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The Cretan Runner: The Story of the German Occupation
An account of the Resistance in Crete during the German occupation in World War II, written by an active participant. Psychoundakis was part of a group of Cretans who tried to keep up morale and endangered themselves by acting as intermediaries between groups of British on the island.
352 pages, Paperback
First published June 26, 1955
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About the author
George Psychoundakis
3 books1 followerGeorge Psychoundakis (Greek: Γεώργιος Ψυχουντάκης) was a shepherd and a Greek Resistance fighter on Crete during the Second World War. He served as dispatch runner between Petro Petrakas and Papadakis behind the German lines for the Cretan resistance and later, from 1941 to 1945, for the Special Operations Executive (SOE). During the postwar years he was at first mistakenly imprisoned as a deserter. While in prison he wrote his wartime memoirs, which achieved considerable success.
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August 26, 2022
THE CRETAN RUNNER (1955) is a remarkable memoir written by George Psychoundakis, a 21 year old Cretan shepherd who became a "runner" in the Resistance Movement during the German occupation of Crete. It was translated by the great Patrick Leigh Fermor whom he met in 1942 when he joined the Resistance in Crete.
"The job of a war-time runner in the Resistance Movement was the most exhausting and one of the most consistently dangerous of all. It entailed immense journeys on foot at full speed over some of the most precipitous country in Europe, carrying messages between towns and the large villages and the secret wireless stations in the mountains; humping batteries and driving camouflaged explosives and arms, and, occasionally, a British straggler in disguise, on the backs of mules through heavily garrisons areas". These are Patrick Leigh Fermors words. I would add that the "runners" received no pay, they worked for the longest hours because of a sense of duty.
All the runners were poor mountain boys, and Psychoundakis was the poorest of them all. He received a rudimentary, brief education ( only two or three years of schooling) and tended his family's flock of goats since he was able to walk. That's why he knew the mountains so well.
This memoir begins with the battle of Crete, the German parachute invasion, at dawn on the 20th of May 1941. All Cretans of military age were in the mainland, returning from the Albanian campaign. So old men, boys and women grabbed sticks, sickles, and rusty guns and fought the invaders. About 6000 were killed on both sides, and there were many wounded. Patrick Leigh Fermor claims the Cretan Resistance movement was one of the most successful in Europe. Psychoundakis joined the Resistance right from the start and remained until the Germans had to leave the island.
THE CRETAN RUNNER is an account of Resistance life: a story of hardships and dangers, starvation diet, close encounters with Gestapo death squads, friendship and comradeship, unfailing courage and a moving love of his homeland. Psychoundakis narrating voice is modest and witty, he is a thoughtful and intelligent observer. The NYRB edition includes a very useful introduction.
"The job of a war-time runner in the Resistance Movement was the most exhausting and one of the most consistently dangerous of all. It entailed immense journeys on foot at full speed over some of the most precipitous country in Europe, carrying messages between towns and the large villages and the secret wireless stations in the mountains; humping batteries and driving camouflaged explosives and arms, and, occasionally, a British straggler in disguise, on the backs of mules through heavily garrisons areas". These are Patrick Leigh Fermors words. I would add that the "runners" received no pay, they worked for the longest hours because of a sense of duty.
All the runners were poor mountain boys, and Psychoundakis was the poorest of them all. He received a rudimentary, brief education ( only two or three years of schooling) and tended his family's flock of goats since he was able to walk. That's why he knew the mountains so well.
This memoir begins with the battle of Crete, the German parachute invasion, at dawn on the 20th of May 1941. All Cretans of military age were in the mainland, returning from the Albanian campaign. So old men, boys and women grabbed sticks, sickles, and rusty guns and fought the invaders. About 6000 were killed on both sides, and there were many wounded. Patrick Leigh Fermor claims the Cretan Resistance movement was one of the most successful in Europe. Psychoundakis joined the Resistance right from the start and remained until the Germans had to leave the island.
THE CRETAN RUNNER is an account of Resistance life: a story of hardships and dangers, starvation diet, close encounters with Gestapo death squads, friendship and comradeship, unfailing courage and a moving love of his homeland. Psychoundakis narrating voice is modest and witty, he is a thoughtful and intelligent observer. The NYRB edition includes a very useful introduction.
November 19, 2014
I am working my way through all of Patrick Leigh Fermor's books and, whilst he is only the translator here (also adding a few helpful footnotes and an introduction) Crete feels an important part of his myth, as well as an interesting slice of WW2 history in its own right. Actually Patrick Leigh Fermor is really only a bit part player in this book, though he adds a few helpful footnotes in addition to translating the book into English.
This is a fascinating insight into an active member of the Cretan resistance during WW2. George Psychoundakis was a young shepherd boy when the Nazis invaded his home in 1941. Whilst clearly very bright and perceptive he was relatively uneducated. This does not hamper his descriptive powers and, bearing in mind his lack of education, this is a remarkable book.
As George Psychoundakis explains, Crete has a long history of occupation and counter-resistance, and he had no hesitation in participating in the resistance. He was a runner, carrying messages between different resistance groups and across diverse, usually mountainous terrain, barely resting for weeks. A risky and courageous existence, frequently achieved with very little food or sleep, in extreme conditions and all for no recompense. The conflict in Crete between the Cretan guerrillas, supported by a handful of British soldiers, and the Nazi occupiers was extreme. The hated Germans behaved barbarically to the Cretans and punished acts of insurrection by torturing and destroying entire communities. This book describes the backdrop to these years.
