Cretan resistance
The Cretan resistance (
Development
The Cretan resistance movement was formed very soon after the Battle of Crete, with an initial planning meeting on 31 May 1941. It brought together a number of different groups and leaders and was initially termed the PMK (Πατριωτικó Μέτωπο Κρήτης – Patriotic Front of Crete), but later changed the name to EAM (Εθνικó Απελευθερωτικó Μέτωπο – National Liberation Front) like the principal communist-led resistance movement on the mainland. The primary objective of the movement, on the one hand, was to support the Cretan people under occupation by boosting morale, providing information, and distributing of food at a time of great deprivation (due to confiscations by the Germans and Italians), and on the other hand to undertake certain operations against the Germans, including a number of sabotage operations. Following German atrocities, well over 100,000 Cretan civilians would take an active part in the resistance as armed insurgents, operating in both the countryside and urban areas, with tens of thousands more acting as informants and saboteurs.[citation needed]
Resistance in Crete involved figures such as
History
Communication by boat with Egypt was established as a means of evacuating British and
The non-communist wing was formed under the name National Organization of Crete (EOK) (with Andreas Papadakis as leader). Other resistance figures included Petrakogiorgis, whose SOE's code name was "Selfridge," and Manolis Bandouvas, whose code name was "Bo-peep".[10]
Both had their contacts in
Leigh Fermor has said of the Cretan resistance that if it had not been for their resolve, the Battle of Crete would have been over more quickly and the SOE's operations greatly curtailed. It was solely due to their cohesiveness, not found anywhere else in Europe, that the SOE was able to move about the island essentially at will:
... When the Germans invaded Crete, their armies had just defeated the whole of Europe, except – thanks, perhaps, to the fluke of the Channel's existence – England. Logically the civilian population could have been expected to remain inactive while the professionals – the British Commonwealth and a small number of Greek troops – fought it out with the invaders. But to the great astonishment of both sides, all over the island bodies of Cretans – villagers, shepherds, old men, boys, monks and priests and even women, without any collusion between them or master plan or arms or guidance from the official combatants – rose up at once and threw themselves on the invaders with as little hesitation as if the German war machine were a Pasha's primitive expedition of Janissaries armed with long guns and scimitars. They had not a second doubt about what they should do ...[13]
After detailing how he heard German occupiers systematically blowing up every house in four villages, a British observer offered this interpretation of German motivation:
... “The German reasons for this onslaught were that these villages were all hotbeds of bandits, the haunts of the British, hiding places of terrorists, refuges for commandos attacking aerodromes and supply dumps, the hiding places for unnumbered weapons, and the supply point for hundreds of bad men.” ...[14]
Cretans and the Cretan resistance worked closely with the British, firstly when they aided the British and
The British formed a large number of isolated cells scattered throughout the mountains, with good communications, using runners, between them. One such runner was George Psychoundakis. Leigh Fermor's description of Psychoundakis epitomized Cretan resistance:
... Dick Barne's messenger, when he arrived, turned out to be George Psychoundakis, who had first been Xan Fielding's guide and runner for a long time, then mine when I had taken over Xan's area in the west for several months. This youthful, Kim-like figure was a great favourite of everyone's, for his humour, high spirits, pluck and imagination and above all the tireless zest with which he threw himself into the task. If anybody could put a girdle round Crete in forty minutes, he could. George, who was a shepherd boy from Asi Gonia, later wrote of the occupation and the resistance movement. I translated it from his manuscript and it was published, under the title The Cretan Runner ...[17]
Attached to these cells were Greeks who otherwise tended to have no involvement with the main Cretan resistance movement, but worked very closely with the British agents, such as Leigh Fermor's runner George Psychoundakis, Kimonas Zografakis, George Doundoulakis, and John Androulakis.[18] Zografakis, also known by his nom-de-guerre "Black Man," was a member of Force 133, the code name for SOE in Greece.[19][20] Zografakis was involved in aiding Leigh Fermor when he returned to Crete prior to the abduction of Kreipe[21] in addition to the bombing of the Kastelli Airfield with George Doundoulakis.[22]
Most cells had a radio for communicating with Egypt through which information could be passed and requests made for parachute drops of food, clothing, supplies, and weapons. German troops constantly tried to locate the radio transmissions, which resulted in the requirement to change location regularly.[23]
The British agents, working with local resistance, were responsible for some famous operations including the
Communication between EOK and EAM was poor, with open hostility breaking out between EOK and
Nonetheless, Cretan bravery and courage instilled the island with a sense of triumph and willingness to overcome all odds. Leigh Fermor recounts an old villager of Anogeia, after hearing of threats of German reprisals:
... "They'll burn them down one day. And what then? My house was burnt down four times by the Turks; let them burn it down for a fifth! And they killed scores of my families. Yet, here I am! Fill up your glasses! ...[31]
Leigh Fermor, while discussing the Cretans with General Kreipe during Kreipe's abduction, summarised the Cretan's attitude to the German occupation as :
Leigh Fermor: "The Cretans are all on our side, you know." ... General Kreipe: "Yes, I see they are. There, Major, you have me."
