Dimitrios Psarros Dimitrios Psarros ( , 1893 – April 17 , 1944 ) was a Greek army officer and resistance leader . He was the founder and leader of the resistance group National and Social Liberation ( , EKKA ) , the third - most significant organization of the Greek Resistance movement after the National Liberation Front ( EAM ) and the National Republican Greek League ( EDES ) . Life . Psarros was born in 1893 in the village of Chryso , in the province of Parnassida , Phocis . He attended the Greek Army Academy , and in 1916 he graduated as Second Lieutenant of Artillery . Psarros first saw action in the Balkan Wars as a volunteer , while still being a cadet in the Army Academy . In 1916 he joined the Venizelist National Defence government and fought in the Macedonian front of World War I , the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War ( in Crimea ) as a Captain , where he was injured and the Greco - Turkish War ( 1919 - 1922 ) where , thanks to his bravery , his men were able to pass into Greece from Asia Minor without many casualties . Before the war with the Turks , he was sent to France for superior war studies and after his return of Asia Minor he served in the Staff of the Army of Evros , which played a critical role to Greek strategy and politics during these years . Subsequently he taught in the newly created Greek War Academy . Later , he was among the organizers of the new Ministry of Aviation and served as Chief of Staff of an Army division . In March 1935 he took part in the failed Velizelist coup d ' état . Along with scores of other Venizelist and Republican officers , he was court - martialled and dismissed from the Army , opening the way for the royalist Army leadership to restore the Greek monarchy in October . When Greece entered World War II , he sought re - appointment into the armed forces but was refused by the Ioannis Metaxas dictatorship . Following the collapse of the front through the German invasion of Greece in April 1941 and the onset of a triple occupation by Germany , Italy and Bulgaria , Psarros first attempted to organise a resistance group in Amfissa with the help of Lt . Andreas Mitalas , but without success . Next he went to Macedonia . There , in July 1941 , he founded the organization " Freedom " ( ) , which deployed guerilla forces in the area of Nigrita , Lachana , and Kalokastro of Central Macedonia , to fight the Bulgarians , who had followed the Germans into Greece , occupied much of northern Greece and had set their sights on permanent annexation . Unfortunately , Psarros was betrayed to the Axis Forces and was chased by them . He fled to Athens , where in April 1942 he founded EKKA along with other significant figures such as the politician Georgios Kartalis , Colonel Evripidis Bakirtzis and other army officers like Dimitrios Karachristos and Dimitrios Georgantas . The organisation ' s aims were to fight the Axis occupation forces as long as the occupation lasted and , after liberation , work for social change , in a social democratic direction . EKKA was also an anti - communist , liberal and venizelist organisation . EKKA soon fielded its own guerrilla forces , named after the famed 5 / 42 Evzone Regiment and took action mainly in Central Greece , in the area of Mount Gkiona , but its forces were of small size ( around 1 , 000 fighters at its peak ) in comparison to the size of ELAS ( with 50 , 000 fighters at its peak ) and EOEA ( military arm of EDES , about 14 , 000 fighters ) . Assassination . On Easter Monday , April 17 , 1944 , the 5 / 42 Regiment was attacked by the forces of ELAS ( controlled by the Communist Party of Greece ) , who sought to have a monopoly in the political future of Greece after liberation , to disarm EKKA and further strengthen its dominant military and political position after the anticipated liberation of Greece . Colonel Psarros was captured , shot , stabbed and beheaded . His body lay unburied for several days before it was interred at the local cemetery . According to testimonies his executor was a guerilla named Zoulas , who obeyed the commands of Aris Veluhiotis , a communist leader of the armed wing of EAM in Greece . The assassination of Colonel Psarros was a dark point of Greek Resistance era . People of all resistant groups were shocked in the announcement of his death . In 1945 he was promoted posthumously by the Hellenic Army tο the rank of Major General .