These women were admirable.
When we left Larissa to go to Kozani, at Sarantaporo there were cobbled and earth streets. I remember over there just outside Servia that women were constructing the road on the second and third days, that is, they were putting stones down in the mud. Since then, from that very day, and for evermore these women of Epirus are admirable. They were much admired because they would carry loads where no mules would have gone. They put the loads on their backs, being accustomed to carrying water and wood. They would spend a couple of hours in the thicket, loading wood onto their backs, then carry it home in the snow. Of course they had been gathering provisions for winter since the summer, for about a month. Now they were walking in the snow...

(Oral testimony of Takis Trantas, in: Chatzipatera-Phafaliou, Martyries 1940-1941, Athens, Kedros, 1982, p. 103.)

Women carrying ammunition.
7 November 1940. Today two lads of the 33rd Regiment were killed and this sent the soldiers into a rage. They were shouting 'Forwards to Rome.' These deaths, instead of making us afraid, gave us wings to chase the Italians. I have met women carrying ammunition. One of them was 88 years old. Another said she had locked her little one in the hut to help the army. In the evening I saw an old woman holding two small ones and their mother was kneading bread for the army by the light of two candles she had in a glass. The snow, the frost, the terrible cold, didn't seem to scare them. All of them full of joy wanted to supply the army with what the transport vehicles couldn't. Truly the miracle of women. What a contrast to the women of the cities!

(From the War Diary of Argyris Balatsos, in: Chatzipatera-Phafaliou, Martyries 1940-1941, Athens, Kedros, 1982, p. 103)

Living wall.
The victors of Pindos were advancing. As they reached the river Vogiousa and the fearless women of Pindos saw that the rushing stream prevented the sappers doing their work, they spontaneously did something that would later be repeated at Kalamas and Drinos: they entered the water and, holding each other tightly around the shoulders, formed an earthwork that checked the rush of the river and facilitated the bridge-makers!

(Takis Å. Papagiannopoulos, in: Chatzipatera-Phafaliou, Martyries 1940-1941, Athens, Kedros, 1982, p. 104)