October 9, 1912 | Greek fleet liberates Lemnos and seizes control of the Dardanelles – Photo Gallery

Defence Redefined

09/10/2020

On Saturday, October 6, 1912, in the morning, the Greek fleet sailed off Agios Efstratios. There, men from the destroyer “Velos”, which was leading the “Averoff” warship, met and arrested a Turkish gendarme – who was considered the first prisoner of the Balkan wars – sailing in a boat towards Limnos.

At 14:00 the “Averof” warship arrived at the Castle of Lemnos. Upon Pavlos Koundouriotis’ order, the Turk Kaimakakis (Commander) was brought on the ship. There he asked him to hand over the island of Lemnos. The Turk Kaimakamis replied that he was unaware of the declaration of war, trying to gain time, hoping for Turkish help from Istanbul. Koundouriotis received information that the Turks were preparing for battle and so undertook to occupy Lemnos the next day.

On Sunday, October 7, the weather is rainy which makes the movements of the Greek fleet difficult. A radio telegram states that the warship “Pinios” is waiting at Cape Tigani to meet with the rest of the amphibious corps. Then all the warships sail to Moudros and Koundouriotis determines the landing position. Eventually, the landing was postponed for the next day because the soldiers were in distress.

On October 8, 1912, a small expedition of the Hellenic fleet, under the command of Major Julian Kontaratos, landed on the island at Megala Vrachia near Lera (Agios Dimitrios). The amphibious corps headed to Myrina along with the people of Lemnos, led by the priest Papa-Kostas Aretos from Kontias. From Portianou, another group from Lemnos, led by the teacher, Emmanuel Ioannidis, rushes on the streets. Women and men with weapons, knives and Greek flags in their hands, are heading towards Myrina after previously capturing, without a fight, a group of 50 Turkish gendarmes and 280 armed Lerians, in Agios Dimitris. Eventually, all the Turks who were on the island gathered in Myrina, where they surrendered.

On October 9, under the salute of the Greek warships, the Greek flag is raised at the fortress of Myrina. Until the evening two battalions of the 20th Regiment have completed the occupation of Lemnos. Moudros was converted into a military base and has since been used as a permanent stronghold of its Hellenic Fleet.

“The island of Lemnos, with all its cities, towns and settlements, its ports and coasts, was occupied by us and is now in our possession.” With these words, Pavlos Koundouriotis greeted the people of Lemnos.

However, its formal annexation to the Greek state took place only on 01/02/1914, when the Great Powers, after long consultations, decided to recognize Greek ownership in the Aegean islands.

Greece had predicted that the dispute in the Aegean would be judged in favor of the one who would control the Dardanelles Strait. If the Turks had planned to fortify Lemnos, they would have fought on much better terms. Consequently, the loss of Lemnos at the beginning of the Balkan wars cost the Turks and gave an advantage to the movements of the Greek forces both at sea and on land.

With information from: “Pemptousia” / Balkanwars.gr

Also read: September 23, 1821 | The fall of Tripoli and the consolidation of the Revolution