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. 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. 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.

Find sources: "George Psychoundakis"– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( January 2013) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Postwar life [ edit ] Book covers of Psychoundakis' translations of the Iliad and Odyssey to the Cretan dialect. 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. 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.”—Allison Pearson

His story of the German Occupation

Psychoundakis, George (1955). The Cretan Runner: His Story of the German Occupation. London: John Murray. OCLC 753260092. 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.

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. Koliopoulos, Ioannis (1977). "Η στρατιωτική και πολιτική κρίση στην Ελλάδα τον Απρίλιο του 1941"[The Military and Political Crisis in Greece in April 1941] (PDF). Mnimon (in Greek). 6: 53–74. doi: 10.12681/mnimon.174 . Retrieved 15 November 2020.

Success!

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. Koukounas, Demosthenes (2013). Η Ιστορία της Κατοχής[ History of the Occupation] (in Greek). Vol.II. Athens: Livani. ISBN 978-9-60-142687-7. Kiriakopoulos, G. C. (1995). The Nazi Occupation of Crete, 1941–1945. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0-275-95277-0. This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.

Any fresh volume on the subject would need to be exceptional. The Cretan Runner not only competes but transcends; it is not exceptional, it is unique. 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. 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. 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. 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.Beevor, Antony (2005). Crete 1941: The Battle and the Resistance. London: John Murray. ISBN 978-0-7195-6831-2.

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 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.