Cretan Resistance - The Role of The British

The Role of The British

Cretans and the Cretan resistance worked closely with the British, firstly when they aided the allied forces firstly in escaping from Crete and secondly when they worked together on acts of sabotage while Crete was a launching pad for German operations in Africa. This involved the British agents who remained on Crete, such as Patrick Leigh Fermor, Tom Dunbabin, Sandy Rendel, John Houseman, Xan Fielding, Dennis Ciclitira, Ralph Stockbridge and W. Stanley Moss. The New Zealander Dudley "Kiwi" Perkins became a legend for his courage, and after he was killed the Cretans kept his grave covered with flowers. The British formed a large number of isolated cells scattered throughout the mountains, with good communications between them. 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 and Kimonas Zografakis, who was a member of the British Force 133 and involved in several operations. The British agents were responsible for some famous moments included the abduction of General Heinrich Kreipe led by Leigh Fermor and Moss, the battle of Trahili, the sabotage of Damasta led by Moss and the airfield sabotages of Heraklion and Kastelli.

The Cretan resistance movement had the support of the British while Crete had strategic importance for the North Africa campaign. However once that campaign had been successful, British activity in Crete focused on the second plank of its policy in Greece, i.e. to undermine the left-wing resistance movement. The British agent Patrick Leigh Fermor, for example, was instrumental in splitting Cretan resistance by setting up an alternative movement in 1943, funded and supplied by the British, to which they attracted figures such as Manolis Bandouvas. As on the mainland, the British launched an aggressive campaign of anti-EAM and anti-communist propaganda. Cretan writers such as Manolis Kokolakis have suggested that Bandouvas’ murder of two German soldiers in EAM territory was on the suggestion of British agents, who may have hoped that the ensuing bloodbath of German reprisals (the Holocaust of Viannos) would deal a blow to the left-wing movement. It is, furthermore, the view of Kimonas Zografakis, who took part in the abduction of Kreipe, that the kidnapping of the General was carried out for the same reason.

Sanoudakis argues in his article "Leigh Fermor was a classic agent" that "Patrick Leigh Fermor was neither a great philhellene, nor a new Lord Byron for Greece who fought and loved at the same time. Fundamentally he was a classic agent who served faithfully the interests of Britain and as a cultivated gentleman wrote good travel books. Anything else that the people of Greece attribute to him derives from either ignorance or innocence or anglophilia, ignoring the terrible sufferings he caused our country at that time".

The Cretan population paid a high price for its involvement and support of the resistance. In reprisal, the German occupation forces proceeded to numerous brutal attacks against local civilians. Standing out among the list of atrocities, are the holocausts of Viannos and Kedros in Amari, the destruction of Anogia and Kandanos, and the massacre of Kondomari. In several documented reprisal executions carried out during the occupation, 3,471 Cretans lost their lives.

Even crueller was the growing sense of betrayal on the part of their presumed allies, the British. The British were reluctant to arm the left-wing resistance movement, even confiscating ammunition intended to go to resistance groups under siege. Perhaps most incredible was the British decision, after the Germans surrendered to the British in May 1945, that the Germans be permitted to keep their arms and given the task of ‘keeping order’ in the city of Hania. As a consequence of the authority given to the Germans Cretans continued to die even after German capitulation. Hagen Fleischer terms this period the joint Anglo-German rule, while Stavros Blontakis speaks of the Anglo-German occupation.

According to the Cretan resistance fighter Michalis Kokolakis: “Crete saw with her own eyes and through her own bloody experience the meaning of British suzerainty. The English overlords prevented her from organising and arming herself for the battle of Crete. At the critical hour of the Battle of Crete they betrayed her and left. As long as Crete was of vital strategic importance for the campaigns in Africa in 1941-42, she saw all her resistance organisations without distinction working together on sabotage missions. And when after 1942 Crete lost her strategic value, she saw the British working to split the resistance movement, issuing anti-EAM propaganda and, with Glücksberg, preparing fascist solutions for our country.

“She saw the British openly collaborating with the Germans when they had concentrated in Hania, and, after their capitulation, giving them the responsibility for keeping order in Hania.

“She saw their recommendations, when the Italians capitulated, not to give their weapons to the Greek people, to the resistance, but to the Germans, even though the Germans were their common enemy.

“She saw the British allies take as spoils of war the 10,000 vehicles which the Germans had amassed in Hania and throw them into the sea, even though Crete was lacking in transport.

“She also saw them claim as spoils of war the 5 million litres of oil that the Germans had requisitioned from the people of Crete. And saw the rule of law they imposed after the Treaty of Varkiza, and the civil war.”