Battle of Nicosia Airport
At 11 am the main battle had begun with Turkish tanks (Likely M47s) and mortars beginning to fire on Greek positions. As elements of the 3rd Strike Company began arriving at the airport, they came under heavy fire from attacking forces and the cars containing Majors Avramides and Kyriakos were hit, subsequently making their cars fall into a ditch, upon which a heavy firefight ensued and eventually broke out of the kill zone. As this was happening, Turkish armored units began moving towards the west of the airport in an attempt to cover the Turkish infantry units coming in from the north and thus creating a form backward "L" Flanking maneuver. Commander Papameletious's car also fell under fire and the car was immobilized a few hundred meters away from the main gates of the airport, with Papameletious taking fire from both Turkish positions and from UNFICYPs barracks, he was eventually set free with the help of a BTR; By the end 1 Commando had been mortally wounded.