Several scenes described in the book “The Chronicle of the Great Crisis”, published by the Bank of Greece, are reminiscent of a Hollywood action movie.

From the summer of 2010 until the summer of 2012, when Greece was living under the threat of default, huge amounts were being transported to save the economy.

As described in the book, in three separate occasions ATMs had dried up, as the Greeks, fearing a possible default, withdrew their deposits. Then with the intervention of BoG, military planes started carrying 50 euro and 100 euro bills to feed the ATMs.

It is significant that shortly before the 2012 elections, 76 and 71 trucks left the National Mint on June 14 and 15 respectively, to carry cash to the banks. Normally only 20 trucks would leave the Mint. However, the situation with the cash withdrawals had spiraled out of control since June 15, the last working day before the election, when 3.5 billion euros vanished from the banks.

The urgent need for cash was covered via liquidity injections from abroad. In utmost secrecy, C – 130 type airplanes carrying 50 euro and 100 euro bills arrived three times at Eleusis.