Leader of a secret squad in World War II makes sure his men finally get their due [bronze medals]

fortwayne.com ^ | Sat, Apr. 17, 2004 | ALLAN JOHNSON

[Destro]

Posted on Sat, Apr. 17, 2004

Leader of a secret squad in World War II makes sure his men finally get their due

BY ALLAN JOHNSON

Chicago Tribune

(KRT) - It was the summer of 1944. Chicago's John Giannaris and his detail of 22 men were staging sneak attacks and other covert operations against the Nazis in a rugged area of Greece.

Meanwhile, German troops were burning out villages in the area, and "there was a lot of barbarism," Giannaris said. "I saw mass graves. It was terrible."

When Giannaris got word the Nazis were again on the move against villagers, he decided "to inflict some damage. ..."

Few may know of the top-secret exploits of people like 83-year-old Giannaris, who at the time was on detached service as a lieutenant from the Army with the Office of Strategic Services, the World War II precursor of the CIA.

A new book reveals some of those missions, but former agents discussed them openly at Chicago's Pritzker Military Library recently.

As part of the program, Giannaris presented - 60 years after the fact - the Bronze Star to Chicagoan Hercules Sembrakis, 88, a native of Greece and one of the men he led on a fateful "mercy mission," according to Patrick O'Donnell, author of "Operatives, Spies and Saboteurs: The Unknown Story of the Men and Women of WWII's OSS."

"Instead of the dead of night, blowing things up, they saved people," O'Donnell said of Giannaris' team, calling it the most successful unit in Greece.

Giannaris and his men, a mix of Greek guerrillas and Greek-Americans, crawled for four hours at night toward the German encampment. Finally, Giannaris saw lit cigarettes about 20 yards off.

"Now we knew where the road was" - a road the team lined with mines after the Germans went on a maneuver. As Giannaris' men withdrew, they were somehow detected.

"Everything in this book is basically the war on terror," O'Donnell said. "What we are using today stems from what these guys did."

[GladesGuru]

For several reasons it would be interesting to know if the Lt. who left his men behind ever shaped up and made a decent officer - or whether he killed some others who were unfortunately placed under his command as a result of this "favor".

Having met a man who worked his way up from a pvt. off a dirt farm in Mariana, FL to an upper level officer in Delta Force (comissioned without a college degree, by the way!) , I have a problem with envisioning how a Lt. with such basic character deficiencies was worth Westmoreland's efforts. But it would be interesting to know, wouldn't it?

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Know any good investigative reporters with a love for their country and some spare time? *g*

[StarCMC]

Great story ping