The Cretan Runner (Penguin World War II Collection)

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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 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. 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. 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.”— Sunday Times

This reads very much as a journal chronicling everyday events as well as an uncommon time. This means that parts are repetitive (think about your own daily life—many people get up, go to work at various but similar tasks, and then go home each day). George was a messenger who hiked through rugged country carrying notes, sometimes without incident, sometimes encountering danger. He was not the commander writing these messages and his understanding of the overarching Allied forces strategy was limited. 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. From 1974 until his retirement, Psychoundakis, together with another fighter in the Greek resistance, Manolis Paterakis, were caretakers at the German war cemetery on Hill 107 above Maleme. George Psychoundakis buried Bruno Brauer when he was re-interred on Crete later in the 1970s. [5] Sources [ edit ]

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] 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.”—Simon Steyne, The Guardian I found this book very enjoyable as it was written as a series of stories and anecdotes by a Cretan who acted as "runner" for the British in their attempts to free Crete from the Nazi yolk. Ill Met by Moonlight (1957)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 11 September 2017 . Retrieved 16 October 2020.

He had been a shepherd before the war and after it a charcoal burner and later caretaker of a German military cemetery on Crete. The nature of the resistance to German and Italian occupation was quite different to elsewhere in the Balkans. Characterized by cunning and speed (flexibility), it suited the Cretan character and mentality. German military activity in North Africa – led by Rommel – had precluded any major diversion of arms and supplies to Crete; the enemy occupation of Cyrenaica made sea transport to Crete difficult. Cretan morale plummeted as the scale of German occupation grew.

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Psychoundakis, Georgio (1991) [1955], The Cretan Runner: His Story of the German Occupation, Fermor, PL transl, ISBN 0-7195-3475-5 [6] 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 Stefanidis, Yiannis (1993). "Macedonia in the 1940s". Modern and Contemporary Macedonia. Thessaloniki: Papazissis. 2 (1): 64–103. ISBN 978-9-60-260725-1– via Archive Foundation. Dear, I. C. B.; Foot, M. R. D. (1995). The Oxford Companion to the Second World War. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-866225-9– via Archive Foundation. The Cretans had a long history of being invaded and resisting valiantly; the last people to invade had been the Turks in 19th Century. There was also a long history of sheep/goat rustling, family feuding and banditry in the mountains, so there was a ready supply of andartes (guerrillas) who were fiercely loyal to Crete and who loathed the German invaders, whom the British could help to organise into a fighting force. SOE sent in a small number of officers and wireless operators, who organised airdrops of arms, food, clothing, gold sovereigns (a more ready currency than money) and other supplies because the andartes had almost nothing – some of them even without shoes/boots.