Patrick Leigh Fermor, Abducting a General, p. 38.
Documentary
In 2005, a documentary was released titled
References
- ISBN 9789930494950.
- ISBN 1741040396.
- ^ Described in detail in Michalis Kokolakis, Ανατολική Κρήτη. Κατοχή, αντίσταση, εμφύλιος (Athens, Alfeios, 1990).
- ^ Richter, Heinz A., Operation Merkur. Die Eroberung der Insel Kreta im Mai 1941, Rutzen, 2011, ISBN 978-3-0447-06423-1
- ISBN 978-1499059830
- ISBN 9780698154285.
- ^ William Stanley Moss, Patrick Leigh Fermor (2005). The 11th Day: Crete 1941 (Film). Crete: Archangel Films. Archived from the original on 2013-10-07. Retrieved 2018-05-04.
- ISBN 978-1499059830
- ^ Ogden, Alan. Sons of Odysseus: SOE Heroes in Greece, Ch. 19, Bene Factum Publishing Ltd, 2013
- ISBN 9781590179383.
- ^ Kiriakopoulos, G: The Nazi Occupation of Crete 1941–1945, p. 190, Praeger Publishers, 1995.
- ISBN 9781590179383.
- ISBN 9781590179383.
- ISBN 9781590179383.
- ^ Slee, Colin (23 November 2013). "Special operations agent in wartime Crete who became an unconventional bishop". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
- Royal Signals), who was also in Crete on special service, tells of the admiration the Cretans had for Perkins: ‘No other member of an Allied Mission was loved, respected and admired as was Kiwi (Perkins)’, from D. M. Davin, Crete (part of The Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939–1945) (Wellington, Historical Publications Branch, 1953), p. 497. Accessed online at https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH2Cret.html(accessed 21/01/2012).
- ISBN 9781590179383.
- ISBN 9781590179383.
- ISBN 9781590179383.
- ISBN 0140273220.
- ISBN 9781590179383.
- ^ Doundoulakis, H. and Gafni, G. Trained to be an OSS Spy, Ch. 3, Master Plans and Impending Adventures, p. 33, Xlibris, 2014
- ISBN 9781590179383.
- ISBN 9781590179383.
- ^ Beevor, A: Crete: The Battle and the Resistance, Ch. 24, "The years of change," p. 262, Second Edition, Westview Press, 1994.
- ^ William Stanley Moss, Patrick Leigh Fermor (2005). The 11th Day: Crete 1941 (Film). Crete: Archangel Films. Archived from the original on 2013-10-07. Retrieved 2018-05-04.
- ISBN 9780140273229.
- ISBN 9780140273229.
- ^ '“Ανάθεμά σας Γερμανοί κι εκάψατε την Κρήτη”: Αυτά είναι τα εγκλήματα της ναζιστικής Γερμανίας που ζητούν δικαίωση όπως τα κατέγραψε η πένα του Νίκου Καζαντζάκη', Agonaskritis.gr, 25 Μαΐου 2018; archived here
- ISBN 9780140273229.
- ISBN 9781590179383.
- ^ William Stanley Moss, Patrick Leigh Fermor (2005). The 11th Day: Crete 1941 (Film). Crete: Archangel Films. Archived from the original on 2013-10-07. Retrieved 2018-05-04.
External links
- The 11th Day: Crete 1941 Archived 2013-10-07 at the Wayback Machine
- German occupation of Crete (in German -- translate)
- German war crimes in Crete (in German -- translate)
- Beevor, A. 1994. Crete: The Battle and the Resistance
- Benaki Museum acquisition of Leigh Fermor's home in Kardamyli, Mani, Greece
- Kiriakopoulos, G. 1995. The Nazi Occupation of Crete 1941–1945
- Patrick Leigh Fermor Society
- Athens War Museum
- Crete War Museum