Shipakov Pando

Pando Shipakov was born in the village of Ostrovo- Vodensko. Because of the hard and impoverished situation of his family he was forced to leave school to help his father. From the age of 14 he had a job working in Ksanti and Dedeagach. At the time of the German occupation he left for Vardar Macedonia to become a partisan in the Yugoslavian partisan movement where he became an officer. At the end of 1947 he returned to our homeland and joined the ranks of DAG. He took part in the big battles on Vich and on one summer night in 1948 his unit set off for Buf. That movement was betrayed to the Bulgarians who set a trap in the village. They allowed the partisans to enter the village and then they opened fire. The partisans attacked to try to pull out. But one of them had to remain to cover the withdrawal of the others. Pando was the one to remain. He fought alone for four hours and when he saw that he had only one grenade left he used it to kill himself so that he would not be captured alive by the Bulgarians. They took his body and tied it to the back of a horse and dragged his body to Lerin.

Pando's father Lazo Shipakov was captured with Mirka Ginova and was sentenced to 18 years in a dark jail. He died in jail.

G Shipakov

From: For Sacred National Freedom: Portraits Of Fallen Freedom Fighters

© 2009

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