Fort Roupel: Crossing a border
Article in Hellenic News of America by Marc d’ Entremont
Fort Roupel, 1914, was in early planning stages along the mountainous border between Greece and Bulgaria when World War I erupted. In the mid-1930’s that war’s Macedonian Front was transformed by Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas into a 200-kilometer line of 21 state-of-the-art fortifications. World War II, April 1941, the German and Bulgarian armies attacked all 21 forts on the Metaxas Line with overwhelming force – Fort Roupel was outnumbered (and out gunned) 7 to 1.
I had just crossed the Bulgarian border at Kulata into Greece traveling from the resort town of Bansko through the beautiful mountains of Pirin National Park into Central Macedonia. Sofia Bournatzi, and her father, Theodoros, greeted me in Promachonas on the Greek side. I couldn’t have had more knowledgeable guides since the region has been the Bournatzi family home for generations…
Link: https://hellenicnews.com/2021/05/26/fort-roupel-crossing-a-border
