Main opposition SYRIZA MEP and resistance hero Manolis Glezos revealed to the Observer historic moments of WWII, based on his personal experiences.

“You will have read about the plot to blow up HQ the Hotel Grande Bretagne. I do not think it was for my benefit. Still, a ton of dynamite was put in sewers by extremely skilled hands.”

These were the words Winston Churchill used in a telegram to his wife to describe the life-threatening situation he encountered in Athens on Christmas Day 1944.

Manolis Glezos, whose “skilled hands” planted those explosives gave an interview to the Observer 70 years after this act, that brought Britain’s wartime leader within inches of his death.

“I’ll tell you something I’ve never told anyone. I myself was holding the wire with cord and had to unwrap ” the said 92-year-old MEP, noting that he spent many hours in the sewerage system of Athens in order to lay the dynamite.

“The National Liberation Front wanted to blow up the British command. But we didn’t want to be responsible for assassinating one of the Big Three. We wanted to blow up the Grande Bretagne because it was the headquarters of Lt Gen Scobie,” Mr. Glezos underlined, revealing that approximately 30 people were involved in the operation. 

It should be noted that attack was abandoned when members of EAM, the main movement of the Greek Resistance whose main driving force was the Communist Party of Greece, learned that Churchill had flown into Greece and was planning to pay an unexpected visit to the British command.