On Tuesday, 5 May, in the morning, His Eminence Metropolitan Kallinikos of Arta celebrated a memorial service at the Heroes’ Monument in Vourgareli for the victims of the bombing of the village.
This was followed by the laying of wreaths by representatives of the authorities and local bodies.
Brief historical account
It was dawn on 5 May 1943, and while the people were asleep, two German warplanes flew over the village of Vourgareli and dropped the first bombs.
This was followed by a formation of nine “Stouka” dive bombers, releasing more than four hundred bombs, turning the village into ruins. The attack continued with additional aircraft until late in the afternoon, spreading death and destruction. The toll was heavy: fourteen dead and more than thirty seriously wounded. Houses were destroyed, and people were left homeless and terrified.
The German and Italian occupying forces sought to destroy what was considered the capital of free mountainous Greece, as it had been chosen by the leader Napoleon Zervas, head of the National Republican Greek League, as the base of the guerrilla resistance headquarters in the Tzoumerka region. Despite this, morale was not broken, even though the occupiers believed they would eliminate the resistance fighters and crush the Greek National Resistance. The struggle in this region, as in the rest of occupied Greece, continued with unmatched courage until liberation.
