The Cretan Runner (Penguin World War II Collection)

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The book has at once a calm of a race which takes it for granted that life is full of death, and the excitement of a fighter who wildly enjoys his own part of the dangerous business. It is full of jokes and full of pride. The team moved to a cave system in the mountains above Kastamonitsa village, the hideout of a local resistance group. [19] The SOE team was joined by Antonios and Grigorios Papaleonidas, Michail Akoumianakis and Grigorios Chnarakis. Akoumianakis' house was located across the road from Kreipe's residence, the Villa Ariadne, in the village of Knossos. [20] Leigh Fermor disguised himself as a Cretan shepherd for his trip to Knossos. After traveling by bus with Akoumianakis, he reconnoitered the vicinity of the villa. Enclosed by a triple wire barrier (one of which was rumoured to be electrified) and guarded by a sizeable garrison, it was deemed too well-fortified for a direct assault. It was decided to seize Kreipe during one of his frequent trips from his residence to his divisional headquarters in Ano Archanes, some 5mi (8.0km) away. Surveying the route, they discovered a T-junction where the road from Archanes joined the main road to Heraklion, forcing cars to slow down to almost a standstill; the location was subsequently named Point A. The owner of a small cottage outside Skalani ( el), some twenty minutes travel time from the abduction point, agreed to collaborate, turning the building into an observation point. [21] Owing to the heavy traffic on the main road, the operation had to be undertaken at night. [22] I found the huge array of different characters to be a little confusing however this did not hamper my enjoyment of this guileless account of a courageous and extraordinary resistance fighter. Ogden, Alan (2012). Sons of Odysseus, SOE Heroes in Greece. London: Bene Factum Publishing. ISBN 978-1-903071-44-1. If you were doing a thorough study of the conflict in Crete this would be a must read. If you don't know much about the conflict there this is probably too narrow of a subject and limited in scope to be the first thing to read.

Ill Met by Moonlight (1957)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 11 September 2017 . Retrieved 16 October 2020. Koukounas, Demosthenes (2013). Η Ιστορία της Κατοχής[ History of the Occupation] (in Greek). Vol.II. Athens: Livani. ISBN 978-9-60-142687-7.

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The Cretan runners performed exceptional feats and made essential contributions to the British operations in the Mediterranean. In 490 BC Pheidippides ran 42km from the battle of Marathon to tell about the victory over the Persians, and died just after delivering his message. In comparison, Psychoundakis ran from Kastelli-Kissamou on the northwestern coast of Crete to Paleochora on the southwestern coast in one night. The distance along the present main road is 45km. Through a rugged landscape with deep ravines, where he had to run to avoid the Germans, the distance may have been twice as far. Psychoundakis’s effortlessly poetic account reflected a passionate love of his homeland and its people, a geologist’s and botanist’s eye, chortling bemusement at the habits of the upper-class British agents, and deep comradeship with his fellow resistance fighters.

Kiriakopoulos, G. C. (1995). The Nazi Occupation of Crete, 1941–1945. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0-275-95277-0. George must have a brilliant memory for people, names and places but I must admit they did become a little blurred, not helped by an insufficient map of the island at the start of the book , Psychoundakis, George (1955). The Cretan Runner: His Story of the German Occupation. London: John Murray. OCLC 753260092.Dillon, John, "The Cretan Runner: George Psychoundakis story", Battle of Crete, UK: My Crete, archived from the original on 3 March 2016 , retrieved 16 February 2009 Koliopoulos, Ioannis (1977). "Η στρατιωτική και πολιτική κρίση στην Ελλάδα τον Απρίλιο του 1941"[The Military and Political Crisis in Greece in April 1941] (PDF). Mnimon (in Greek). 6: 53–74. doi: 10.12681/mnimon.174 . Retrieved 15 November 2020. This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Moss, William Stanley (2014) [1950]. Ill Met by Moonlight. London: Orion Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-78022-623-1. George was a foot-soldier who did nothing glamorous but whose, and other Cretans like him, efforts were essential in harassing the Germans and helping the Allied war effort.

There have been other memoirs of wartime Crete but those were visitors’ books. George’s story, as Leigh Fermor points out in the introduction, is unique.”—Allison Pearson George Psychoundakis BEM ( Greek: Γεώργιος Ψυχουντάκης, 3 November 1920 – 29 January 2006) was a member of the Greek Resistance on Crete during the Second World War and after the war an author. Following the German invasion, between 1941 and 1945, he served as the dispatch runner for the Special Operations Executive (SOE) operations on Crete, as part of the Cretan resistance. During the postwar years he was at first mistakenly imprisoned as a deserter. While in prison he wrote his wartime memoirs, which were published as The Cretan Runner. Later he translated key classical Greek texts into the Cretan dialect. The Holocaust of Kedros was an operation involving 2,000 Axis soldiers who targeted Anogeia and Damasta. A total of 900 houses were burned, 50 civilians were shot and 3,500 became internally displaced. In the following days the operation expanded to other villages, men were executed, houses were looted and then burned or dynamited regardless of their involvement in resistance activities. [40] Local resistance bands could do nothing but watch, being vastly outnumbered. [41] Biographical works [ edit ]Beevor, Antony (2005). Crete 1941: The Battle and the Resistance. London: John Murray. ISBN 978-0-7195-6831-2. This is a memoir from the conflict in Crete during WWII after the Germans invaded and occupied the island. The author was a runner and message bearer for English spies and local underground. He talks about running messages and literally running from pursuing Germans shooting at him. The occupation was oft times pretty brutal and a good example of how not do win a population over to your side. There is not a lot of urban cloak and dagger stuff here. They lived out in the woods/hills/caves and often went hungry. The author had an opportunity to go to Egypt and he talks about all the guys with him gorging themselves until they threw up because it had been so long since they had good food.