European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 21, 1945, Darmstadt, Hesse                                1 i ii the Battle of ammonia Square american gis who were of of toned in Athens during the troubles had Alt the traditional woes that tall to the innocent a they got hell from both by Edmund Antrobus yank staff correspondent a week before the greek revolution of Gregory Lutz of Chicago and two other gis drifted into a Little Gin Mill on a Side Street in anyone with Tess than vision might not have seen the Entrance to the place it was below Street at the Bottom of a Stone Stair inside want much Little Iron tables and Green Basket the Type of Furni Ture More commonly found in were jumbled together haphazardly around a worn Patch of dance Lutz and his companions ordered a then rested their backs against the bar and looked the place there were one or two drab murals of nude women drinking at the end of the room there was a Large poster of the Waldorf Astoria in new York when the hotel was still on fifth that the owner of this place had worked there Long there was one couple on the dance the girl was shaking her plump greek hips trying to teach a thin Young Man How to he watched her feet she moved enthusiastically but As if she had Learned to Jitterbug from the lets go while we still like Lutz but just As he put Down his Glass five greek guerrillas walked there were four men and one one of the men had a Square Beard which made him look like Pilars husband in for whom the Bell the woman wore sergeants stripes and an ammunition Belt looped Over her breasts and around her she carried a Bren gun by its Sling As casually As fit had been a together the guerrillas seemed to be toting sufficient ammunition for a 10day the woman sat Down the ammunition Belt made her look stouter than she really she was quite one of the gis with Lutz whistled softly the tune that Lay that Lay that pistol in two Days time these guerrillas would be expected to hand in their but they carried them with such a definite Pride that they seemed As Likely to part with them voluntarily As they would with their next to marines on leave in los the guerrillas were the most uninhibited soldiers Lutz had Ever one of them walked across the swiped an Orange from a fruit dish and began bouncing it off the As if the night club were a handball no one paid any attention to the one with the Square Beard lounged in a with his feet straddled out in toying with a hand Ger Man potato he had three More of them stuck under his when the americans had left the cafe and were walking Lutz said do you know theres going to be a revolution one of his friends but were not supposed to talk about see but by the following they were in plenty of As when a summer storm comes up and a Breeze like a suggestive hand passes Over bending the Trees and rip pling the surface of the so Athens became set for the there was the feeling that everything was there were Little preliminary once the americans saw a Little boy pulling a hand cart piled with old rags up a suddenly the child let go of the and the cart rolled Down the Hill and underneath a where it there had dynamite hidden in another time they saw an old woman sitting on a presumably As a truck went by she fished a hand grenade out of her knitting in a the truck was on by the revolution haunt officially but there was sniping in ammonia where the americans were regular duty was stopped and the yanks were ordered to stay Ray Miller was the first he was standing by a window when a Bullet entered one of his wrists and came out of his the British patrolled the streets in armoured cars and Sherman trying to keep traffic lanes As in All no one thought this one would last More than a few the americans kept off the streets As much As and when Ever they had to go the greeks Roosevelt cheering like a football some of the natives even thought that Roosevelt was coming to Athens to by the 23 officers and 137 enlisted men of the at detachment in Athens were sitting on the front line of a firs class they were billeted in a hotel in ammonia Elas forces held the area surrounding the Square behind and the British and royalists held the Square the Neutral americans were in the and to them it seeded As it might have in if Switzerland had been on the Siegfried the War lasted 45 two Days before it Elas blasted in one Side of the Ameri cans hotel in an attempt to storm the Square the British blasted in the other Side to Stop but a lot happened before this about As big As Columbus Circle in new ammonia Square is a congested surrounded by and in its Center is a subway reached by two entrances on opposite sides of the from a strategic Point of the area was important because it con trolled All the roads out of Athens and an under ground railway to Athens the British blockaded the streets with barbed wire and covered them with one week of War turned ammonia Square into a junk Streetcar cables and Telephone wires trailed along the ground like grapevines tumbled in a the Elas troops had Only rifles and a few mortars but they used these with such intensity and with such an unlimited Supply of ammunition incredible As it Large buildings were torn Down by Small arms Lead fell like hailstones in such quantities that you could scoop it off the streetcars which had stalled in the Square were so Bullet riddled that they seemed to be rotting every on top of the there would be a fresh layer of leaflets dropped by British later in the the paper be came dirty and looked like Grimy with continuous daily week after the War seemed to the americans to have