The Navy, a military corps with a liberal tradition, did not take an active part in the coup of 21 April. This was evident from the resignation of its chief Konstantinos Egolfopoulos, immediately after the victory of the colonels. The Navy's first reaction to the Junta was manifested in the failed movement of King Constantine (13 December 1967), when the fleet left for the Aegean.
Immediately afterwards, Navy officers of the class of 1940, such as Commanders Pappas, Sekeris and Malaris, began to organize a conspiratorial cell within the troops, with the aim of overthrowing the dictatorship. From the beginning of 1969 the small core of these cadres began to grow, with the systematic initiation of officers into the movement who swore an oath to fight for the overthrow of the Junta and the restoration of democracy in the country.
In this context, various plans were drawn up: from the kidnapping of Papadopoulos during the Fleet's exercise called "Triumvos" (August 1969), to the occupation of Crete, Milos and other islands and the formation of a government there by Konstantinos Karamanlis, with the return of King Constantine (June 1969). In practice, however, these plans never materialized.
Three years later, the circle of mobiles had grown, and select members had occupied key positions in the Navy hierarchy. Pappas, Papadogonas, Malliaris, Giogezas, Koussouris and others were all commanders of large destroyers, having also initiated senior officers of each ship so that they would be ready at any moment to take the ships and revolt against the junta. Officers from the Army and Air Force, civilian members of resistance organizations, and retired officers, such as Vardis Vardinoyannis, who was to supply fuel to the mobilists from the family business, had also been initiated into the Movement.
After the revolt in February 1973, the mobilists took the popular message and decided to act. They communicated this decision to Evangelos Averoff and through him to Konstantinos Karamanlis and King Constantine. Their plan provided for the blockade of Piraeus and other major ports and the capture of Syros, which was to be their base. On the island there was the Army Reserve Officers' School, which, once occupied, they would place retired Major Spyros Mustaklis, who was initiated into the Movement, in command. Once they prevailed, they would summon politicians of all parties to form a government of national unity.
The date for the manifestation of the movement was set for 22 May, when a squadron of NATO ships would sail in the Aegean, despite the objections of Pappas, Sekeris and Papathanasiou, who preferred 18 May, when three destroyers would sail on scheduled exercises with almost the entire force of Marines. They proposed to circle the ships with the Marines in their destroyers and either get them on their side or use them as hostages to blackmail the Junta. Their proposal was not accepted.
On the eve of the movement, the initiated officers suspected that their plan had been perceived by the Junta and decided to postpone it. On the evening of 22 May, military forces under the head of the Armed Forces, General Odysseus Angelis, surrounded the Naval Station, and from the morning of 23 May arrests, interrogations and torture began. The lack of a leader in the Movement was obvious, especially when dealing with a group of military officers.
The Junta in a statement referred to an "operetta of a naval movement of a few retired officers", concealing the size of the movement, which it was well aware of. Retired Major Spyros Mustaklis, who was inhumanely tortured in the dungeons of the EAT-ESA for 47 days and was left crippled, became a heroic figure of the Navy Movement.
On 25 May 1973, the warship "Velos", captained by Nikos Pappas, one of the pioneers of the movement, left a NATO exercise off Sardinia and sailed to Fiumicino, Italy, where the captain and crew requested political asylum, thus bringing down the curtain on the Navy Movement. This action was widely publicized internationally and demonstrated that opposition to the dictatorship was also strong within the military.
The total number of those arrested in the Navy Movement was 79. Of these, 63 were Navy (60 active and three retired), five Army (three retired and two active), five Air Force (active) and six private citizens. All of them were released by 27 August 1973 and none of them were brought to trial, having received amnesty. It did not occur to the Junta to confront an entire branch of the Armed Forces.
The Navy Movement may have failed organizationally, but it succeeded politically. For it made it obvious that the April regime was being shaken at its base, which was the Armed Forces. The Papadopoulos regime then tried to show a 'liberal' face, but after the Polytechnic uprising it was thwarted by the hardline military of Ioannidis.
Source: sansimera.gr
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