The Germans began to leave Greece in September 1944. The threat of a Communist coup to take over the country as soon as the Germans left was obvious to most who followed the events of Greece.
In September, Papandreou met with the military leaders of the E.L.A.S. and E.D.E.S. at Caserta, near Naples; they signed an agreement that placed the partisan forces under the authority of the Greek government. The government then gave command of these forces to General Ronald Scobie, with whom Papandreou had made a secret agreement to prevent Greece from falling into the hands of E.L.A.S. D
On October 9, Churchill had the famous meeting with Stalin in Moscow, during which, as Churchill himself says in his History of the Second World War, my-
diale:... Tragic problems for millions of people were settled lightly'; judging from appearances. As far as Greece was concerned, the broad line with which Stalin crossed out the half sheet of paper Churchill passed him across the table meant that the Soviets, for the moment at least, were washing their hands of their K.K.E. comrades. P>
Faced with the communist threat hanging over Greece, and Stalin having left him a free hand on this point, Churchill immediately made his arrangements. Well-equipped British divisions accompanied Papandreou's government of national unity when it entered Athens on October 18, 1944. This government included six representatives of the National Liberation Front.
The government of national unity did not remain united for long. It is difficult to give an exact picture of the sequence of events that took place between October 18 and December 3, the beginning of the second phase of the Greek civil war, because many decisions were kept secret. For some time the leadership of the communist party K.K.E. had been divided between those who wanted peaceful infiltration into the existing government and state apparatus and those who wanted open warfare. Siantos, who may have received orders from Moscow, was at first a supporter of the first policy; he seems to have changed his mind after a meeting he had with another powerful member of the central committee of the K.K.E., lannis Ionnidis, on the evening of 27 November. What ignited the fire was the order to demobilize the Communist partisan forces on December 10. The E.L.A.S. would be reduced to a brigade incorporated into the new national army. At first, the leaders of the K.K.E. consented, but subsequently withdrew their acceptance.