Prior to WW2, George had never left the island of Crete. For a short period during the war he left Crete and visited Egypt and Palestine. Viewing these new worlds through his eyes is a real pleasure and one of the many highlights in the book.
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.
4/5
This is a fascinating insight into an active member of the Cretan resistance during WW2. George Psychoundakis was a young shepherd boy when the Nazis invaded his home in 1941. Whilst clearly very bright and perceptive he was relatively uneducated. This does not hamper his descriptive powers and, bearing in mind his lack of education, this is a remarkable book.
As George Psychoundakis explains, Crete has a long history of occupation and counter-resistance, and he had no hesitation in participating in the resistance. He was a runner, carrying messages between different resistance groups and across diverse, usually mountainous terrain, barely resting for weeks. A risky and courageous existence, frequently achieved with very little food or sleep, in extreme conditions and all for no recompense. The conflict in Crete between the Cretan guerrillas, supported by a handful of British soldiers, and the Nazi occupiers was extreme. The hated Germans behaved barbarically to the Cretans and punished acts of insurrection by torturing and destroying entire communities. This book describes the backdrop to these years.
Prior to WW2, George had never left the island of Crete. For a short period during the war he left Crete and visited Egypt and Palestine. Viewing these new worlds through his eyes is a real pleasure and one of the many highlights in the book.
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.
4/5
April 5, 2021
Continuing my recent theme of reading about SOE (the Special Operations Executive), I was pleased to get round to reading The Cretan Runner by George Psychoundakis, a man who delivered messages for the British officers organising Cretan resistance to the German and Italian Occupation in Crete, 1941-1945.
George was born to a very poor family in Asi Gonia, a remote village in the mountains of Crete, and was brought up in a one roomed house with an earthen floor. He learned to read and write at the local school but not much else. He began life as a shepherd to the family’s small flock, so learned to get all around the mountains on goat paths, which served him well once he began working with SOE.
After the German invasion in 1941, which was one of the first major operations of the war to succeed because of paratroops, the British soldiers not already evacuated in the initial rescue operation hid in the mountains in small groups and were subsequently helped and fed by the Cretan people until such time as the Royal Navy could send ships here and there to pick them up.
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.
George was a runner, which means he carried messages between the various groups that operated in different parts of Crete. They were not allowed (for security reasons) to communicate with each other by wireless – the wireless was only for communicating with Cairo (in Egypt), the British HQ of Middle East Command. He covered huge distances over steep and dangerous terrain, often walking and running 20 miles a day, while avoiding German patrols and risking continual death or capture. He kept this up for over four years. He also had to bluff his way through the occasional document check, sticking to his cover story, which took great nerve considering that if he had been taken prisoner the local Gestapo would have tortured him and threatened his whole family in order to get information out of him.
His book, written some ten years after the war, is an intensely personal and captivating account of his adventures. He names names, places and describes incidents in a simple and frank style that transports the reader to that time and place very effectively. Despite George’s humble beginnings he was a man of great literary and poetic talent. During the time he worked tirelessly for SOE and Crete he wrote poetry, and after the war he translated Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey into Cretan Greek, a huge feat in itself; not only this but Patrick Leigh Fermor, the Cambridge graduate and Greek scholar (and one of the SOE agents in Crete he was working for), praised his versions as more natural, lively and realistic than many of the classical translations; made so, he said, because of George’s background, which made his life closer to the lives of the ancient Greeks than northern European scholars. Paddy Fermor translated The Cretan Runner into English, wrote the Introduction and made a few footnotes clarifying parts of the text.
I very much enjoyed this book. The only slightly frustrating aspect is that many village names are mentioned, not all of which are on the accompanying map – and are quite hard to pronounce until you are used to them! This meant that I kept stopping reading to check the map (with a magnifying glass!) but I just re-read a few paragraphs as I went along. The story is at times poignant, terrifying, exciting and always interesting; made all the more so by the fact that it is all true. A great read.
George was born to a very poor family in Asi Gonia, a remote village in the mountains of Crete, and was brought up in a one roomed house with an earthen floor. He learned to read and write at the local school but not much else. He began life as a shepherd to the family’s small flock, so learned to get all around the mountains on goat paths, which served him well once he began working with SOE.
After the German invasion in 1941, which was one of the first major operations of the war to succeed because of paratroops, the British soldiers not already evacuated in the initial rescue operation hid in the mountains in small groups and were subsequently helped and fed by the Cretan people until such time as the Royal Navy could send ships here and there to pick them up.
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.
George was a runner, which means he carried messages between the various groups that operated in different parts of Crete. They were not allowed (for security reasons) to communicate with each other by wireless – the wireless was only for communicating with Cairo (in Egypt), the British HQ of Middle East Command. He covered huge distances over steep and dangerous terrain, often walking and running 20 miles a day, while avoiding German patrols and risking continual death or capture. He kept this up for over four years. He also had to bluff his way through the occasional document check, sticking to his cover story, which took great nerve considering that if he had been taken prisoner the local Gestapo would have tortured him and threatened his whole family in order to get information out of him.
