731 High Altitude Fighter Municipal Park

The Battle of Hill 731 was one of the most critical battles of the Greco-Italian War. The conflicts lasted for many days, until the end of March 1941 and ended with the Greeks prevailing. Height 731 is located about 20 km north of Kleisoura, in Albania. It was one of the strongest points occupied by the Greek Army in the central sector of the Albanian front. On hill 731, as well as on the neighboring hills, the men of the 5th Regiment of the 1st Division who came mainly from Karditsa and Trikala fought, commanded by Dimitrios Kaslas, until the night of March 12, when he was replaced, due to losses, by the 19th Regiment of the VI Serres Division. The 19th Infantry Regiment is the only one that was staffed mainly by Serres, who were about 2,000 people. In February 1941, from Serres they arrived at Amyntaio by train and then by walking for almost a month, they reached the battle positions in March of 1941. On March 9, the attack of the Italians began and despite their fierce attacks, from the ground even with tanks and from the air with hundreds of warplanes and the presence of Mussolini, the Greek fighters, and especially the Serrai Battalion held hill 731 was impregnable. The 19th Infantry Regiment fought heroically until March 31, 1941. The 3rd battalion of the 19th Regiment lost more than half of its strength. The Serra reserve officers I.Laurentidis as lieutenant, Vassiliou S., took part in the battles. Tsesmetzis O., Routos K., Christodoulou D., Martinovich A., Chrysafis X., Ravanis G., Fragou X., Raftoudis V., as lieutenants and as assistant doctors Dolgeras, Mademlis A. of Stergios, Kiroplastis X. and Stavridis Stavros.