What the Minister of Defense said in the memorial speech
We promise to prove ourselves worthy of sacrifice of the 58 fallen and missing officers, non-commissioned officers and men of the 256th Infantry Battalion and to continue the fight we are conducting until the final vindication, said Minister of Defense Vassilis Palmas, in his memorial speech.
Referring to battles of the battalion in 1974, the Minister said that from July 20 he participated in the occupation operations of the Turkish outposts in Lefka, Agolemi, and Elia. In the operations of the first phase of the war, the Unit lost six of its members.
In the fighting that took place on 31 July and 1 August, the 2nd Company conducted operations to reinforce friendly units in the southeast heights of the village of Agridaki, where two more of his warriors were sacrificed.
From August 2, the Battalion, following an order, entered the towns of Karavas and Lapithos and the village of Vasilea, with a Company in each, in order to record the positions on both sides by a committee of officers of the UN, the areas in question were under the control of National Guard forces.
In Lapithos, under the command of the 256th Infantry Battalion, a small section of the 286th Motorized Infantry Battalion and a squad of four Marmor Harringtons of the 21st Reconnaissance Brigade were placed. Additionally, on August 5, a Company of the 70th Engineer Battalion was sent to the area to carry out minelaying missions.
From the first light of August 6, 1974, the Turkish invasion forces, meanwhile reinforced in the previous days by tanks and other motorized means, launched with their 28th Division a fierce attack against the forces of the National Guard, with the aim of capturing the towns Karavas and Lapithos.
“The warriors of the Battalion successfully repelled the enemy's fierce attacks in the morning, in the east and the south, pinning the Turkish forces east of Karavas” ?, the Minister said, adding that although few, the fighters of 256, erected an impenetrable wall against the enemy's attacks and succeeded with their light and largely obsolete weaponry, to inflict significant blows on him and pin him down.
However, without being reinforced by other armed units and while their munitions were running out, the men of 256 were ordered to collapse on the line Bavlyas – Vasileia, where they would defend themselves with the reinforcement of a company of the ELDYK.
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In the Airkotissa area, in the rear of the friendly forces, a Turkish unit that had managed to infiltrate and take up combat positions in the meantime, from a covered location set up a deadly ambush, causing catastrophic losses to the Battalion.
In the epic battles of Karavas – Lapithos, the National Guard suffered extensive losses in personnel. “Eighty-six heroic lads, forty-nine of the 256th Infantry Battalion, thirty-one pioneers of the 70th Engineer Battalion and six fighters of the 286th Motorized Infantry Battalion were killed in action or are missing. The bones of some of the missing were located and after identification using the DNA method, they were buried with the proper honors befitting any worthy defender of our homeland, said Mr. Palmas.
Nevertheless, he added, the Battalion, while mourning the loss of many of its fighters, managed to regroup in its camp at Diorios, and on August 14, in the second phase of the Turkish invasion, was ordered to move and defend in area of Panagre. From there he moved to the area of Evrycho, where he remained until the end of the hostilities.
Overall, the 256th Infantry Battalion suffered 58 dead and missing. The names of the five officers, the thirteen non-commissioned officers and the forty men-at-arms are inscribed on the tombstone of the monument, in the form of an ancient talent, which has been erected in their honor.
“They will remain indelibly engraved in our memory to remind us of the black pages of our history and strengthen our will and determination in the efforts we make for the liberation and reunification of our country, said the Minister.
He added that in response to the Turkish revisionist policy, “we, cite our continuous efforts to end the impasse and restart talks and our clear political will to find a mutually acceptable solution, based on of the agreed framework and the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council”.
Source: KYPE