His book, written some ten years after the war, is an intensely personal and captivating account of his adventures. He names names, places and describes incidents in a simple and frank style that transports the reader to that time and place very effectively. Despite George’s humble beginnings he was a man of great literary and poetic talent. During the time he worked tirelessly for SOE and Crete he wrote poetry, and after the war he translated Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey into Cretan Greek, a huge feat in itself; not only this but Patrick Leigh Fermor, the Cambridge graduate and Greek scholar (and one of the SOE agents in Crete he was working for), praised his versions as more natural, lively and realistic than many of the classical translations; made so, he said, because of George’s background, which made his life closer to the lives of the ancient Greeks than northern European scholars. Paddy Fermor translated The Cretan Runner into English, wrote the Introduction and made a few footnotes clarifying parts of the text.
I very much enjoyed this book. The only slightly frustrating aspect is that many village names are mentioned, not all of which are on the accompanying map – and are quite hard to pronounce until you are used to them! This meant that I kept stopping reading to check the map (with a magnifying glass!) but I just re-read a few paragraphs as I went along. The story is at times poignant, terrifying, exciting and always interesting; made all the more so by the fact that it is all true. A great read.
February 26, 2008
A little known account of the resistance movement on Crete by one of the Cretans himself. Anecdotal in structure, it paints an absorbing picture of the men in and of the Resistance on Crete, with the added bonus of the manuscript being introduced, annoted, and nearly completely verified by Patrick Leigh Fermor, a well known British travel writer who served with and befriended the author while working with the British SOE on Crete. An extremely important book, as it is NOT from the vie3wpoint of the lorldly Allies, and one of the first and still few accounts of the European resistance from the inside.
An added bonus to this book is a look at cretan culture through the eyes of a native.
Highly recommended
An added bonus to this book is a look at cretan culture through the eyes of a native.
Highly recommended
July 10, 2022
This is a challenging book to review, for it is non-fiction published in a series predominantly comprising fiction. Hence, the five elements of fiction (plot, setting, character, point of view, and theme) in varying degrees are missing. What we read instead is a collection of diaries recounting wartime memoirs of the resistance to the German occupation of Crete by George Psychoundakis, with Patrick Leigh Fermor translating the original documents, as well as his having been with George at the time of most of the events described in the book. The wartime resistance fighter and British Special Operations Executive (SOE) courier George Psychoundakis, who became a writer and literary translator, died in Chania, Crete, at the age of 85. Patrick Leigh Fermor (later Sir Patrick), had been parachuted on to the island to help organise the resistance and not only translates, but provides clarifying comments in the footnotes. George's memoir told the story of the German occupation and the Cretan resistance from the time of the invasion to the island's liberation on May 23 1945.
As confessional, I have two connections to this book’s context. First, I have visited Crete, know of its terrain (in the west of the island) and have walked the Samara Gorge. Second, my father Edwin John (“Eddie”) Voisey (1918-2009) was active fighting fascism in World War II in Africa. Rommel’s and the Germans’ approach to war (and their atrocities) more generally reminded me of what my father was fighting against, and for. I had not realized that the kind of atrocities (“war crimes”) we see referred to by Russians in Ukraine were normal methods of warfare for the Nazis in World War II. My appreciation and respect for everything my father’s generation did for us grew immensely from reading this book
Reading The Cretan Runner evoked in me the same feeling I had when reading Roberto Bolaño’s Part 4 “The Part About the Crimes” in his 2004 masterpiece, “2666.” This comprises 280 pages or so of descriptions of the discovery of dead women’s bodies in Santa Teresa, Mexico. Reading these seems repetitive, yet the reader has guilt in jumping ahead because this is disrespectful for each person, each woman, whose murder is described. But the sheer cumulation of discoveries of bodies also works to embed the scale of the atrocities in the reader’s mind.
Likewise, reading The Cretan Runner, the volume of short tales, events, of fighting the Germans as Cretan resistance seem repetitive at times, but the reader feels guilt jumping, avoiding the narrative. The actions of these brave, resisting individuals have led to comparative freedom for much of the western world for the past seventy years – albeit high dependency and impoverishment in many developing countries, as well as within the so-called advanced economies.
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.
The broader context in which George Psychoundakis’ tales are embedded matters, and it is hardly touched on in the book. Readers should appreciate that there were as many as 40,000 Germans and 35,000 Italians on the 260 km. long island of Crete, with a width varying between 12 and 60 km., with most of this uninhabitable. The result was that the German presence was thicker on the ground and stronger than in mainland Greece or Yugoslavia. Moreover, the Germans in particular had shown an inclination to employ violent methods to nip any hint or resistance in the bud. The reprisal policy was effective in suppressing overt resistance. Other challenges arose from the physical and geographical circumstances under which the resistance and SOE officers operated.
The extraordinarily rocky and mountainous terrain of Crete made movement around the island extremely difficult, impeding contact among British officers themselves, but also between the British and their Cretan collaborators. Complicating the effort of the resistance was that the German’s had Cretan collaborators, so resistance was always in peril even as the SOE tried to build relations with individuals with the purpose of forming a coherent resistance network. This was a kind of informal diplomacy conducted in conditions where the normal infrastructure and processes of diplomatic dealings had been swept aside. The scale of the task confronting the SOE was compounded by the fact that there was no pan-Cretan organisation.
