of 10-15 commandos, who were surprised by the unexpected attack.

The group of Vasos Vergis, after a short battle, occupied the island, capturing all the Italians (two Italian soldiers were killed in the battle).

According to the publications of the time (the issue received a lot of publicity in the Athenian newspapers at the time) but also according to testimonies, Vergis himself, who spoke fluent Italian, notified the Italians by radio about the attack on the island.

The incident was also covered by the American magazine TIME in its issue on December 2, 1940 with a particularly flattering article

The achievement of the Vergi group was also mentioned by the "Acropolis" newspaper which wrote on November 19, 1940 the following:

"A Greek, a Dodecanese, living and working in a free Greece, on the night of November 17-18, at the head of his countrymen and others, sailed from a Greek bay in a gas boat and landed on an island of the Dodecanese. This group attacked the Italian Carabinieri outpost, capturing the stationmaster and three Carabinieri, after arming them. Subsequently, an attack was made against the naval outpost of the same island, resulting in the murder of three, including the chief petty officer. The raiders all returned, after the four prisoners and their armament, to the cove from which they sailed."

The boat with the "commandos" raised a Turkish flag so as not to be detected by the Italian planes and fled to Samos, while the Italians bombed Agathonisi and then when they realized what had happened they bombed Vathi of Samos.

The movement of Vassos Vergis was initially met with mistrust and hesitation by the political and military leadership, but such was the acceptance by the people that Metaxas quickly changed his stance and invited Vassos Vergis, as well as his companions, in Athens, the awarded at a ceremony held at the Great Britain Hotel. In fact, he awarded the position of major of the Greek army to the doctor.

Doctor Vasos Vergis, 60 years old at the time, was a surgeon and ran a clinic in Athens. After the landing, he fled out of Greece after the Italians knew about him and sought him out to suffer the consequences. Vergis was an ardent supporter of the liberation of the Dodecanese active in America and South Africa..

Several years earlier, in 1912, Vassos Vergis participated in the 5th corps of the "Garivaldins" and in a battle with the Turks at Drisco in Ioannina, he was seriously injured in the hand. He returned to Greece after the liberation and died at the age of 94 in Athens, where he lived.