It was a privilege to be in the audience at Melbourne’s Greek Centre last week to hear UK-based author Chris White’s presentation on the Cretan Resistance and Special Operations Executive (SOE) in WWII.
The presentation was the inaugural event of this year’s commemorative program of Melbourne’s Battle of Crete and Greece Commemorative Council.
Chris has been researching Crete’s WWII story for many years. Along with his brother Peter, he has walked the routes taken by the Cretan Resistance and Allied special forces, the SOE, and especially the famous abduction of the German General Kreipe in April 1944.
With the help of local Cretans, Chris has been able to research, find and identify many of the exact locations used by SOE and the Resistance.
Drawing on his amazing archival and field research, Chris’ presentation took the audience on a journey across Crete in the dark days of the German occupation.
He spoke of the arrival of SOE agents on the island and their work with the local Resistance, carrying out acts of sabotage on the German forces.
Chris spoke of some of the most famous SOE agents to operate across Greece and Crete in WWII: Monty Woodhouse, Arthur Reade, Xan Fielding, Steve Gillespie, Sandy Rendel, and Australian Tom Dunbabin. Another agent was Patrick Leigh Fermor, one of the SOE leaders of the Kreipe action along with William Stanley Moss.
Fermour had served in the Greek campaign in April 1941 and after the war lived at Kardamyli in the Peloponnese.
Chris’ indepth knowledge of Crete, its mountain trails and isolated villages and shepherds huts, was clear; from the southern coastal landing spots at Maridaki, Tris Ekklisies, Tripiti, Sougia and Dermati, across the valley of Gournes, of Koustayerako and Kastamonitsa, Tapais, and Vilandredo, of Fasses Limeri above Asi Gonia, Genna and Photeinou, of Hordaki, the Peristeres cave and the ‘Eagles Nest’ above Fourfouras and the Amari valley, 1,400 metres above sea level – all photographed by SOE agents during the war.
He spoke of the agents and their Resistance comrades on the run, evading Germans in the Kyrakosellia hills of Crete in January 1943.
He told of them being hidden in the cellars of the Monastery of the Holy Apostles at Kastellani in March 1943 by the Archimandrite Theoflax of Sina, Abbot of the Monastry the Holy Apostles as he was forced to feed the Germans above.
The archival photographs Chris showed were taken by SOE agents as they hid at Hordaki in April 1943, at Kasamonitsa, and the Nidha Plateau in April 1944, and at the mountain village of Nidha as they hid with the kidnapped General Kreipe.
One of Chris’ amazing discoveries was known as ‘The Beehive.’ So named for its conical shape, this stone shepherds’ hut was used as an SOE and Resistance hideout in the mountains of Crete in January 1943 as they waited and planned the Kreipe kidnapping.
SOE agents took photographs of this mountain location on their missions, and Chris has been able to locate this site – over 1,100 metres above sea level – and it looks almost identical to the photographs from WWII.
Chris travelled to The Beehive with the son of the late SOE agent Arthur Reade, who had been photographed there in 1941.
Chris’ presentation was replete with the names of the brave Resistance fighters of Crete.
Local Resistance leaders such as the fearsomely named ‘Captain Satan of the mountains’ and ‘Captain Boreas of the Sea’. Others named were Manoli Paterakis, Giorgios Tyrakis, Stratis Saviolakis, Andoni Papleonidas, Nikos Komis, Grigori Chnarakis, Nikos Souris, and the Perros family. And of course ‘the Cretan runner’, George Psychoundakis.
Some are only known by their surnames: Papastrati, Philapakis, and Kyriakou. Some who helped, were from far-off Cyprus. And of course, the brave Abbot and monks of the Monastery of Preveli who helped the Allies – and whose monastery was almost destroyed by the Germans.
It was obvious from Chris’ presentation that the Allied effort on Crete – supporting the Resistance and harassing the Germans – would not have been possible without the aid and support of these brave individuals.
A major part of his presentation dealt with the Kreipe kidnapping.
Chris took us on the journey with the arrival of the SOE agents on southern Crete in late 1943.
He described the process as they joined forces with the local Resistance, detailing their hideouts in the mountains and as they planned the kidnapping, the location of the kidnapping itself in April 1944, the daring journey through German-occupied Heraklion in the General’s own car, then south across the mountains of Crete, climbing Mount Ida, and their evacuation to Allied headquarters in Cairo on 17 May 1944.
The entire description of the journey was illustrated by archival photographs taken by SOE agents in 1943–44 as well as Chris’ contemporary photographs.
A highlight of the presentation was a viewing of an excerpt from a Greek television program from May 1971.
This program brought together Fermor, his Cretan Resistance comrades and the former General Kreipe himself, who returned to Greece especially for the program.
The comradeship of this former SOE agent and his Resistance veterans was evident – and they all welcomed their former prisoner! Most of the audience had never seen this interview.
One of those attending the presentation was Melbourne’s Arch Bergiannis told Chris of his role in locating the likely burial place of Australia’s sole Hellenic Anzac killed in the Greece and Crete campaigns of WWII – Private James Zampelis. Assisted by Paul Sougleris and myself, he was able to do so by combining archival and modern GPS maps.
Another of the attendees was Melbourne author Shane Maloney.
Shane has visited Crete on a number of occasions, even writing one of his bestselling novels in John Rerakis’ village of Episkopi.
Shane spoke of his friendship with Anzac Crete campaign veteran Charles Jager who wrote his memoir about his time on the run in Crete under the title Escape from Crete.
It was a pleasure for Chris to also meet Bruce Mildenhall, former MP and son of a WWII Anzac veteran, who has spent many months on Crete, acquainting himself with the walking trails and remote villages connected to the Crete campaign.
Former MP John Pandazopoulos mentioned how important the work of researchers like Chris is in gathering the story of Crete in WWII from memoirs, photographs, and especially the local stories of the Cretans themselves, before they are lost to posterity.
Chris and his partner Patricia were later hosted by Melbourne’s Pan Messinian community at their annual dinner dance.
As a token of appreciation of all who were able to attend Chris’ presentation, I gave Chris a copy of Peter Pedersen’s beautiful commemorative publication Anzac Treasurers: The Gallipoli Collection of the Australian War Memorial.
For all who were unable to attend the presentation, we are hopefully scheduling another presentation when Chris returns to Australia in the future.
Chris’ guide to the abduction route can be found in the recently published book by Patrick Leigh Fermor, ‘Abducting A General: The Kreipe Operation and SOE in Crete’.
Chris is keen to hear from anyone in Australia’s Cretan community, and any Allied veterans’ descendants, who wish to share their stories of the Resistance on Crete in WWII. He can be contacted via email at cpcwhite@hotmail.com
Jim Claven is a published author, trained historian and freelance writer who has been researching the Anzac trail in Greece across both World Wars. He is a member of the Battle of Crete and Greece Commemorative Council.