Missing from the book is the overall outcome of the successes that the work of the runner George Psychoundakis and his countrymen achieved. The most celebrated act of resistance in Crete – the capture of the German local leader Kreipe is described. Yet there were many other successes in sabotage achieved on raids conducted not by SOE but by the Special Boat Service (SBS) of the Royal Marines (SBS), which made incursions into Crete in coordination with SOE. The SBS raids, targeting German military infrastructure, became regular. The first raid on 9 June 1942 targeted the German airfields at Kastelli, Heraklion, Maleme and Tymbaki, and in the first two instances recorded success in the destruction of aircraft, albeit at the cost of the life of one saboteur and the freedom of three others. A second raid on the same airfields (with the exception of Maleme) was staged in July of the following year, while the third and final raid, distinguished by closer collaboration between SBS and SOE, took place in July 1944. There was skepticism about the value of the raids and the Cretans, too, felt at best ambivalent about this form of Allied intervention. The second of the SBS raids brought a round of reprisals. Among the reprisal victims were most of the small Jewish colony in Heraklion.
The Cretan Runner contains many tales of sabotage, subversion and resistance. Lack of communications meant that the local organization of resistance exercised their own judgement in determining tactical priorities. In these conditions of heavily compromised communication options, it was largely the officers in the field – a decentralized loosely-coupled organization – who decided which of SOE’s multiple agendas to pursue and how. As much as in any other branch of clandestine warfare, an understanding of the work of SOE therefore demands that any ‘top-down’ approach be balanced by an understanding of how events unfolded at local level and with local initiative.
There were several distinctive characteristics of the resistance to occupation in Crete. Communications difficulties led to high local autonomy by the SOE on the ground in Crete, as noted. Second was the presence of more than a thousand British and Commonwealth soldiers, both evaders and escapers, on the run in the mountains following the Battle of Crete. While the Cretan villagers rose magnificently to the challenge presented by caring for these men, the Cretans wanted them off the island as quickly as possible, as they were overstraining scarce supplies of food, and horrific reprisals were taken against locals who sheltered them. Consequently, the early preoccupation of SOE at the Middle East Headquarters (MEHQ) was concerned with evacuating these men. This situation did not exist anywhere else in the occupied Balkans. The third factor which made the situation in Crete distinct was – as Psychoundakis and Fermor imply – the relative ease of access to Cairo by sea, either by surface craft or submarine. It was relatively easier to infiltrate and exfiltrate agents than in mainland Greece, Yugoslavia, or Albania – always provided there were vessels available.
The potential for organized resistance was impacted by five significant factors, under-emphasized or omitted in the book. First, Cretan society was characterized by the presence of a collection of local Kapetanioi, leaders of armed bands formed on a local, clan basis. They were concentrated in the mountainous massifs of Lassithi in the east, Psiloritis and Kedros in the center, and the White Mountains in the west. Second, when the German invasion took place, the vast majority of Cretan men of fighting age were away with the 5th Cretan Division chasing the invading Italians, the despised Makaronades, out of Epirus in Northwestern Greece and deep into Albania.
Third, Cretan women of all ages, old men, and young boys also fell upon the Germans spontaneously and with a terrible ferocity, their weapons being ancient rifles, kitchen knives, and agricultural implements, such as sickles and pitchforks – Psychoundakis refers to this in the first part of the book. Fourth, in Crete, there were in prominent positions a large number of Reserve or passed-over Greek Army officers, usually Venizelist Republicans embedded in an antimonarchist and anti-Metaxas culture that derived from the bitter conflicts of the interwar years between royalists and republicans. Fifth, there were a number of communist prisoners on the island of Gavdos off the southwestern coast of Crete. Seven of these escaped, met up with other communist escapees from Folegandros and other islands, and set about organizing an island-wide resistance organization as early as June 1941.
From the original, spontaneous outburst of resistance against the German airborne attack, various organizational aspects were apparent. These included: (1) family and clan-based networks, some of which Psychoundakis hints at; (2) The National Liberation Front (EAM), along with its armed wing, the National Popular Liberation Army (ELAS), which although established by members of the Greek Communist Party (KKE), was a broad front organization uniting liberal, republican, antimonarchist, and KKE elements in a manner distinctly more fluid and democratic than in mainland Greece; and (3) networks of Greek Army officers, including both those who had been in units fighting the Germans or Italians and those in the Reserve or passed over. Sometimes individuals could be members of all three groups, and the Cretan organizations negotiated with each other from the very beginning, showing that the potential for united action was very strong. All these groups were collecting and storing abandoned or captured British and German weapons. SOE was faced with an extremely complicated situation in Crete.
What shocked me was the Germans’ reprisals – war crimes – against the local population, often ferocious and revenging the actions of the resistance. If you are a resistance fighter and you know the German’s may revenge your actions by harming the local community, what decisions do you make? This is challenging moral ground.
To conclude, this is an important book as historical record, but it is the point of view of a local man, a Cretan runner. Readers would benefit from having knowledge of the broader context to better evaluate the considerable contributions of George Psychoundakis, Patrick Leigh Fermor, and others.
