This is an attempt at a historical approach to a barely known, or even entirely unknown, story that took place in February and March of 1948 during the Greek Civil War. The March of the Armed Roumelians, referred to as the “Heroic March,” while they themselves later dubbed it the “Calamitous Event.”

The testimonies of survivors, who had a direct (recruited, armed companions, opponents, eyewitnesses) or indirect relationship with the events, hold significant value in the book (40% of the content) and reflect the experiences of those who were the “principal protagonists” of the events. In this way, the reader can draw their own conclusions.

The invaluable testimonies, cross-referenced with existing written sources, demonstrate exceptional reliability and serve to illuminate, after 65 years, significant gaps and “gray” events, ultimately aiming to inscribe the history of the March of the Armed Roumelians within its historical and social context.

The author was born in Lamia in 1947. After finishing high school in Larissa, he studied Medicine at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and subsequently specialized for seven years in Germany. Returning to Larissa in 1982, he practiced as an Otorhinolaryngologist. In 2001, he published the book "SOULI, A Journey in Place and History," which represents an attempt to connect history with the location where the events took place.

He then sought to delve into the troubled decade of the '40s, searching for primary sources from eyewitnesses of the events, primarily from people who did not hold leadership positions at that time, in order for the expression of opinion not to be influenced by partisan commitments. Visiting the sites of interest for five years, he collected and recorded 240 testimonies of disputed events of the Greek Civil War from individuals of various political leanings, which have been deposited for documentation purposes in the oral history laboratory of the Department of History, Archaeology, and Social Anthropology at the University of Thessaly.

This effort necessarily brought him into contact with oral history, a field that, in recent decades, is considered a necessary complement to written evidence, in which he tried to immerse himself while also considering and relating known or unknown-rare written sources. The book in hand is the first product of this specific research, aiming to highlight the experiences and opinions of the “invisible.”