Bralos

Bralos

Μπράλος
Bralos Μπράλος
Community
	British Military Cemetery, Bralos
	Bralos
	Coordinates: 38°44′N 22°28′E / 38.733°N 22.467°E
Country	Greece
Administrative region	Central Greece
Regional unit	Phthiotis
Municipality	Amfikleia-Elateia
Municipal unit	Amfikleia
Population (2021)
• Community	193
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (EEST)
Vehicle registration	ΜみゅーΙいおた

Bralos or Brallos (Greek: Μπράλ[λらむだ]ος) is a village located on the slopes of Mount Kallidromon in Phthiotis, Greece. It is part of the municipality Amfikleia-Elateia. The town can be found along European route E65, and is served by Bralos railway station.

History

In October 1917, during World War I, the 49th Stationary Hospital was established at Bralos along with rest and recuperation camps for Allied troops. It remained in use until April 1919. Many of the dead from the hospital—chiefly from the influenza epidemic—are buried in the Bralo British Cemetery. It contains 101 burials, 95 of which from the British Commonwealth.^[2]

Bralos was also the site of fighting between British Commonwealth troops and the Germans in the Battle of Thermopylae (1941).

On 12 January 1947, 300 Democratic Army of Greece guerrillas, led by Captain Diamantis, took the Bralos railway station by surprise at 14:00 local time, when the train pulled into the station. The guerrillas destroyed the radios, called on the passengers to get off the train, and separated the civilians from the soldiers. Captains Stathakopoulos, Nikolopoulos and gendarme Kastanas resisted the takeover, who were killed in the ensuing exchange of gunfire. The guerrillas sat at the station for an hour and a half, blew up the chimney of the locomotive and set fire to the train, resulting in the burning of two wagons. They then left in cars, taking with them about 20 captives, various supplies and the station's cash register, and took refuge in Oiti. Both the Army and Gendarmerie forces pursued them without result.^[3]