As confessional, I have two connections to this book’s context. First, I have visited Crete, know of its terrain (in the west of the island) and have walked the Samara Gorge. Second, my father Edwin John (“Eddie”) Voisey (1918-2009) was active fighting fascism in World War II in Africa. Rommel’s and the Germans’ approach to war (and their atrocities) more generally reminded me of what my father was fighting against, and for. I had not realized that the kind of atrocities (“war crimes”) we see referred to by Russians in Ukraine were normal methods of warfare for the Nazis in World War II. My appreciation and respect for everything my father’s generation did for us grew immensely from reading this book
Reading The Cretan Runner evoked in me the same feeling I had when reading Roberto Bolaño’s Part 4 “The Part About the Crimes” in his 2004 masterpiece, “2666.” This comprises 280 pages or so of descriptions of the discovery of dead women’s bodies in Santa Teresa, Mexico. Reading these seems repetitive, yet the reader has guilt in jumping ahead because this is disrespectful for each person, each woman, whose murder is described. But the sheer cumulation of discoveries of bodies also works to embed the scale of the atrocities in the reader’s mind.
Likewise, reading The Cretan Runner, the volume of short tales, events, of fighting the Germans as Cretan resistance seem repetitive at times, but the reader feels guilt jumping, avoiding the narrative. The actions of these brave, resisting individuals have led to comparative freedom for much of the western world for the past seventy years – albeit high dependency and impoverishment in many developing countries, as well as within the so-called advanced economies.
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.
The broader context in which George Psychoundakis’ tales are embedded matters, and it is hardly touched on in the book. Readers should appreciate that there were as many as 40,000 Germans and 35,000 Italians on the 260 km. long island of Crete, with a width varying between 12 and 60 km., with most of this uninhabitable. The result was that the German presence was thicker on the ground and stronger than in mainland Greece or Yugoslavia. Moreover, the Germans in particular had shown an inclination to employ violent methods to nip any hint or resistance in the bud. The reprisal policy was effective in suppressing overt resistance. Other challenges arose from the physical and geographical circumstances under which the resistance and SOE officers operated.
The extraordinarily rocky and mountainous terrain of Crete made movement around the island extremely difficult, impeding contact among British officers themselves, but also between the British and their Cretan collaborators. Complicating the effort of the resistance was that the German’s had Cretan collaborators, so resistance was always in peril even as the SOE tried to build relations with individuals with the purpose of forming a coherent resistance network. This was a kind of informal diplomacy conducted in conditions where the normal infrastructure and processes of diplomatic dealings had been swept aside. The scale of the task confronting the SOE was compounded by the fact that there was no pan-Cretan organisation.
Missing from the book is the overall outcome of the successes that the work of the runner George Psychoundakis and his countrymen achieved. The most celebrated act of resistance in Crete – the capture of the German local leader Kreipe is described. Yet there were many other successes in sabotage achieved on raids conducted not by SOE but by the Special Boat Service (SBS) of the Royal Marines (SBS), which made incursions into Crete in coordination with SOE. The SBS raids, targeting German military infrastructure, became regular. The first raid on 9 June 1942 targeted the German airfields at Kastelli, Heraklion, Maleme and Tymbaki, and in the first two instances recorded success in the destruction of aircraft, albeit at the cost of the life of one saboteur and the freedom of three others. A second raid on the same airfields (with the exception of Maleme) was staged in July of the following year, while the third and final raid, distinguished by closer collaboration between SBS and SOE, took place in July 1944. There was skepticism about the value of the raids and the Cretans, too, felt at best ambivalent about this form of Allied intervention. The second of the SBS raids brought a round of reprisals. Among the reprisal victims were most of the small Jewish colony in Heraklion.
The Cretan Runner contains many tales of sabotage, subversion and resistance. Lack of communications meant that the local organization of resistance exercised their own judgement in determining tactical priorities. In these conditions of heavily compromised communication options, it was largely the officers in the field – a decentralized loosely-coupled organization – who decided which of SOE’s multiple agendas to pursue and how. As much as in any other branch of clandestine warfare, an understanding of the work of SOE therefore demands that any ‘top-down’ approach be balanced by an understanding of how events unfolded at local level and with local initiative.
There were several distinctive characteristics of the resistance to occupation in Crete. Communications difficulties led to high local autonomy by the SOE on the ground in Crete, as noted. Second was the presence of more than a thousand British and Commonwealth soldiers, both evaders and escapers, on the run in the mountains following the Battle of Crete. While the Cretan villagers rose magnificently to the challenge presented by caring for these men, the Cretans wanted them off the island as quickly as possible, as they were overstraining scarce supplies of food, and horrific reprisals were taken against locals who sheltered them. Consequently, the early preoccupation of SOE at the Middle East Headquarters (MEHQ) was concerned with evacuating these men. This situation did not exist anywhere else in the occupied Balkans. The third factor which made the situation in Crete distinct was – as Psychoundakis and Fermor imply – the relative ease of access to Cairo by sea, either by surface craft or submarine. It was relatively easier to infiltrate and exfiltrate agents than in mainland Greece, Yugoslavia, or Albania – always provided there were vessels available.
The potential for organized resistance was impacted by five significant factors, under-emphasized or omitted in the book. First, Cretan society was characterized by the presence of a collection of local Kapetanioi, leaders of armed bands formed on a local, clan basis. They were concentrated in the mountainous massifs of Lassithi in the east, Psiloritis and Kedros in the center, and the White Mountains in the west. Second, when the German invasion took place, the vast majority of Cretan men of fighting age were away with the 5th Cretan Division chasing the invading Italians, the despised Makaronades, out of Epirus in Northwestern Greece and deep into Albania.
