Crete

[thunderbolt47]

Hey do any you you know where I can get some good info on Crete?

[Kieron Hill]

What sort of information are you
looking for?

Regards
Kieron

[Kiwiwriter]

Start with "Crete: The Lost Battle" by a guy named McDonald. "Crete: The Battle and the Resistance" is the next excellent step. "Nine Days to Destiny" by a guy named Kiriakopoulis is superb. "Storming Eagles" by James Lucas, "Hunters From the Sky" by Charles Whiting and "Daedelus Returned" by Baron Friedrich von der Heydte are the German view of the battle. The Australian Official History volume is "Greece, Crete, and Syria," and is excellent. All the battalions of 2nd New Zealand Division and service companies produced official histories and they're excellent work. Finally, the New Zealand Official History volume "Crete," by Rhodes Scholar Dan Davin will tell you everything else about the battle, including the history of the British Army newspaper on Crete. It's a fascinating battle.

[poppypiper]

Yes. There are many books on The battle Of Crete and one of them is entotles CRETE The Battle and the Resistance. Like most iof the others this book glorifies the efforts of the Commonwealth servicemen and skips over the heroic stand made by the Cretan civilians. 370 pages of maps and statistics on the military battle but only 13 on the civilians who shouted to the winds of Crete "NO SURRENDER".
I am planning a pilgrimage to Crete in 2008. This will not be a grand affair. Just a 73 year old piper and his wife travelling through the remote villages of Crete to say not only "WE WILL REMEMBER" but also "THANK YOU" to those who hung on to win us the freedom to travel as we do.
Although I am an ex serviceman we do not belong to any association and would appreciate any information to help plan our route.
See Google under BILL JENKINS BANGALORE to see just one of my lone world wide war graves pilgrimages.

[phylo_roadking]

There were very few books in English about the Cretan Resistance, most of them deal with later events; "Ill Met By Moonlight" by Billy Moss comes to mind of course, and a far-less famous sequel he wrote about his later return to the island and aborted attempt to kidnap Kreipe's successor. George Psycoundakis' "The Cretan Runner" is a must, and there are two others I know of - "The Citadel" and "The White Mountains" by Sandy Rendell and Xan Fielding respectively. MRD Foot's "SOE" has SOME detail about the SOE operations in Crete, but not in very much detail IIRC.

Into your list of "invasion" histories add Alan Clark's "The Fall of Crete". very aged now, but easier to read than Beevor's.

However - THIS might be your best source...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_11th_Day:_Crete_1941

However - there's a company that organises walking tours following the route of the Fermor-Moss raiding party across the island after Kriepe's kidnap, they might be able to help you.

[Herakles]

Originally Posted by poppypiper

Yes.
I am planning a pilgrimage to Crete in 2008. This will not be a grand affair. Just a 73 year old piper and his wife travelling through the remote villages of Crete to say not only "WE WILL REMEMBER" but also "THANK YOU" to those who hung on to win us the freedom to travel as we do.

I guess you start at Heraklion. The museum there is one of the best I know. There's a good Australian memorial in town also. Nearby Knossis is a must. Phaistos is well worth a look too.

At Rethimno is the new Greek/Australian war memorial. Suda Bay has a good war cemetery. Try to get to Maleme west of Chania to the airfield where the German paras landed. It's well worth getting to Sfakia in the south where so many troops ended up and the monastery there that protected as many as possible. Stavromenos has an impressive Australian memorial. Nearby is a remarkable civilian memorial. There are many of these dotted around.

I had the pleasure of attending the 60th anniversary celebrations of the battle for Greece so was able to visit everything.

[phylo_roadking]

Knossos is good, of course - but you'll be swimming in gap-year students and American OAPS Far better nowadays is the remarkable "Palace of Malia", an only slightly smaller palace currently under summer excavation on the eastern side of the town of Malia, just follow the signs. Much more fun to see a "live" site at work, and it'll be by no means as crowded.

There's also a dedicated war museum in the village of Episkopi, seven miles inland from Heraklion, with an associated vehicle park in the country behind the town. However, this is a "seasonal" museum, owned by a guy from Athens who only comes across for the summer season.

One of the most suprising sites to visit on the island is the Lassithi Plateau; follow signs from Stalis. The most amazing piece of switchback road takes you up into the mountains, eventually debouching into the "plateau" - which is actually a bowl-shaped fertile valley once famous for its carpeting of farmers' windmills. It's once of the most beautiful places on earth, and you may as well be stepping back 60 years in time. AND it was Paddy Fermor's stamping ground for half his time on the island