In 1946 the situation on the northern borders of Greece could, indulgently, be described as fluid. The guerilla war had officially started after the attack on Litochoro and already guerilla groups were carrying out attacks based on the neighboring "socialist brother countries".
In some cases foreign troops either invaded Greek territory they attacked Greeks, soldiers and civilians, sometimes stealing what they could, either doing the same with the rebels or simply supporting them. Hundreds of such incidents occurred until the last days of the civil war.
One such case is the attack of Albanian military units against the Greek outpost of Skipis on the Greek-Albanian border that took place on July 7, 1946. The Skipi outpost was located near the village of Oreno of Ionnin, west of Pontikates. His position was not advantageous. It was surrounded, essentially, by three heights within the northern continental territory belonging to Albania.
Due to its terrain and ruggedness the visibility from the outpost at close range was not good and the enemy could approach up to 50-60m without being detected. The outpost was manned by a sergeant and four soldiers and there was also a trench.
On the evening of July 6, 15 approximately, Albanians opened fire against the outpost from hill 856. The Greeks did not respond to the fire, which soon stopped. However, 25 minutes later the Albanians opened fire against the Greek outpost of Panagia.
The next day everything went well until 18.40 when the Albanians opened fire with machine guns and mortars against the Skipis outpost from heights 856 and 687. They also fired at the Panagia and Orinos outposts. At 19.20 and as the firing continued an Albanian platoon, attacked from three directions against Skipi's outpost . The men of the outpost had already taken up battle positions but due to the terrain, as mentioned, the Albanians managed to approach at about 60 m without being seen.
The Greeks opened fire from which an Albanian sergeant was killed, according to the Greek sergeant's testimony, and a soldier was wounded. However, resistance was impossible as the Albanians almost surrounded the fighting Greeks.
Eventually the sergeant and two men managed to escape, after first notifying the relevant company. But two Greek soldiers were captured. They were the soldiers Georgios Giotakis and Konstantinos Mandelis, who, according to the evidence, was tortured by the Albanians.
After their "glorious" attack the Albanians grabbed what they could and retreated. At 21.45 a platoon of the 3rd Delvinakis Company arrived in the area and shortly recaptured the outpost. Inside the outpost, the word KKE was written in Greek and hammer and sickles were painted.
According to the testimonies of the surviving men of the outpost, the Albanians were also colluding with rebels who abused them. According to the relevant report of the VIII Infantry Division, this attack, like many similar ones, was aimed at facilitating the entry of rebel groups into Greek territory.
Also, their goal was to create a serious episode that would be subject to political exploitation both by Tirana and by the KKE which argued that Greece was planning the occupation of Albania.