Third, Cretan women of all ages, old men, and young boys also fell upon the Germans spontaneously and with a terrible ferocity, their weapons being ancient rifles, kitchen knives, and agricultural implements, such as sickles and pitchforks – Psychoundakis refers to this in the first part of the book. Fourth, in Crete, there were in prominent positions a large number of Reserve or passed-over Greek Army officers, usually Venizelist Republicans embedded in an antimonarchist and anti-Metaxas culture that derived from the bitter conflicts of the interwar years between royalists and republicans. Fifth, there were a number of communist prisoners on the island of Gavdos off the southwestern coast of Crete. Seven of these escaped, met up with other communist escapees from Folegandros and other islands, and set about organizing an island-wide resistance organization as early as June 1941.
From the original, spontaneous outburst of resistance against the German airborne attack, various organizational aspects were apparent. These included: (1) family and clan-based networks, some of which Psychoundakis hints at; (2) The National Liberation Front (EAM), along with its armed wing, the National Popular Liberation Army (ELAS), which although established by members of the Greek Communist Party (KKE), was a broad front organization uniting liberal, republican, antimonarchist, and KKE elements in a manner distinctly more fluid and democratic than in mainland Greece; and (3) networks of Greek Army officers, including both those who had been in units fighting the Germans or Italians and those in the Reserve or passed over. Sometimes individuals could be members of all three groups, and the Cretan organizations negotiated with each other from the very beginning, showing that the potential for united action was very strong. All these groups were collecting and storing abandoned or captured British and German weapons. SOE was faced with an extremely complicated situation in Crete.
What shocked me was the Germans’ reprisals – war crimes – against the local population, often ferocious and revenging the actions of the resistance. If you are a resistance fighter and you know the German’s may revenge your actions by harming the local community, what decisions do you make? This is challenging moral ground.
To conclude, this is an important book as historical record, but it is the point of view of a local man, a Cretan runner. Readers would benefit from having knowledge of the broader context to better evaluate the considerable contributions of George Psychoundakis, Patrick Leigh Fermor, and others.
February 18, 2024
An interesting and engaging memoir of the author's wartime experiences as a member of the Cretan resistance movement during the German occupation of Crete 1941-45. The author was seconded as a guide and courier to the British Special Operations Executive operating in the mountains of south-central Crete. The text is written in a first person, chronological, journal style with short chapters detailing the activities of the author, the Cretan resistance forces and soldiers of the British Special Operations group with whom he worked, from the initial invasion of the island by German paratroopers in May 1941 to the German surrender in May 1945. The writing is personal, straight-forward and factual with little in the way of reflection or analysis. The translation of this book to English (and the Introduction) was by author, Patrick Leigh Fermor, who coincidentally, served in the Special Operations group in Crete during the war and knew George Psychoundakis well. Overall, this is an interesting and unusual work that brings to life one of the lesser known theatres of WWII - written by someone who lived the experience.
October 18, 2024
“They began to burn down villages and torture the inhabitants, loading them like beasts of burden, and killing them with appalling torments. The Germans proved themselves to be, in every way, utter barbarians.
They were avenging, they said, their slain brothers-in-arms who now filled the whole island with graveyards.
But how could they justify this vengeance for their slain companions, who, along with them, had tried to drive us from our homes and dishonour and kill us, and settle in our stead? What did they expect us to do? Cross our hands and surrender?”
“Children were killed in their mothers' arms, and men and women, both young and old, fell together before the German bullets. Whole villages, with their churches and their schools and all that was sacred, were burnt and blown up; yet they talked about morals, about a New Order.
What a monstrosity!”
“I remember one day sitting down with Mr Michalaki to eat some grass cooked with snails. The saddles of the snails had all got broken and they covered the grass with little fragments so that it looked uneatable.
But there was nothing else and we had collected the wild herbs ourselves from round about. If only we had some bread! It was in 1942 that the snail kingdom suffered the fiercest inroads.”
They were avenging, they said, their slain brothers-in-arms who now filled the whole island with graveyards.
But how could they justify this vengeance for their slain companions, who, along with them, had tried to drive us from our homes and dishonour and kill us, and settle in our stead? What did they expect us to do? Cross our hands and surrender?”
“Children were killed in their mothers' arms, and men and women, both young and old, fell together before the German bullets. Whole villages, with their churches and their schools and all that was sacred, were burnt and blown up; yet they talked about morals, about a New Order.
What a monstrosity!”
“I remember one day sitting down with Mr Michalaki to eat some grass cooked with snails. The saddles of the snails had all got broken and they covered the grass with little fragments so that it looked uneatable.
But there was nothing else and we had collected the wild herbs ourselves from round about. If only we had some bread! It was in 1942 that the snail kingdom suffered the fiercest inroads.”
December 15, 2015
"With persistence first, and patience last, and
doggedness all through,
A man can think the wildest thoughts, and make
them all come true." - George Psychoundakis
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.
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.
The Folio edition is beautifully put together (as usual for the Folio Society).
doggedness all through,
A man can think the wildest thoughts, and make
them all come true." - George Psychoundakis
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.
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.
The Folio edition is beautifully put together (as usual for the Folio Society).
