Lago
Battery Lago
Lago
Location
Mount Appetici, altitude 181m
Administration
- Artillery Second Lieutenant Spagnolo Corrado (Vice Commander)
Lago Artillery!! Pytiki. IV.120/45 A unique and powerful artillery... Built in 1926, it is located on the complex summit of the 181-meter high Pytikio hill. It is situated across from the Castle of the Knights. A unique defensive fortress with several artillery batteries and underground tunnels. On November 12th, the Lago artillery suffered its first strong attack by the Amphibious Raiders "Brantdenburger". Three boats landed men at Aspri Pounta. At the point where it could not be hit by the coastal weapons of the artillery... The raiders, climbing like wild goats, captured the first two cannons... No. 4 and then No. 3. The first fierce battles with human casualties took place there. Despite the strong resistance of Italian Lieutenant Colonel K. Spaniolas, the situation temporarily stabilized with the reinforcement of an English platoon. On the same day, at 13:30, the first paratroopers made their appearance on the Ridge. The Germans seemed determined to divide the island in two at all costs. The Green Devils, after fierce body-to-body battles, managed to reach the Pytiki hill and trap the men defending the Lago artillery in the trenches. On November 14th, at 02:00, the artillery suffered a fierce attack from the German cannons of the ships "Belvoir" and "Eco". The losses were tremendous... In the battle, Lieutenant Colonel Frenz was killed, as well as the officers around him. It is reported that out of the two platoons of the English, only one officer and seventy soldiers survived. This is in a few words the Battle of Pythikio! A battle with significant human losses... a battle that highlighted heroes in the face of Nazi brutality! Italians and English defended the hill of Pythikio with their lives, with one purpose. They wanted to stop the invasion of German troops in the Dodecanese. Today, the Lago artillery, remote and silent, mourns its victims! It mourns all those who fell dead on the hill of Pythikio. They were sailors, they were soldiers, they were innocent children... they were heroes who gave their lives for us to be free today!
(P.S.)My grandfather also worked on the construction of this artillery as an engineer in 1926.