Charalambos Kalaitzis

He was born in the village of Kathikas¹, Paphos district, in 1918.

He fell on the night of 13 to 14 September 1958 in his village, fighting against the British forces.

Charalambos Kalaitzis finished the Kathikas primary school and was a tinker. He loved Greece and fought for the freedom of Cyprus, offering every assistance to the EOKA fighters and the wanted persons in his area. His great desire was to join the guerrillas, but Digenis did not allow it, because he had many young children.

On September 13, 1958, an English soldier was killed in an EOKA ambush in Yiolou and two others were wounded. The Scottish Highlanders battalion, which arrived shortly after, committed atrocities against the residents of the surrounding villages and Kathikas. Five soldiers, who had marked Charalambos' house in Kathikas, rushed into it and a terrible fight began between him and the Scottish soldiers. At some point, enraged, Charalambos grabbed a knife and beat them. Three fell. The other two escaped and jumped outside. One of them left his gun and his kilt there. Kalaitzis chased them and the fight continued in the yard. They sent a distress signal, and reinforcements arrived.

Charalambos Kalaitzis tried to jump over the yard wall with the knife in his hand, but he did not make it. He was shot and fell. His wife took the weapons of the killed Englishmen who were inside the house, threw them into an adjacent yard and tried to escape in the darkness, but was spotted when flares fell on her and was arrested.