April 24, 2017
Interesting document of WWII guerilla warfare, by a participant indigenous to the occupied region (as opposed to an adviser, or member of the opposing force).
If you are familiar with "Ill Met by Moonlight", it's a must read- if only to flesh out the Cretans from W.S. Moss' one dimensional portrait of them. Some of this memoir is tense and gripping, though most of it is a document of a grinding hide and seek game between the Germans and the Cretan Resistance.
(Also of interest, is Psychoundakis' recollections of wartime Cairo and Jerusalem.)
If you are familiar with "Ill Met by Moonlight", it's a must read- if only to flesh out the Cretans from W.S. Moss' one dimensional portrait of them. Some of this memoir is tense and gripping, though most of it is a document of a grinding hide and seek game between the Germans and the Cretan Resistance.
(Also of interest, is Psychoundakis' recollections of wartime Cairo and Jerusalem.)
November 17, 2020
I finished this a while back but forgot to review it. A good story to wrap your head around the mystic nature of Crete, the savagery of the Nazi regime and the scrappiness of the Greek resistance. Following this read, Crete became more than an island to me, but instead a massive place to get lost in, in which the old world mentality rules and there is a bit of fantasy still at play 60 years ago. I was left enchanted by it. I am forever in the shadow of the heroes of such a conflict who defended my home country.
December 10, 2021
I really wanted to enjoy this a lot more than I did. It features an aspect of life during wartime that is always fascinating - people surviving with their honour intact while being occupied by a hostile force - but while I found some aspects of it fascinating, there were others that just seemed to make the narrative falter.
September 25, 2012
Definitely a useful book for people interested for Greek things during WW2. But, to be honest I think it's tiresome, gives emphasis on not so usefull details and some times away from the essence of things. Only for people having real and deep interest on the subject.
June 1, 2010
This is a surprisingly interesting memoir by a man who worked for the British during the World War II occupation of Crete by the Germans. He recounts in vivid detail his work running messages from one small British unit to another. Life was hard. It seems that most of the time he and his British accomplices lived in caves, moving frequently from one place to another as the Germans began to get wind of their location. Not all Cretans were supportive, so they had to be careful of who knew their whereabouts; nonetheless, George and his companions had a many close calls. But throughout he had a positive spirit and seems to have enjoyed the experience. This is the first book that I have read describing life in a resistance movement. It reminds us that the success of the World War II Allies was not just the result of massed armies but also was dependent on the help of local people who were willing to risk their lives in very dangerous situations. In reading the book, I did have some problem of keeping track of all the Greek names and aliases and not knowing the geography of Crete sometimes left me confused about locations, but these were small problems that do not detract from an excellent book.
February 10, 2018
A gripping account of life during wartime, told very much from someone with both feet on the ground. And what ground it is: despite being only 160 miles long, and 35 miles wide at its widest point, an absurd amount of mountain ranges, massifs and foothills means that there is a seemingly infinite amount of land to occupy, which the Germans were quick to find out. Almost everything described here takes place in the central part of the island, but there is certainly no lack of incident.
I do feel that this edition could have been a little more generous in supplying maps: there is only one, and most of the important sites seem to have been obscured by being in the area where the pages meet. I quickly gave up on trying to follow any of the action on the map, and just gave myself over to enjoying the narrative, which is probably as it should be.
I do feel that this edition could have been a little more generous in supplying maps: there is only one, and most of the important sites seem to have been obscured by being in the area where the pages meet. I quickly gave up on trying to follow any of the action on the map, and just gave myself over to enjoying the narrative, which is probably as it should be.
November 1, 2021
I enjoyed reading Patrick Lee Fermor's translation of George Psychoundakis' diary of his resistance activities during the Nazi occupation of Crete during WWII. It was particularly appealing to me since I was stationed in Crete from March 1969 to September 1970. I was serving in the U. S. Air Force at the time. Our base was 30 km east of Heraklion and was able to travel around the island while on 96-hour breaks from our work.
This book will give the reader a good feel for the people of Crete and the way they suffered from 1941 to 1945. George and his fellow Cretans operated primarily in the mountains between Canea, Retimo, and the southern coast of Crete. Reading the book has whetted my appetite for a return trip to Crete!
This book will give the reader a good feel for the people of Crete and the way they suffered from 1941 to 1945. George and his fellow Cretans operated primarily in the mountains between Canea, Retimo, and the southern coast of Crete. Reading the book has whetted my appetite for a return trip to Crete!
June 20, 2016
A great memoir for anyone interested in World War II. So many history books benefit from seeing a large view of the conflict, so reading just a single persons perspective from that moment was enlightening. Readers get a better idea of the "fog of war" and what the day to day of a resistance movements look like. Having little experience with Greek and Cretan culture, this was an interesting introduction, and some of the names gave me difficulty. It's important to remember this is a historical document, and not a book meant for entertainment, as the pacing is accurate to what happens and not meant to keep the reader engrossed.
March 4, 2021
This is not what I’d consider a “great book” but it’s charmingly written and provides a fascinating record of the underground resistance against the Nazis in occupied Crete. Working as a “runner” for British Intelligence on the island, George Psychoundakis befriended Xan Fielding and Patrick Leigh Fermor. The latter translated Psychoundakis’s book into English and helped him get it published – so Patrick Leigh Fermor completists should definitely pick up a copy. PLF’s excellent introduction provides a lot of great background on the situation in Crete in the 1940s.
