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The Battle of Spilia was fought on December 12, 1955 in the EOKA campaign against the British in Cyprus.〔The Memoirs of General Grivas, edited by Charles Foley, p. 54〕 Acting on information provided by an informant〔The Memoirs of General Grivas, edited by Charles Foley, p. 57〕 700 soldiers of the British Army,〔 attempted to encircle the headquarters of EOKA General Georgios Grivas on the Troodos mountains near the village of Spilia.〔The Memoirs of General Grivas, edited by Charles Foley, p. 56〕 As they ascended the mountain, EOKA guerrillas spotted them. Grivas divided his troops in two, keeping half with himself to fight the units coming from the north side while sending his second-in-command Grigoris Afxentiou to fight the rest of the British who were ascending on the south side. Both EOKA units retreated to the summit of the mountain after engaging the enemy and then proceeded, in heavy fog, to escape towards the west. Soon, the British units from the north and the ones from the south reached the summit and, unable to see clearly in the fog, and in the belief that they were surrounded by EOKA fighters, started shooting and calling in airstrikes at each other for eight hours〔 with 250 casualties, making it the highest friendly fire incident of the war.〔 This was a renowned battle in the EOKA campaign to unite Cyprus with Greece (1955–1959). It was significant in that a British victory at Spilia would have ended the campaign in its very first year since General Grivas had concentrated his guerrilla fighters, nearly thirty of them, there.〔The Memoirs of General Grivas, edited by Charles Foley, p. 55〕 Instead, the struggle went on and led, if not to union (''Enosis''), to the independence of Cyprus. ==References== * () Grigoris Afxentiou, a Cypriot fighter * () Learn About Cyprus article (Greek language article about Grigoris Afxentiou) 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Spilia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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