EDES v ELAS Eventually the British Army occupied Athens and Piraeus in the aftermath of the German withdrawal and fought a street by street battle to drive ELAS from these cities and impose an interim government under Archbishop Damaskinos SOE s last act was to evacuate several hundred disarmed EDES fighters to Corfu preventing their massacre by ELAS 87 Whatever the truth of what happened in autumn 1944 the Foot reference which I have as page 340 a long way from page 236 so a mere change in edition is unlikely to have brought this about only provides minimal support to the text Foot has no reference to an imminent massacre If as implied SOE had successfully fought for control of Athens why was an evacuation necessary