March 18, 2020
When I first started reading this I found it a bit of a disappointment, kind of tedious. Perhaps an element of war, especially intelligence. But by the end, I absolutely loved George's combination of down-to-earth, poetic innocence and realism. It's the story of the Cretan resistance, not of the English counter-intelligence agents like Paddy Leigh Fermor and Xan Fielding. It's George and his people.
June 6, 2012
Tales of an eye witness about the Cretan Resistance. Very involving for me because the author cited many places I have visited and others I would like to visit after reading his book. Many stories of normal people who helped the Resistance and of English soldiers and officials who fought along with the Cretan shepherds.
March 13, 2017
I don't know that I've ever read anything quite like this book.
It is a strange mix of suffering, endurance, bravery, cruelty, pettiness, generosity, and good meals with plenty of wine.
It reads more like a series of anecdotes - fortunately told in chronological order - than history of the era or a reflective memoir.
It is a strange mix of suffering, endurance, bravery, cruelty, pettiness, generosity, and good meals with plenty of wine.
It reads more like a series of anecdotes - fortunately told in chronological order - than history of the era or a reflective memoir.
July 7, 2021
It’s okay. If you really really want to know about the Cretan resistance in WWII, sure. But for the other 99.9 percent of you out there, you are much better off reading “Natural Born Heroes.”
There are only so many “and we hid in the bushes while Giorgios Patakayantis fired his gun at the Germans” sections one can handle.
There are only so many “and we hid in the bushes while Giorgios Patakayantis fired his gun at the Germans” sections one can handle.
November 3, 2017
Great intro by Patrick Leigh Fermor. While culturaly somewhat interesting, the rest gets repetitive and lacks enough narrative arc, even if you know the territory (both geographical and historical.) Read Billy Moss's book/diaries for the best account of guerrilla warfare in Crete during WW2.
March 30, 2023
very down-to-earth and humble retelling, with a Cretan native’s view of Cretan traditions, humour, lifestyle, and way of thinking.
easy to read anecdotal style of narration, if you ignore all the place names and keep up with the people’s names !!
easy to read anecdotal style of narration, if you ignore all the place names and keep up with the people’s names !!
October 2, 2024
Gripping story, but flat presentation
How could such a compelling story come out as almost boring? Never got a sense of the authors personality. Matter of fact presentation. Even the role of author, distance he ran, the meat of the story largely absent.
How could such a compelling story come out as almost boring? Never got a sense of the authors personality. Matter of fact presentation. Even the role of author, distance he ran, the meat of the story largely absent.
February 5, 2017
Interesting account but I found the writing a little jumpy and disjointed, though I do appreciate it was in translation. Excellent introduction from the translator - Patrick Leigh Fermor.
February 12, 2020
I was unfamiliar with pretty much everything that was happening during WW2 in Crete, so I appreciated this perspective. It is complete with petty arguments, daily routine, local culture, and mildly comic insights about the Allied forces the author (a local Cretan resistance member) encounters. It is refreshing and not smoothed to align with a victorious narrative, although I am still interested in reading some of the available accounts written by the translator and other British men who are mentioned in this account for another perspective.
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.
There are a lot of people and places (included map of limited help since many villages weren’t on it), but I didn’t get too hung up on trying to keep track of everything. I just enjoyed the casual narration and sense of Crete during this time. You can tell the author loves adventure and telling stories.
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.
There are a lot of people and places (included map of limited help since many villages weren’t on it), but I didn’t get too hung up on trying to keep track of everything. I just enjoyed the casual narration and sense of Crete during this time. You can tell the author loves adventure and telling stories.
December 6, 2020
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.
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.
As written the reader does get a flavour of the danger that surrounded George and colleagues at all times, the boredom and shortage of food that they must have suffered much of the time, whilst at other times there were feasts, wine and laughter.
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 ,
The book did provide a good flavour of what it must have been like to a) live in a Nazi occupied country b) how ordinary folk rallied to the cause and c) how the British by and large co-ordinated much of the resistance effort.
I would thoroughly recommend the read.
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.
As written the reader does get a flavour of the danger that surrounded George and colleagues at all times, the boredom and shortage of food that they must have suffered much of the time, whilst at other times there were feasts, wine and laughter.
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 ,
The book did provide a good flavour of what it must have been like to a) live in a Nazi occupied country b) how ordinary folk rallied to the cause and c) how the British by and large co-ordinated much of the resistance effort.
I would thoroughly recommend the read.
November 8, 2024
A poor Shepard living on the edge of Europe is thrust into the flow of history. Nationalism, personal valor and, above all, excitement compel our author to take up arms against the invaders and run a series of dangerous errands. An incredible document of a certain time and place in which, ideologically, everything is up for grabs.
September 10, 2019
Lively written it gives you a good impression about how some of the Cretans (at least George and his companions) encountered the German occupation, and also gives an insight how the acts of resistance and helping hand to the allied provoked the acts of cruelty by the occupants.
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July 10, 2022i have not suffered while reading for a long time. this book is a torture
this is old boys reminiscent of the great game they played during the war. it's as interesting as watching someone playing rpg, actually, less.
this is old boys reminiscent of the great game they played during the war. it's as interesting as watching someone playing rpg, actually, less.
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