Battle of Meligalas

The Battle of Meligalas (Greek: Μάχη του Μελιγαλά, romanized: Machi tou Meligala) took place during the Axis occupation of Greece in Meligalas in southwestern Greece on 13–15 September 1944. Greek Resistance forces of the Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS) defeated a Security Battalion garrison loyal to the collaborationist government.

Partisan ELAS forces had begun operating in the Peloponnese from 1942 and in 1943 began to establish their control over the area. In response, the German occupation authorities formed the Security Battalions, which took part not only in anti-guerrilla operations but also in mass reprisals against local civilian populations. The Security Battalions were increasingly targeted by ELAS in 1944. Following the withdrawal of German forces from the Peloponnese in September, a force of about 1,000 Battalionists gathered in Meligalas, where they were quickly surrounded by around 1,200 ELAS partisans. After three days of fighting, the ELAS forces broke the town's defences; victorious, they executed between 700 and 1,100 prisoners and civilians. After news of the massacre spread, the leadership of ELAS's political parent group, the National Liberation Front (EAM), took steps to ensure a peaceful transition of power in most of the country, limiting reprisal occurrences.

During the post-war period and following the Greek Civil War, the ruling right-wing military junta immortalized the Meligalas massacre as evidence of communist brutality and memorialized the victims as patriotic heroes. Following the fall of the junta in 1974, official support of the commemoration ceased. The massacre continues to be commemorated by the descendants of the Battalionists and their ideological sympathizers in the far right and remains an antifascist point of reference for the far-left in Greece.