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The Cretan Runner

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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. On October 20, a new film adaptation of John Williams’s novel Butcher’s Crossing, published by NYRB Classics in 2007, will be released in select movie theaters across the U.S. Directed by Gabe Polsky, the film stars Nicolas Cage as the frontiersman Miller and Fred Hechinger... 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.

The Cretan Runner by George Psychoundakis: 9781590179048 The Cretan Runner by George Psychoundakis: 9781590179048

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.”

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. A fine copy in likewise slipcase. PLEASE NOTE: I HAVE A VERY LARGE NUMBER OF NEWLY ACQUIRED FOLIO SOCIETY BOOKS, INCLUDING MANY OF THE LIMITED EDITIONS. Size: 8vo. very down-to-earth and humble retelling, with a Cretan native’s view of Cretan traditions, humour, lifestyle, and way of thinking. When the moon rose he got up and threw a last swig of raki down his throat with the words Another drop of petrol for the engine, and loped towards the gap in the bushes with the furtiveness of a stage Mohican or Groucho Marx. He turned round when he was on all fours at the exit, rolled his eyes, raised a forefinger portentously, whispered, "the Intelligence Service", and scuttled through like a rabbit. A few minutes later we could see his small figure a mile away moving across the next moonlit fold of the foothills of the White Mountains, bound for another fifty-mile journey. [2]

The Cretan runner: his story of the German occupation by The Cretan runner: his story of the German occupation by

Born in 1920 in the tiny village of Asi Gonia high up in the mountain passes of western Crete, George Psychoundakis grew up poor. He and his three siblings only had a rudimentary education. His parents Nicolas and Angeliké worked hard, but the family was still one of the poorest in their village. George got his real education as a shepherd. And as it turned out, this high mountain learning would serve his nation and others very well. A photo of George Psychoundakis (left) and a comrade in WW II – H.M. Government Moss, William Stanley (2014) [1950]. Ill Met by Moonlight. London: Orion Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-78022-623-1. He had been a shepherd before the war and after it a charcoal burner and later caretaker of a German military cemetery on Crete. 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).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.

The Cretan Runner - Facebook The Cretan Runner - Facebook

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. George was a one-off, as they say. Nobody was remotely like him. Touchstone and Ariel spring to mind, and there is a dash of Kim. It was the oddity, independence, charm, curiosity, and imagination that gave him the cover-name of “Changeling” in our dispatches from Crete.” 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. The beach mentioned is Peristeres beach, near Rodakino, Korakas beach, Polyrizos Beach ( South Rethymno). 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.Koukounas, Demosthenes (2013). Η Ιστορία της Κατοχής[ History of the Occupation] (in Greek). Vol.II. Athens: Livani. ISBN 978-9-60-142687-7. Unfortunately, the consequences were accordingly: a few days later, the village of German soldiers was equal to the ground. 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. 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. 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

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